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Artist’s son admits killing friend in row over taxi fare
THE son of a leading artist is facing a life sentence after admitting killing “a good friend”.
Both were high on the drug ketamine when they clashed during a row over a cab fare outside a warehouse squat in east London.
Louis Lyon Chambers, 19, of Caledonian Road, Islington, entered a guilty plea to a manslaughter charge at the Old Bailey this week. His father Stephen is a Royal Academy member.
Denial of a murder count was accepted by the prosecution on the grounds of provocation by words said or actions taken by the stabbing victim, 21-year-old Dylan Bates-Fox.
Mr Bates-Fox, from Hanwell, in west London, was a talented artist and graphic designer. On a social website he described his interests as music, people and living every day as if it is “your last”.
The two friends clashed on July 7 last year after visiting a squat in Bethnal Green.
Mr Bates-Fox collapsed from a knife wound. He died at the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, hours later.
Stewart Jones, QC, defending, told Judge Roger Chapple that Chambers lost his self-control during a row in which he was called “a retard and mutant”.
Chambers, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, was allegedly hit with a stick and a bar, and threatened with a champagne bottle, before grabbing a steak knife and attacking Mr Bates-Fox.
“He went over the top and he is sorry,” added Mr Jones.
Judge Chapple adjourned sentence to March 13 and remanded Chambers in custody.
The judge called for psychiatric reports and a full assessment of the “dangerous” threat to the public which Chambers might present. |
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