TEEN ON TRIAL FOR KILLING
VICTIM LEFT BLEEDING HEAVILY FROM CHEST FOLLOWING DRUNKEN MELEE
A TEENAGER has gone on trial accused of murdering a man who tried to break up a street fight in Salford. Wesley Lennon
(right), 26, was stabbed in the chest late on August 29, Bank Holiday Monday last year. Adam Akhtar, who was 18 at the time, is alleged to have killed him and is on trial at Manchester Crown Court.
A TEENAGER has gone on trial accused of murdering a man who tried to break up a street fight in Salford.
Wesley Lennon, 26, was stabbed in the chest late on August 29, Bank Holiday Monday last year. Adam Akhtar, who was 18 at the time, is alleged to have killed him and is on trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Three other defendants are on trial in the same hearing, alleged to have been involved in the fight Wesley was trying to break up.
Olabisi Oladeinde, 20, of Higher Croft, Eccles; Louis Trelfa, 19, of Darlington Street, Leigh and a 16-yearold boy who cannot be identified for legal reasons all deny affray.
Jurors in the trial have been told that Mr Lennon was visiting Cambrai Crescent, in the Winton area of Eccles, when trouble broke out.
The court heard Mr Oladeinde, Mr Trelfa and the 16-year-old boy were friends who began drunkenly arguing among each other after being invited to a house on the street by a girl they knew.
After fighting broke out between the 16-year-old boy and Mr Oladeinde, the girl is said to have asked Mr Akhtar to come to the scene. The violence spilled out into the street, and in an attempt to stop it Mr Lennon ended up in the ‘middle of the melee.’
The group are then said to have turned their aggression on him, and as Mr Oladeinde and Mr Lennon fought on the floor, Louis Trelfa and the 16-year-old are said to have kicked at him.
After being urged to hurry up by the girl, who told him it was ‘really kicking off,’ Mr Akhtar is said to have run over to the disturbance.
A witness, named in court as Mason McDonald, is said to have seen a ‘young small Asian lad,’ said by the prosecution to be Mr Akhtar, run down the street and shout ‘what do you think you are doing?’ before producing something silver ‘that glinted in the street light’ from a ‘manbag.’
He then stabbed Mr Lennon, it is alleged.
Mr Lennon collapsed and quickly lost consciousness. Locals tried to help but he was unresponsive and bleeding heavily from the chest. He died the following morning.
Mr Akhtar, now 19, of Somerset Road, Eccles, denies murder.
Proceeding