A teenager who stabbed a 16-year-old boy during a terrifying knife fight onboard a moving Tube train has been jailed for more than six years.
Amarjay Nkemayang, 19, was one of four young men who pursued the victim through Brixton underground station after an earlier altercation outside JD Sports.
He got on to the train with the 16-year-old and they each pulled out knives, sparking a fight in which both were wounded and left terrified Tube passengers “screaming and hysterical”, the Old Bailey heard.
After stabbing the younger boy in the side, Nkemayang was caught on camera running through the train with the hunting knife still in his hand as he made his escape.
He was arrested at Stockwell station and was heard saying: “I’ve stabbed him, I’ve murdered him. I’m going to go down for murder.
“If I haven’t killed him and he comes for me, I’ll have to kill him.”
Sentencing Nkemayang to six years and four months in youth detention, Judge David Aubrey KC said: “It could so easily have been fatal.”
“You chose to follow your victim, and you, in the court’s judgement, should have known the harm and destruction that could be caused by the carrying of and use of a knife”, he said.
“Unsurprisingly all the passengers who witnessed either the incident or the sight of you moving from one carriage to the other – still knife in hand – were shocked, fearful, and indeed some were screaming.
“The public expects to be able to travel on public transport in safety and without fear.”
Nkemayang’s barrister, Alejandra Tascon, told the court the teenager is a talented footballer who had a scholarship to play for Borehamwood Academy, but he had to give it up due to the expense of travelling from his family home in Stockwell in south London.
She said he joined a football course at Croydon Athletic but was himself stabbed on his walk home last year, and out of fear and paranoia of being attacked again he started to habitually carry a knife.
“He appreciates that was the biggest mistake of his life”, she said.
The court heard the incident started near to Brixton tube station at around 2.40pm on November 23 last year, when Nkemayang and his associates approached the young victim outside JD Sports.
The boy – who refused to cooperate with the British Transport Police investigation – was pursued by the group to the Tube station, where they all pushed through the entrance barriers and headed down to the trains.
The boy got on to the Victoria Line train and could be seen peeking out of the doors to see if he had successfully evaded his pursuers, said prosecutor Steven Molloy.
“The defendant got on, the train doors closed and the train took off”, he said. “There was then in effect a knife fight between the two young men.”
The court heard one of the teenagers were seen “flailing” with a knife, before Nkemayang “lunged” forward and stabbed the 16-year-old with the hunting knife he carried in a sheath.
The train was stopped in the tunnel outside Brixton station when the emergency cord was pulled by a passenger, but eventually made its way to Stockwell station when Nkemayang was arrested. The two knifes were later recovered from the tracks.
Nkemayang admitted wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon, while an attempted murder charge was dropped.
He will serve half his prison term before being released on licence.
