The teenager who killed a Croydon schoolgirl last year had ‘anger issues’ and ‘could get triggered easily’, the Old Bailey jury has been told
Murdered in the street: Elianne Andam
The jury in the Old Bailey trial into the killing of Croydon teenager Elianne Andam has been sent home for Christmas, having been told that the accused, Hassan Sentamu, will not be giving evidence.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, adjourned proceedings until the New Year after the end of the prosecution’s opening case against Sentamu, 18, from New Addington.
When the trial resumes, the jury will hear from psychiatric experts called by the prosecution and defence.
In her parting message to jurors, with warnings about their internet use, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “It’s a season of peace and goodwill. I hope you find peace and good will in the time you have off.”
The start of the trial had been delayed due to the backlog of other serious cases being heard at the Central Criminal Court, meaning that the case could not be concluded before a break for Christmas.
Fast response: Wellesley Road was quickly filled with police and ambulances in the minutes after Elianne Andam’s attack
Sentamu is accused of murdering 15-year-old schoolgirl Elianne Andam outside the Whitgift Centre on September 27, 2023. Sentamu admits manslaughter, but denies murder on the basis of diminished responsibility due to autism. He also claims he had a “lawful” reason for carrying a knife.
This morning, the jury heard a series of “agreed facts” about Sentamu’s upbringing and background.
This included how, just weeks after he was arrested for Andam’s killing, he threatened another prisoner when on remand, saying, “Do you want to end up like her, six feet under?”
Prosecuting counsel Alex Chalk KC told the jury that Sentamu made the comment during an argument at Oakhill Secure Training Centre last October. The other prisoner “repeatedly accused him of killing girls, when he responded: ‘I’ll do it again. I’ll do it to your mum… Do you want to end up like her, six feet under? I’ll do the same again’.”
The court was also told how Sentamu swallowed the contents of a chemically activated ice pack at the remand centre in November 2023, and, in April this year, wrote a complaint about a staff member in which he said, “I was very angry and felt like hitting her, but I have no choice but to do nothing otherwise I would be shipped.”
Reading the agreed facts, Chalk said Sentamu’s foster carer said his temper would quickly escalate and when he did not get his way he would threaten to harm the family’s pet cat and chop off its tail. She also said he had expressed a wish to kill himself.
Sentamu was born in Uganda in 2006, but moved to Britain with his mother three years later after allegations of domestic violence against his father.
In January 2018, aged 11, he was sent to a boarding school in Uganda, but injured himself falling down the stairs while fleeing staff. He returned to Britain in April the same year. The injury required surgery and he also reported he had been “physically abused and chastised” and “beaten with a metal pole”.
Moment of arrest: the Old Bailey jury was shown video from a PC’s bodywork camera that showed Hassan Sentamu arrested in New Addington within 90min of the killing
At a primary school in Britain, he was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, with the referral noting self-harm behaviours and violence against other children. After joining secondary school in 2018, he brought a knife to school and pointed at his chest saying he wanted to kill himself. He was cautioned by police.
Between February 2019 and December 2021, Sentamu was placed in foster care. A social worker found him home alone aged 12 and his mother packed a bag the next day saying he was beyond her control. She denied Sentamu’s allegations that she “attempted to strangle and beat him”, jurors heard, but said she felt unable to manage his game console time and that he was “often angry”.
Sentamu was excluded from school and sent to a Pupil Referral Unit after threatening a pupil with a knife during a school trip in March 2019. He explained he felt the teacher was not helping so he “dealt with it himself”. At the PRU, teachers reported “disruptive and aggressive” behaviour which included slapping a teacher’s hand, spitting at staff and punching another pupil.
After joining a mainstream school in May 2019, he reacted to perceived insults from another pupil by grabbing a pair of scissors and announcing he would stab them. He was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) a few months later. At the same school in December 2019, he put a pupil in a headlock and dropped her to the floor, repeating this a week later with another girl.
He was moved to a SEN school in September 2020 where he “continued to struggle with his temper” and in May 2021 a care plan was undertaken to assess his difficulties. In December 2021 he returned to live with his mother and sisters, but a year later she called police to say he had become angry and locked himself in the room, covering the walls in washing up liquid.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told jurors that Sentamu’s defence case “will be that the killing was caused entirely by a loss of self-control because of his Autism Spectrum Disorder had substantially impaired his ability to exercise self-control”.
During the first week of the trial, evidence was presented that Elianne Andam was stabbed to death after grabbing a plastic bag from Sentamu, when he failed to bring his ex-girlfriend’s teddy bear to a post-breakup item exchange.
Adjournment warning: judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb cautioned the jury about what they read or watch before the trial resumes in January
The jury has been shown a pre-recorded cross-examination of Sentamu’s friend (who is too young to be named in the proceedings), who described a confrontation between Sentamu and a group of girls in the Whitgift Centre a day before the stabbing.
During his police interview he said the girls, which included Andam and Sentamu’s ex-girlfriend, were “very aggressive”.
Answering questions from defence counsel Pavlos Panayi KC, the witness said the girls were “angry and laughing” and “making fun of” Sentamu. Asked by defence counsel if Sentamu was being bullied, the friend said: “It seemed like it, yes.”
He also recalled one of the girls saying “we should bang this guy, meaning punch, but described it as a joke. He also confirmed his comments to police that Sentamu “always had anger issues” and “would get triggered easily”.
The friend clarified his comment, saying: “It wasn’t really anger. He just didn’t really understand. We thought it was sad, really. With [her] he always had a soft spot. He would come up to me and say he was trying and bought so many things.”
CCTV footage captured the attack and showed Sentamu running from the scene and disposing of the knife. He was arrested at a bus stop near his home less than 90 minutes after the killing.
The trial will resume in January.
Read more: ‘Our failure can be read on the headstones of dead youth’
Read more: Croydon in 2023: London’s borough with most murder victims
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
