Emotions run deep as tributes are paid to murdered student
Volunteers who fought to save the life of a student murdered on a night out came together to remember him at a moving memorial service on the first anniversary of his death. Community groups Urban Blue Bus and Maidstone Street Pastors led the remembrance event for Andre Bent in Jubilee Square, Maidstone, on Tuesday evening.
Joining them in a crowd of around 30 were workers from the town’s pubs and clubs, including door staff.
The short service began at 6.30pm with words from Val Jacobs, senior trustee of Urban Blue Bus, who was at the scene on the night the Londoner was killed.
Prayers were then said by Rev Arthur Houston, vicar of St Faith’s and chairman of the Street Pastors, who reflected on the lasting trauma suffered by those who fought unsuccessfully to save the 21-year-old after he was stabbed to death during a night of horrifying violence. The South Bank University student’s family did not attend the memorial, but passed on words of gratitude to the people who tried to save him. A floral tribute was also sent on behalf of the family by cousin Bradley McIntosh, a former member of pop band S Club 7. It sat with other flowers and candles left by those who attended the service.
Reflecting on the tragedy, Ms Jacobs said: “It affected the whole night-time economy one way or another, everyone came together that night to do their best.
“We want to remember him and celebrate his life. He has a child who was born after he died, and his spirit lives on through the child he never got to see.”
Many of the volunteers who were present in Jubilee Square on the night Mr Bent died are still having counselling as they deal with the mental scars. Ms Jacobs said the service this week would be an “act of closure” in the journey to recover from the experience.
Nigel Downes, from the street pastors, said he hoped the event would also be a celebration of Mr Bent’s life, rather than simply a moment to mark the anniversary of his death.
Mr Bent, who was unarmed, suffered a single stab wound to the chest, and was killed outside the County Town’s Gallery Nightclub in Bank Street following a show by rapper MoStack.
In May his teenage killer, Vasilios Ofogeli, was jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 20 years.
The Old Bailey had heard the 17-year-old murderer penned a sick rap track in his prison cell, boasting about how he’d killed one person and said it ‘should have been more’.
A jury was told that a machete - believed to have been used in the killing - was later found in a garden near the home of the teen.
Mr Bent had been out in Maidstone for the night celebrating a friend’s birthday when he was killed.
Ofogeli, of Grove House Road in Hornsey, north London, also knifed Joshua Robinson, Patrick Conceicao and Lucas Baker, before fatally stabbing Mr Bent. The student died never knowing he was to become a father. His girlfriend Maria was pregnant and was planning to break the news to him on the morning he died.