Murder trial: Postcode rivalry behind teenagers' deaths, court told

A "petty postcode rivalry" between two groups in south east London led to the deaths of two teenagers, a trial has heard.

Charlie Bartolo, aged 16, was stabbed to death after his moped was rammed by a car last November in Abbey Wood, Inner London Crown Court was told.

It heard one of his attackers, Kearne Solanke, 16, also died during the "chaos" of the same incident.

Four teenagers on trial deny two counts of murder.

Hussain Bah, aged 19, Alagie Jobe, 19, and two defendants who cannot be identified for legal reasons aged 17 and 16, have gone on trial charged with both murders.

Opening the case for the prosecution William Emlyn Jones KC said both victims were found about a mile apart within a few minutes of each other, but CCTV evidence revealed they were stabbed in the same violence.

The footage showed a moped driven by Charlie being "deliberately rammed by a car, with the bike rider being thrown into the air and landing on the pavement," Mr Emlyn Jones said.

"No sooner had the car hit him and knocked him off his bike, than the car stopped next to him and its occupants all got out."

The court heard there were five people in the car. Three occupants emerged on the side Charlie Bartolo was lying and used large knives to "stab and strike Charlie as he lay helpless on the ground" on Sewell Road.

The jury heard the two who had got out of the driver's side did not physically join in the violence.

Charlie was found to have suffered multiple stab wounds including a stab wound to his head and died from his injuries in hospital that evening.

Kearne Solanke was one of the murderers, the court heard, but lost his life during the violence after one of his "own team" "stabbed his own friend".

The CCTV showed Kearne getting back into the car with the rest of his team and driving away from the attack, but the jury heard the defendants later abandoned him on a pavement in Thamesmead.

One of the defendants had called 999, giving a false name, and asked for an ambulance for his friend, but there was nothing paramedics could do.

"These four young men acted together as a team, with a shared intention to stab and seriously harm their target, and they are all jointly responsible for the attack and its consequences," said the prosecutor.

The court heard that one of the defendants, aged 17, had later told police he had a "beef" with rivals in Abbey Wood.

"That, I'm afraid to tell you, is the depressingly petty reason for these two young men losing their lives, these killings arose from a sort of post-code rivalry between Abbey Wood on the one hand and Thamesmead on the other," said Mr Emlyn Jones.

The defendants considered themselves to represent Thamesmead; their target was Abbey Wood and they had been looking for a victim in Abbey Wood to attack, he said.

The trial, which is expected to last for six weeks, continues.