Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Girl Scout Jodie innocent victim in drug turf war
17-year-old was not target of knife attack, court told
GIRL Scout Jodie Chesney was not the “intended target” when she was knifed to death in a “pathetic” drugs turf war, a court heard yesterday.
The “entirely blameless” 17-year-old was caught up in a row between alleged dealers as she listened to music and smoked cannabis in a park with friends.
Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, told a jury her death may have been “the terrible consequence of the all-to-casual approach to the using of knives”.
Jodie, a sixth-form student, would not have seen or heard her two attackers emerging from darkness behind her as she sat on a bench, the jury was told.
Her boyfriend, Eddie Coyle, 18, saw the taller of the pair swing his arm towards her back before fleeing, it is claimed.
Jodie, who suffered a seven-inch deep wound and a punctured lung, screamed in pain and slumped to the ground.
She died less than an hour later.
None of the five friends who were with her had any idea who carried out the “terrible and cowardly” attack at 9.20pm on Friday, March 1, Mr Aylett said.
“Jodie could not have had the slightest idea of what had happened, still less, why,” the jury was told in the prosecutor’s opening statement.
Croatian national Manuel Petrovic, 20, of Collier Row, Svenson Ong-a-kwie, 19, of Romford, both East London, and two boys aged 16 and 17 deny murder. Mr Aylett claimed all four suspects were involved in the supply of drugs and had gone to the park to “mete out violence”.
“There is, however, nothing to suggest that Jodie was involved in the supply of drugs or that she upset anyone,” he said.
“All four were acting together as part of a plan to cause at least really serious bodily harm to someone in that park, even if Jodie Chesney was not necessarily their intended target.”
He added: “Jodie’s father, Peter, has described Jodie as, ‘A beautiful, wellliked, fun, young woman who judged no one and loved everyone’.”
The jury heard how, Mr Coyle, Jodie’s boyfriend of three months, held her hand and begged her to stay awake as nearby residents rushed to attempt first aid.
But by the time police arrived at St Neot’s Road Play Park, in Harold Hill, East London, local woman Kelly Smith said she heard Jodie take her final breath.
Paramedics attempted to resuscitate Jodie by opening her chest to restart her heart at a petrol station, but she was pronounced dead on the forecourt.
A postmortem examination concluded she died from a combination of shock and haemorrhage.
The eight-week trial at the Old Bailey in London continues.