A 15-year-old schoolboy was tracked, chased, cornered in a dead-end street and stabbed to death by two men, the Old Bailey heard today.
Joel Adesina had been with a group of friends in Hoxton when he was chased by men from a blue Mercedes, the jury was told.
He hid with a friend behind a parked car in the dead-end street but was spotted, pinned against a fence, then dragged away and knifed, the court heard.
The teenager from Dagenham staggered to a local convenience store but collapsed and died.
George Phillips, 20 of Romford, and Lincoln Olaribigbe, 23 of Chingford, deny murdering the boy in December last year.
Anthony Orchard QC, prosecuting, said it was not known who had actually committed the stabbing and the motivation "may never be completely clear".
But everyone in the Mercedes had been part of a joint plan to attack whoever they could catch in Joel’s group, so they were "in it together".
Mr Orchard told the jury that earlier in the evening a silver Astra, linked to Olaribigbe, had driven repeatedly at Joel’s group outside a pub.
CCTV catches them jump out of the way and Joel throws a rock at the car.
Some of the group, including Joel, had knives themselves, the court heard.
As the group headed off, Olaribigbe transferred to the Mercedes, linked to Phillips, to search for them.
"Joel and his group of friends had been tracked and chased by two cars at different times in the hours and minutes leading up to the stabbing," said Mr Orchard.
Near the Bethnal Green Road the car screeched onto the pavement by them and they ran in different directions.
Joel and his friend “ran into an apparent dead end road and hid behind a parked silver car,” said Mr Orchard.
“Two men were standing by the Mercedes which had its headlights pointing down the dead end.
“The two men were saying: ‘Where did they go? (Joel’s friend) asked him if the men had gone. Unfortunately Joel poked his head over the top of the silver car to look and one of the men said words to the effect of ‘that’s one of them.’”
The following day the blue Mercedes was found burned out in an Islington car park.
The case continues.
