SHAKILUS TOWNSEND: Jury urged to ignore defendant's evidence

The defence lawyer for one of seven teenagers accused of killing Shakilus told the Old Bailey today that the prosecution's tactic of accusing Andre Johnson-Haynes of murder and then using his evidence to implicate another defendant was “intellectually unscrupulous.”

David Whitehouse, who is representing one of the three 17-year-old youths who cannot be named for legal reasons, told jurors: “Andre Johnson-Haynes is a man who doesn't know the meaning of integrity.

“For the prosecution to say that he is guilty of murder, and then 10 minutes later say that you, the jury, should listen to this man's evidence to convict my client, is simply ridiculous.

“He is the only person who puts my client at the scene. Are you really going to believe Andre Johnson-Haynes?”

He later added: “The prosecution's speech was intellectually unscrupulous.”

Mr Whitehouse later urged the jury to ignore photos showing his client posing in gold chains and gesturing as if his hand were a gun.

He said: “Does this prove that he is guilty? No, of course it doesn't.

“He is young and he was showing off his jewellery. He was saying 'look at me'.”

It is alleged that Shakilus, of Tanners Hill, Deptford, was set upon by members of the Shine My Nine (SMN) gang and that they beat him with a baseball bat, kicked him and stabbed him several times with one or more knives on July 3 last year.

Shakilus had been going out with a 15-year-old girl who was also seeing one of the accused, Danny McLean.

The prosecution say the girl, now 16, acted as a "honey trap", luring Shakilus to Beulah Crescent in Thornton Heath to be ambushed and attacked by the accused.

McLean, 18, and Tyrell Ellis, 19, both from Thornton Heath, and Andre Johnson-Haynes, aged 18, of Croydon, deny murder.

Also charged with murder are a 16-year-old girl and three 17-year-old boys who cannot be named for legal reasons.

They all deny the charges.

The trial continues.