Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
IN THE DOCK
‘Gang attack teen scared for his life’
A teenager accused of slamming a bag filled with bricks into a German student’s face has this week claimed self-defence.
The 17-year-old told a jury he lashed out at Daniel Ezzedine because he feared for his life, and claims there were only personal belongings in the bag.
He and Luke Fogarolli, 18, are on trial for their part in an alleged gang attack in Canterbury which left Mr Ezzedine - then 17 - with brain damage. Canterbury Crown Court was told violence erupted when two groups clashed in Rose Lane, triggering a melee on June 6 last year.
The 17-year-old defendant - who cannot be named for legal reasons - is alleged to have filled his bag with bricks or another heavy object before swinging it into Mr Ezzedine’s face.
Then, while Ezzedine was unconscious, Fogarolli is accused of kicking or stamping on his head “full force”, causing his “body to recoil”. But giving evidence on Tuesday, the 17-year-old claimed he became frightened when Mr Ezzedine’s entourage allegedly ambushed his group in Rose Lane.
He says he “became scared” when Mr Ezzedine “began following” the 8-9 strong gang after offering one out for a fight moments earlier in Mcdonald’s.
He told the jury a member of the German group then attacked his friend, triggering a free-for-all, where Mr Ezzedine was pulled to the ground as he kicked out.
“What did you decide to do then?” his barrister asked. “As he tried getting back up I swung the bag; I didn’t have any intention of aim.
“It hit his head, and when I saw that, I had a couple of seconds window, so I grabbed [my friend] and ran.” Asked how he felt during the scuffle, the boy replied: “I thought ‘I’m brown bread, I’ve had it’.”
He added his bag only contained “daily items”; a portable mobile phone power bank, bottle of aftershave, phone, loose change, and a small bicycle repair tool.
The boy denied filling his bag with bricks in Iron Bar Lane moments before the situation turned violent.
He told jurors he only entered the cut-through to smoke cannabis with Fogarolli and change his top because he was hot, and didn’t want to “show his body” to young girls.
But prosecutor Simon Taylor pointed out CCTV evidence which, the crown says, incriminated the duo.
“You went to the trouble of going to Iron Bar Lane to get changed - why have you still got gloves on?” the lawyer asked.
“I don’t know,” the teen responded.
Mr Taylor also accused the defendant of introducing fresh elements into his defence mid-trial - namely claims that he had a larger than average phone charger in his bag and a “bicycle repair tool.” The prosecutor went on to show the teen CCTV footage taken of the two groups in Mcdonald’s minutes before the attack.
It showed the boy appearing to make stabbing motions and swinging his bag; however, he told the jury he was “having banter” with his friends rather than spoiling for a fight.
The footage showed the teen flipping and catching the bag “suggesting it was light”, Mr Taylor said.
He continued: “I’m going to suggest you decided to use that bag as a weapon and you were showing your friends what you could do with it - is that right? “No,” he replied. “Well what were you doing with it?” Mr Taylor asked. “I can’t remember,” he replied.
More footage played in court showed the teen then appearing to kick at bricks outside Mcdonald’s, which prosecutors say is evidence he was trying to arm himself. However, the defendant told the jury he was merely extinguishing a cigarette.
In one of the final pieces of video evidence captured before the attack, the teen and Fogarolli disappear down Iron Bar Lane - a cut-through with no CCTV.
Prosecutors say it was the moment the teen became armed before delivering the tragic blow to Mr Ezzedine. However, the defence maintain he disappeared down the alley to get changed because he was too warm and didn’t want to show young girls his body. “Did you get some bricks in Iron Bar Lane?”
“No.”
“You went to the trouble of going to get changed, why have you still got gloves on?” Mr Taylor asked.
I don’t know.” the teen replied.
Senior radiologist Curtis Offiah had earlier told jurors Mr Ezzedine’s life-threatening injuries were consistent with blunt-force trauma.
Dr Offiah, of King’s College London, says the initial blow to the student’s face - fracturing his cheekbone - caused damage to the brain, and must have been inflicted by a heavy object.
He used an “earthquake analogy”, where “tremors travelled from the left to the right side of the brain”. “A bag containing softer items would not inflict that injury profile,” he said. “In my opinion there must have been something solid in that bag to produce that fracture pattern.”
Dr Offiah said the force of the blow flowed through the underside and left side of Mr Ezzedine’s skull, causing multiple fractures in its wake, bleeding on the brain surface and numerous tears throughout the tissue. He added the force of Fogarolli’s kick would not have caused life-threatening injuries in itself had there been no previous blow.
But another senior clinician at the same hospital believed Fogarolli’s kick was responsible for the lion’s share of the brain and skull damage, the court heard. Fogarolli claims he kicked Mr Ezzedine in the shoulder while fleeing the scene, rather than, as alleged, “full force in the head”.
Dr Offiah told the court there was no injury to the neck or upper part of the shoulder on examination of scans, but no imagery had been taken of the point of the shoulder. Fogarolli, of Sturry Road, Canterbury, denies wounding with intent but has pleaded guilty to violent disorder. The 17-year-old denies wounding with intent and violent disorder.
Eight other suspects are due to appear in court at a later date.
The trial continues.