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The suspected killer of a teenage CBBC star confessed to his girlfriend before fleeing to Nigeria on his brother's passport, a court has heard.
24-year old, Jeffrey Okafor,in the above picture, of East Dulwich, south east London, is accused of stabbing Carl Beatson-Asiedu to death outside a nightclub in the summer of 2009.
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| Carl Beatson-Asiedu |
The 19-year-old victim, known as DJ Charmz, had been leaving the Club Life Nightclub in Vauxhall's Goding Street, in London, with a group of friends after performing a set when a group of men approached them, the court heard.
Opening the trial, Sarah Whitehouse QC, prosecuting, told Woolwich Crown Court that three people had been specifically targeted in the attack including Mr Beatson-Asiedu, a Francis Xavier College student who appeared in CBBC spy show MI High.
Peter Lama, also 19, was stabbed in the buttock by Okafor's friend Abu Mansaray while Jermaine Coker was chased by Junior Ademujimi-Falade but escaped.
Mr Lama managed to return to the club, where bouncers locked the doors and called the police.
Minutes later, Mr Beatson Asiedu was seen staggering along Goding Street before collapsing in the road.
His friends bundled him into the back of a car and rang for an ambulance, but police stopped the speeding vehicle as they struggled to find St Thomas' Hospital.
He was pronounced dead at 5.36am, with a post-mortem examination concluding that he had died from a single stab-wound to his heart.
Ms Whitehouse said: 'Carl Beatson wasn't so fortunate.'
'The prosecution say that Jeffrey Okafor was the person who drew a knife, stabbed him and killed him.'
Okafor, who had no connection with his alleged victim, had been at the club with Ademujimi-Falade and another friend Bolaji Kako-Are.
Ms Whitehouse continued: 'Junior Flade and Bolaji Kako-Are had also attended Francis Xavier College - the same college as Carl Beatson and Peter Lama.
'It seems there had been trouble between the two groups in the past. In particular, the other group had targeted Carl Beatson at school and had threatened to hit him.
'However, the two groups had often seen each other at parties since then and, although they did not mix, there had been no further trouble.
'It is not clear, and will probably never be known what led up to this killing of Carl Beatson.
'You might hear that there was some ill feeling between some members of the two groups but there's nothing serious enough in the background to explain why knives should be drawn.'
She added that Okafor had been part of a larger group which set upon the victim's smaller group at around 5am.
As well as appearing in the CBBC show, Mr Beatson-Asiedu had also helped to form a music group called Kidnplay and was known as Charmz.
The musician, whose group was often booked to play at nightclubs in London and Leicester, performed with his friend at the club that night at an event called Summer Vibz.
After their performance, they stayed and had some drinks, but Ms Whitehouse told the jury that the victim had very little alcohol and said it does not appear that drink played any part in the violence that was to unfold when they left the club.
Mr Beatson-Asiedu was attacked after leaving the nightspot. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene, the court heard.
A pathologist concluded that the cause of death was a single stab wound to the front of the chest.
Shortly after the stabbing, Ofakor confessed to his girlfriend before he fled the country on his brother's passport and would remain in Nigeria for five years.
'After the attack, Jeffrey Okafor actually confessed to a girlfriend that he had stabbed Carl Beatson,' Ms Whitehouse said.
Within about an hour of the attack, he phoned a girlfriend and told her he had been involved in a 'madness', the court heard.
A few days after the attack, Osakor allegedly told his girlfriend that he had stabbed Charmz in the stomach and gave her a pair of black gloves asking her to look after them.
Ms Whitehouse said those gloves were passed to police and DNA which may have come from the victim is on one of the gloves.
The defendant also phoned and asked the woman to put a t-shirt 'into a plastic bag and put it into a bin in the road', the jury heard.
Later that day, when he returned home, Okafor seemed agitated and said 'I'm going down' and 'The Feds are going to be on to me', Ms Whitehouse told the court.
'Okafor then fled from the country, travelling to Nigeria using his brother's passport.
'It was not until the end of last year that it was possible for him to be extradited to this country and face his crime.
On August 13 police went to his home address, planning to arrest him and to search the house for any evidence relating to the murder.
Ms Whitehouse said he laid low for a time and then early on August 17 2009 he took a flight from Heathrow Airport to Lagos, using his brother's passport, the court heard.
He was finally arrested on 23 September last year in Asaba, the capital of Nigeria's Delta State, after being on the run and was then extradited to the UK in November.
Today he is finally standing trial. Okafor, who has a beard and wore a red checked shirt and glasses, looked emotionless as he listened to the proceedings. He denies murder.
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow morning.
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