The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Man killed cellmate with TV
Court: Jordan Palmer denies murdering Terence Ojuderie in first murder trial at Peterborough Crown Court
A prisoner at Peterborough jail killed his cell mate with a flat screen TV in a ‘frenzied attack’. In the first ever murder trial at the city’s crown court, Jordan Palmer admitted killing Terence Ojuderie but denies murder.
A prisoner at HMP Peterborough killed his cell mate using a flat screen TV in a ‘frenzied’ attack, a jury has been told. JordanPalmer(26) killed Terence Ojuderie in cell 27 in the early hoursofDecember9last year
The jury at Peterborough Crown Court were told the injuries suffered by Ojuderie were so severe, he was ‘unrecognisable.’
Palmer has admitted killing his 42-year-old cell mate, but denies murder.
William Hughes, prosecuting, told the court Palmer had used the cell intercom to speaktoprisonofficersat1am to say he was feeling ‘unwell.’
The officer went to check on him, and told him a nurse would see him.
A few minutes later, Palmer again used the intercom to speak to the officer, saying he was still feeling sick.
Mr Hughes said:”About 10 minutes later, the buzzer sounded again. Again it was thedefendantcalling. Hesaid: ‘I don’t know what I’ve done, I don’t know what I’ve done.’”
The officer returned to the cell, and saw the defendant standing in the middle of the cell, wearing only his boxer shorts.
The officer could see Oju- derie covered in blood, foaming from the mouth.
Palmerwasalso covered in blood, and a blood stained TV was recovered.
Mr Hughes said: “The deceased was subject to an episode of intense and frenzied violence.”
He added: “The deceased suffered severe facial injuries, He was unrecognisable to those that knew him.”
Ojuderie was pronounced dead at 2.19am.
Thejury of fivewomenand sevenmenweretoldanumber of other inmates had heard a commotion during the night, with one man seeing two figures at the window - with one man striking the other with a TVset- andseeingbloodsplatter on the window.
Abbas Lakhe QC, defending, told the jury there was no disputePalmerhadkilledOjuderie - but the questions at the heart of the trial involved the use of the drug, spice - a synthetic cannabis.
He said while Palmer did not use it, Ojuderie did - and it was possible the effects on Palmer had led him to launch the attack. He said it was possible Palmer had involuntarily ingested the drug - either through passive smoking, picking up the wrong cigarette or having his cigarettes spiked.
Mr Lakhe said: “It is very difficult to know what the effects of the drug are - it is a chemical, and depends on the strength of it - and the strength changes regularly.
“If he was affected by it, what effect did it have? One affect could be he was not in control of his actions. The legal termfor this is non-insane automatism.
“In the alternative, if the ingestion of spice resulted in a drug induced psychosis - a recognised medicalcondition causing abnormality of mental function, the alternative would be manslaughter.”
Thetrial is expected to last at least twoweeks. Palmerdenies one count of murder. .