A teenager who stabbed a schoolgirl to death in a row over a teddy bear has been found guilty of murder.
Hassan Sentamu, 18, admitted to manslaughter after stabbing Elianne Andam, 15, in the neck outside a bus stop next to the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, south London, in September 2023.
Sentamu attacked Andam with a kitchen knife in “white-hot anger at having been disrespected” after she stood up for his ex-girlfriend, the Old Bailey heard.
Andam had travelled with her friend to the bus stop to meet Sentamu. The ex-couple had arranged to meet there to return each other’s belongings after breaking up.
Sentamu brought a kitchen knife along to the meeting and also wore two pairs of gloves and a face mask.
When the friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, handed a bag to her former boyfriend, he failed to hand over her items, including a teddy bear.
The 15-year-old’s friend told the court: “Elianne ran behind him, grabbed the bag and started running and laughing as a joke. It was the type of thing that Elianne would have done.
“He then lifted up his hoodie quick, pulled out something and I saw a big knife.
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Screengrab from bodycam footage issued by the Metropolitan Police of the moment Hassan Sentamu was arrested
PA
“I turned around for one second then I saw her on the floor like trying to say “stop”, basically with her hand out. He was there like over her, bending.”
Prosecutor Alex Chalk KC said: “He exacted vengeance on a young girl clearly running away from him and posing no threat.”
He quickly fled the scene, chucking his gloves and mask in the bin and hiding the weapon in a garden. Officers arrested the teenager just 90 minutes after the attack, after stopping a bus near his home in New Addington.
He threw his gloves and mask in a bin and hid the knife in a garden but was arrested within 90 minutes after police stopped the number 62 bus near his home in New Addington.
The kitchen knife used in the attack
PA/Met Police
CCTV footage of the moment of the attack
PA/Met Police
Sentamu has denied murder, claiming his autism spectrum disorder had caused him to lose control during the meetup.
He was also found guilty on a charge of having a blade, a charge he also denied as he claimed that he had a lawful reason for carrying it.
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Becky Woodsford said it was a “violent, aggressive and frenzied knife attack on a young girl”.
“Elianne was doing what was right, she was standing up for her friend,” she added.
