'Tripping out' defendant jailed for murder

A defendant who admitted to "tripping out" on drugs as he repeatedly failed to attend his murder trial has been jailed for life for his part in a fatal ambush.

Vittorio Di Murro, of Walthamstow, east London, was arrested in Anzio, Italy, in October 2023 where he fled two days after he and others attacked 25-year-old Jordan Briscoe with a knife on 5 March 2023.

Mr Briscoe was lured to Arnold Road in Tottenham, north London, by what the prosecution said was a fake request by a woman to meet up to buy drugs.

Di Murro, who will serve a minimum of 25 years, was originally put on trial with five co-defendants, but he was discharged because he consistently "disrupted proceedings" by failing to attend, the court heard.

In March, Jahoe Allen, 33, Karl Black, 43, Ayuub Kigozi, 18, and Jabir Sitar, 21, were found guilty of murdering Mr Briscoe.

Christina Manen, 36, was convicted of manslaughter.

Judge Anthony Leonard KC said a separate trial was fixed for Di Murro alone but the pattern continued still, with him failing to attend pre-trial hearings as well as 11 of his conferences with his lawyers.

At the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Leonard said: "On December 12, a day when you were said to be unfit to attend court although you seemed capable of attending a social visit in prison... you acknowledged that you had taken something that was 'good'.

"You described yourself as 'tripping out'."

Di Murro did not give evidence in his trial and was found guilty of murder on Wednesday, after which he "dispensed" with his legal team and said he would represent himself.

Judge Leonard said: "I have gone through the history of this to show why I have proceeded to sentence with you being unrepresented and in your absence.

"I consider you to be unrepresentable.

"I make it clear that your behaviour does not affect the sentence I impose.

"What your behaviour has done is cause the family of the deceased to have to constantly put up with interrupted proceedings which must have caused them strain and I pay tribute to their fortitude."

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