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Islington Tribune - by TOM FOOT and DAVID ST GEORGE
Published: 15 May 2009
 

Ben Kinsella
Ben trial told of stabbing ‘confession’

Witness stands by account of teenagers’ admission at her flat on day schoolboy died


A KEY prosecution witness at the trial of three accused who deny murdering schoolboy Ben Kinsella has denied she lied when claiming she heard two of them confess.
Giving evidence from behind a screen at the Old Bailey yesterday (Thursday), the young woman, named only as Kellie, told the jury that on the day of the 16-year-old’s death she was visited by her cousin, Michael Alleyne, from Holloway, and his friend, Juress Kikka, from Archway.
They were on the run from police and she let them into a flat she was sharing with two friends, the trial heard
After watching a TV news item about the murder of Ben, brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, Kellie said they openly admitted their roles in the stabbing.
“They told you that each of them had been responsible for stabbing Ben and did so in front of your friends, who they had never clapped eyes on before,” said QC Sallie Bennett-Jenkins for Alleyne.
“Yes,” replied Kellie, who then agreed she is currently serving a three-year sentence for smuggling heroin into prison for an inmate. She rejected the suggestion that she had made up the account to lessen her sentence and said she was living in “fear” of Alleyne and his associates.
She agreed with his QC that she had written to him in prison in “endearing terms”. Ms Bennett-Jenkins produced a letter in which Kellie said: “When you got nicked I was heartbroken.”
The QC suggested that it didn’t sound like Kellie was terrified by Alleyne. Kellie said: “He’s my family. We loved him. I don’t really know why I wrote it.”
Ms Bennett-Jenkins said: “You must have been horrified to be told these two had been involved in a brutal murder.”
“Yes,” said Kellie. “I was scared of both of them. That’s why I didn’t tell them to get out.” When she was asked why she came forward late, she said: “I didn’t tell police because it was a shock to me at first. I was worried for myself and my family.”
Ms Bennett-Jenkins said: “In fact, it is clear that he [Alleyne] made it clear to you he did not kill Ben.”
“No,” said Kellie. “He told me that Jay man had asked him to back him.”
Ben was having a night out with mates in Shillibeers club in North Road, Holloway, when a fight broke out.
On Wednesday, a businesswoman described her terror when she witnessed the fatal attack on the Holloway schoolboy.
Giving her name only as Kate, she said at first she thought she was watching a game of “hide and seek”. Ben and his pursuers were dodging in and out behind a parked van and other vehicles in North Road.
But Kate soon realised it was a deadly game.
“I knew something bad had happened when I heard that someone had been stabbed,” she said. “Everything happened very quickly, 10 seconds, if that.
“Suddenly the road was very empty. Everyone had disappeared. The three boys with hoods ran off. We heard another boy say: ‘He’s been stabbed.’ Not until then did we realise something bad had happened.”
Alleyne, 18, Kikka, 19, and Jade Braithwaite, 20, of Bow, deny murdering Ben in June last year.
The trial continues.

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