A teenager has been found guilty of the murder of a 15-year-old girl after a row over a teddy bear.
Hassan Sentamu, who is now 18, admitted manslaughter after stabbing Elianne Andam in the neck outside the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, south London, in September 2023.
He denied murder, claiming his autism spectrum disorder had caused him to lose control during the meeting. But the prosecution said neither his autism nor his troubled background provided an excuse for murder.
On Thursday a jury found Sentamu, of New Addington, near Croydon, guilty of Elianne’s murder by a majority verdict.
There were shouts of “yes” and “murderer” from the public gallery as the jury delivered the verdict after deliberating for 11 hours and 42 minutes.
The Old Bailey heard that Elianne had gone with her friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to meet Sentamu. The friend and Sentamu had been in a relationship, which had ended.
At the meeting they were supposed to swap personal possessions, the court heard. But when the friend handed a bag to Sentamu, who was wearing gloves and a mask and concealed the knife, he failed to hand over her items, including a teddy bear she wanted back.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, will sentence Sentamu at a later date.
Sentamu had a history of attacking girls and carrying knives before he stabbed Elianne, the court heard. A day before that attack he had been splashed with water and lashed out at Elianne in a fit of “white hot” rage, the jury was told.
Alex Chalk KC, prosecuting, said: “He was angry on 27 September, having brooded on the insult, and he took the knife to the scene to reassert dominance. He exacted vengeance on a young girl clearly running away from him and posing no threat.”
Sentamu had been cautioned for taking a knife to school, and, while awaiting trial for Elianne’s murder, threatened to “do it again”, the court heard.
On the morning of 27 September 2023, Elianne and her friends met Sentamu outside the Whitgift Centre before school for a planned exchange of items.
The defendant, then aged 17, wore a mask and gloves and armed himself with a knife from under the sink in his kitchen. Despite being alarmed by what he was wearing, his ex-girlfriend handed over a bag of Sentamu’s clothes, the court heard.
Sentamu’s ex-girlfriend 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.”
Sentamu chased Elianne and stabbed her on the ground despite her pleas for him to stop, the court was told.
Elianne suffered a fatal 12cm-deep stab to the neck in an attack that was caught on CCTV. A passing bus driver held her hand and stayed with her as she lay dying in the street, the Old Bailey heard.
A month after Elianne’s death, Sentamu got into a row after a fellow inmate at Oakhill secure training centre in Milton Keynes accused him of killing girls.
Sentamu responded: “I’ll do it again. I’ll do it to your mum. Do you want to end up like her, six feet under?”
Elianne’s father, Michael Andam, said her death “left a void in our lives that can never be filled”. In statement delivered outside the court, he said: “This trial has been our fight for justice, forcing us to confront the devastating details of Elianne’s final moments, details that will remain with us for ever. While today’s verdict acknowledges the full extent of his actions, it cannot bring Elianne back to us.”
He added: “The verdict today is the first step toward justice for Elianne, but also a message that violence and knife crime, especially toward young women, will not go unanswered.”
