A “furious” mother drove her son and his friends to kill a 17-year-old boy after telling police she would batter youths who kept turning up at her home, a court has heard.

The victim, Levi Ernest-Morrison, was among the boys who knocked on Nichola Leighton’s door looking for her son Tyreese Ulysses, the Old Bailey was told.

When 19-year-old Ulysses learned they were “bothering” his mother, he rallied four friends, all armed with knives, jurors were told.

They allegedly jumped out of Leighton’s “distinctive” red Suzuki 4×4 jeep and chased Levi and one of his friends.

Levi, who also had a knife, was caught and fatally stabbed on the evening of April 10.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones QC said the attack in Sydenham, south London, took just 30 seconds.

Afterwards, the four attackers sprinted back to the waiting car which sped away, the court heard.

Mr Emlyn Jones said most of the events were caught on CCTV cameras apart from the stabbing itself.

He told jurors: “The car was being driven by Nichola Leighton – it was her car.

“Her four passengers sitting with her in the red Suzuki are now sitting with her in the dock.

“What were they doing there? Well, earlier that evening Levi Ernest-Morrison and his friends had been round to Nichola Leighton’s house. They and had been knocking on her door.

“It seems it was not the first time they had done this, and Nichola Leighton did not like it – in fact she had had enough.

“It wasn’t her that the boys coming to her door were there to see – it seems that they were really after her son Tyreese Ulysses. But he had recently moved out.

“That evening, when Levi and the others came knocking on her door, Nichola Leighton was furious.

“She rang the police about it and told the police that if the boys came back, she was going to batter them.

“But before she had phoned the police, she contacted with her son Tyreese Ulysses.

“The prosecution say that having heard from his mum that Levi and his friends had come round to his mum’s house and were bothering her, he then rallied the troops – which is why he and the other three arrived at Nichola Leighton’s home less than an hour later.”

Leighton, of Sydenham; Ulysses, from Catford, south London; and the three youths, aged 15, 15, and 17, deny murder.

Leighton and one of the 15-year-olds also face a second charge of possession of an offensive weapon.

The trial continues.

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