Teenager jailed for stabbing boy, 16, with hunting knife on Tube train

A sign for the London Underground seen through the closed shutters at Euston station, central London, during a strike by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and Unite, in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions. The strike by transport workers in London is expected to cause travel chaos with limited services on the Tube. Picture date: Thursday November 10, 2022.
Passengers were left 'screaming' and 'hysterical' after the knife fight on the Victoria Line. Credit: PA

A teenager has been jailed for more than six years for stabbing a 16-year-old boy on a Victoria line Tube train.

Amarjay Nkemayang, 19, of Crawshay Road, London, attacked the victim with a hunting knife after chasing him onto the Tube at Brixton Underground Station on November 23.

The Old Bailey heard how Nkemayang was part of a group of four males who spotted the 16-year-old outside a JD Sports store in Brixton.

The teenager walked into Brixton Tube station, just before 3pm, and upon realising he was being followed, he pushed his way through the barriers.

The four males split up as they searched the station, with Nkemayang following the victim onto a Tube train.

After catching up with him, the pair got into a knife fight which was witnessed by two off-duty police officers, who described them as "flailing knives at each other" for about 30 seconds.

The victim pushed through the barriers of Brixton Tube Station after realising he was being followed. Credit: Brixton tube station - entrance by Mike Quinn/CC BY-SA/WikiCommons

One officer said that passengers were left “screaming” and “hysterical”, prosecutor Steve Molloy told the court.

The court heard that both males were injured in the fight, with the 16-year-old receiving a two-and-a-half-inch wound to the left side of his torso. Mr Molloy told the court that there was no CCTV footage of the knife fight, as the camera on the carriage was not working.

But CCTV footage from an adjacent carriage showed the aftermath of the knife fight, with Nkemayang entering the carriage through the emergency doors. Concerned passengers could be seen fleeing down the carriage as Nkemayang walked through it, with the knife still in his hand. Mr Molloy said one passenger heard Nkemayang say: “I have stabbed him, I have murdered him. I am going to go down for murder. If I had not killed him, and he comes for me, I will have to kill him.”

After the train pulled into Stockwell station, the defendant was apprehended on the platform by police and arrested. Mr Molloy said that the 16-year-old refused to give a statement to police, and did not allow officers to take photographs of his wound. Speaking in mitigation for Nkemayang, Alejandra Tascon said: “This is a young man who was suffering from trauma at the time of the incident. “He himself having suffered a stabbing in October 2022, which he says led to him making the biggest mistake of his life.”

Sentencing Nkemayang to six years and four months in a young offenders institution, judge David Aubrey said that an aggravating feature of the case was that it took place on public transport. “The public expect to be able to travel on public transport for leisure purposes or to and from work in safety and without fear,” he said. He added that he was impressed by a letter sent to the court by Nkemayang, and that he believed he had the potential to live a law-abiding life after his sentence.


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