Teen knifed to death 'by racists on a seaside break'

Christopher Alaneme, 18, was murdered in a 'pitiless and unjustified' attack by five Londoners on holiday in Sheerness, Kent, a jury was told.

The Nigerian-born teenager grew up in Penge, South London, but moved to the coastal town because he considered it safer.

Maidstone Crown Court heard one of the five white men made a racist remark about Mr Alaneme after coming across him following a night's heavy drinking, during which some had taken cocaine.

When the black teenager's white friends objected, the gang chased and surrounded Mr Alaneme, fatally stabbing him in his liver, it was alleged.

In the space of 90 seconds the men also knifed an off-duty taxi driver who got caught up in their "indiscriminate" violence, the court heard.

In the dock are Peter Connolly, 29, Andrew Giblin, 26, Terance Beaney, 23, and brothers Sean Duhig, 23, and Gerry Duhig, 27.

Michael Austin-Smith, QC, told the jury Mr Alaneme's friends passed the five defendants on Sheerness High Street shortly before midnight on Friday April 21.

"The trouble flared up when one of the defendants took exception for being rebuked for a supposedly racist comment about Mr Alaneme, who was black," said Mr Austin-Smith.

"The locals ran for it, pursued by the defendants. The chase was a short and sharp one.

"At the end of it Mr Alaneme was dying on a park bench bleeding from a stab wound which penetrated his liver, and Mark Davies, an innocent bystander, was left with five stab wounds, one a particularly vicious thrust up his backside with a knife."

The men, who had been staying at the Duhig brothers' caravan in Sheerness, had been drinking at various pubs in the High Street, the court heard.

"This case is not about a late-night punch-up," said Mr Austin-Smith.

"It's not even a group of strangers in an area defending themselves from the locals.

"It's about a group of five friends who, in two separate incidents, closed in, surrounding an outnumbered and unarmed man, causing serious injuries in one man, and death in the other.

"These pitiless stabbings were inflicted without a semblance of justification.

"However it may have started, it ended up not with self-defence but with murder."

Mr Austin-Smith said that although there were numerous CCTV cameras in Sheerness, there was no footage of the attacks on Mr Davies and Mr Alaneme.

At the time of the stabbings, "St George's day was coming up, and flags were flying everywhere and a flag flew across the lens at the vital moment," he added.

Connolly, a painter and decorator, from Peckham, South-East London, Giblin, a bank worker also from Peckham, Beaney, a plasterer from nearby Woolwich, and brothers Sean and Gerry Duhig, both plasterers from Camberwell, all deny murder.

Connolly, Giblin and Beaney also deny wounding Mr Davies with intent.

The trial continues.