Students 'stabbed over look'

01 December 2009

TWO students were stabbed by a gang of hoodies for "showing a lack of respect", the Old Bailey heard on Wednesday.

Adnan Ali and Mehtab Kamal, both 18, were sitting on a park bench when they happened to "meet the eyes'' of a youth on a BMX, the court was told.

Within minutes he had called a group of 15 to 20 youths to attack the pair in Stratford Park, it was alleged.

Mr Ali was knifed five times and collapsed with a punctured lung. Mr Kamal was stabbed three times.

A 16-year-old boy from Manor Park, who cannot be named, is on trial for attempted murder.

Jurors heard how the two students and a friend were sitting on the bench after leaving Newham College on June 19.

Prosecutor Andrew Frymann said: "A mixed race youth on a BMX rode past. For reasons which may never be entirely clear, but perhaps because one of the three students had been thought to have met eyes with the youth and had his glance misinterpreted and taken as showing a lack of respect, suddenly 15 to 20 youths appeared and attacked the three.

"It was nasty, brutish and short-lived. Weapons were brought out and fetched from an area of bushes."

Mr Ali and Mr Kamal claimed their attacker was between 17 and 18 and wearing a brown hoodie. An anonymous witness later named the youth said to have stabbed the pair with a knife.

The 16-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and allegedly replied: "Is he dead?" He was said to have later told officers: "I was there but I didn't do anything".

He denies two counts of attempted murder, two of the lesser alternative of wounding with intent and one of violent disorder. The trial continues.