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Four deny killing boxer in row over smoking ban
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent2 Sep 2008
A former British boxing champion was shot dead at a Fulham club after asking a group of men to stop smoking, the Old Bailey heard today.
James Oyebola, 46, was shot in the back of the neck and died in hospital without regaining consciousness, the jury was told.
One of his killers had smuggled a gun into Chateau 6 in Fulham Road by hiding it down his trousers, it was alleged.
Mr Oyebola, who won a bronze medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games after losing to Lennox Lewis, was described as being "pleasant, calm and happy" before the shooting.
But witnesses said 6ft 9ins Mr Oyebola was surrounded by at least three men after asking clubbers not to smoke in the club's courtyard area.
DJ James Cornwell saw Mr Oyebola being jostled by three men and thought it looked like "a giant against kids". But moments later he saw the gunman raise his arm and fire shots.
Another witness, Jermaine Ford, said Mr Oyebola had warned him not to smoke in the area and described him as being "perfectly polite", causing no offence. Mr Oyebola was a friend of the club owner and his son.
Four men deny murder in July last year - only three weeks after the introduction of the smoking ban.
Jeremy Donne, QC, prosecuting, told the court that all four knew a gun had been brought to the club and might be used. "The reason for the killing was particularly senseless - Mr Oyebola had become involved in a dispute over smoking inside the club," he said.
"In the course of the confrontation with these four defendants one of them produced a gun and fired four bullets, with two striking the hapless victim. Several doormen were employed by the club and fairly cursory searches of the customers were conducted," said Mr Donne.
"For men it involved a brief pat down, which was unlikely to discover a gun secreted down the front of someone's trousers."
Mr Donne said one of the men, Kanyanta Mulenga, 23, is seen on CCTV "apparently moving something in the vicinity of his waistband and underneath his shirt".
Mr Donne added: "If you want to smuggle a gun into a club and knew that you would be searched the most likely thing you would do is move the gun from the waistband down to the genital area - a part of the body a doorman is unlikely to examine.
Once inside, the gun can be drawn back up to the waistband so that it is readily available for use. That is exactly what we suggest Mulenga is doing."
CCTV also caught clubbers diving for cover as the shooting broke out. Sixteen seconds after the first shot Mulenga is seen leaving the bar area "apparently holding something in his right hand before bringing both hands together in front of him and concealing an object as he made his way out of the club".
The murder weapon was not recovered but four 9mm cartridges found at the scene were fired from a Baikal automatic pistol made in Russia as a blank-firing weapon but easily converted for live ammunition, the court head.
Mulenga, of Putney, Rene McKoy, 20, of Battersea, Cyle Carth, 18, of Wimbledon, and Dean Francis, 24, of Wandsworth, deny murder and affray. The case continues.
