“Is it murder or manslaughter?”
Summing up: the murder case judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb
That was the stark question that the defence barrister in the murder trial of New Addington teen Hassan Sentamu put to the jury at the Old Bailey this morning, as he concluded his closing statement before the summing up of judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.
Pavlos Panayi KC described Sentamu’s victim Elianne Andam as a “poor, poor girl”, while also saying she was one of his client’s “tormentors”.
Panayi had begun his closing statement on Friday, and he spent another hour this morning leading the jury in Court No15 through the evidence and testimonies as his client would prefer the jurors to interpret them, about the events that led to the tragic killing of 15-year-old schoolgirl Andam on Wellesley Road, outside the Whitgift Centre, on a September morning in 2023.
Sentamu had opted against taking the witness stand to give evidence in his defence, or be cross-examined.
Evidence presented on behalf of Sentamu claimed that his autism spectrum disorder caused him to lose control during the meeting to exchange belongings with his ex-girlfriend, who was Andam’s friend.
Sentamu, 18, has admitted manslaughter, but denies murder on the basis of diminished responsibility.
On Friday, the prosecutor, Alex Chalk KC, had told the court that Sentamu had “exacted vengeance on a young girl clearly running away from him and posing no threat”.
Moment of arrest: Hassan Sentamu denies murdering 15-year-old Elianne Andam outside the Whitgift Centre in September 2023
Much of defence lawyer Panayi’s closing statement focused much on whether the stabbing of Andam had been premeditated.
He sought to diminish the “I can’t let this slide bro” comment that his client had made in a text message to a friend the day before the killing, a comment described by the prosecution as, “The most chilling words in this trial.”
Panayi told the court today that Elianne Andam running, laughing and grabbing the bag with her friend’s possessions, including her teddy bear, was “the trigger”. He suggested that Sentamu may have intended to attend the meeting and not hand over his former girlfriend’s things.
“If he had not taken the knife, his explosion of anger would have manifested in another way,” Panayi suggested to the jury, before reminding jurors of the love letters that were in the bag and describing Andam as one of Sentamu’s “tormentors”.
Panayi also sought to dismiss the significance of Sentamu’s decision to wear a mask and gloves to the meeting. “He may have worn them out to look tough,” he said.
“Is there a sensible case, the gloves and mask are evidence of premeditation? Or is it just a soundbyte? Maybe a bit tabloid?”
He went on to suggest that Sentamu’s taking the knife to the meeting was “an afterthought”.
Murdered in the street: Elianne Andam
Later, referring to the seizing of the bag by Andam: “Was that last event like pulling the pin on a hand grenade? Poor, poor girl. It was not her fault. It was his fault. I would say he has admitted that.”
On the psychiatric evidence, Panayi told the jury: “You have a difficult job. You are going to have to do a difficult job evaluating two equally eminent psychiatrists, who both respect each other, who both reached two different conclusions.
“You are more than entitled to reject anyone else’s factual analysis.
“Conduct Disorder: Is it a red herring?”
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Thank you for reporting this story completely by providing details of the Defence case. The BBC London News reporting of this has really been very sensationalist and partial. The length of this trial demonstrates that it has not been a simple open and shut case that the mainstream media has presented.
Don’t agree about BBC London’s reporting, Del. It has been handled by one of their better, real journalists.
But it has been incomplete – with nothing on their website today, for instance.
There reporting has been incomplete and therefore partial. Today in their Local News they presented a near five minutes of a rather bad cake maker dismal attermpts at reproducing Claudia Winkleman’s face and so clearly had the capacity to present a matter of public interest reporting such as this.
Actually, BBC London lost the capacity to cover news as you and I might recognise it around a decade ago, with the latest round of staff cuts. They don’t have the reporting or production staff to cover a city the size of London (and beyond), which is why TV regional news in this city is probably the worst of any capital or major city in the world.
My guess is that the reporter who has been covering the Andam trial was on a day off yesterday.
Tim Donovan actually admitted to me that sending a crew (which these days means a jack-of-all-trades camera operator) all the way to Croydon was often too much of a stretch.
Doing fluffy, pre-recorded features about non-news, like the Winkleman cake is the soft, easy option. Meanwhile, murder trials are left unreported… The decline in local journalism is not restricted to newspapers.
Clearly BBC London needs to talk to ‘The BBC’ because their national reporting has been pretty good. Some would argue that the decloine in proper local journalism has been accelerated by the BBC using our taxes to unfairly compete with local papers.
I have worked in the media for more than 40 years, including in senior editorial positions and in a body representing the sector, and I have never heard anyone argue that the BBC uses taxes or has competed with local newspapers. Not anyone who knows what they are talking about, anyway.
You might like to read this opnion piece about the desperate state of local media:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/12/tech-barons-bbc-plymouth-truth-misinformation