'White-hot anger...

Elianne, 15, killed in teddy row, jury told | Attacker was 'driven by rage' over mocking

- DAN WARBURTON

A TEENAGER stabbed his former girlfriend's friend to death in a fit of rage after a row over a teddy bear, a court heard yesterday.

Jurors were told Hassan Sentamu, 18, was already seething after being mocked the evening before he plunged a knife 12cm into 15-year-old Elianne Andam's neck.

But the court heard that erupted into "white-hot anger" when she challenged him for turning up emptyhanded to a meeting with his ex to exchange items, including the teddy, in September last year.

The smiling youngster grabbed a carrier bag Sentamu, then 17, had been given containing three hoodies and pair of tracksuit bottoms and ran off. Prosecutor Alex Chalk KC told the court: "It was a gesture of solidarity that cost Elianne her life.

"The defendant chased after her, cornered her, and used the kitchen knife to stab her repeatedly.

"He drove the knife 12cm deep into her neck severing the carotid artery and causing unsurvivable injuries.

"Despite the rapid arrival of the emergency services and intensive efforts over the course of nearly an hour, Elianne died at the scene. She was 15 years old."

The evening before, a group of his ex's friends, including Elianne, had confronted Sentamu over the way "he had spoken to and treated her" and demanded that he apologise to her.

Sentamu claims his autism and "disrupted childhood" had played a part in his actions the following day.