A man from Stratford and another from Manor Park were part of a gang who stabbed an innocent party-goer to death for no obvious reason with “venomous, hate-fuelled force”, a court heard today.

Ashley Latty, 25, was allegedly kicked, punched and battered in the head with a bottle outside a private party in Dagenham on May 18, before being stabbed five times in the back and chest.

Nana Oppong, 34, of West Road, Stratford; Kestrel Dyer, 25, of Dawson Avenue, Barking; Daniel Agyeman, 24, of Winterbourne Road, Thornton Heath; Nicholas Terrelonge, 28, of Orange Grove, Leytonstone; Jerome Joseph, 28, of Manor Park Road, Manor Park; Damien Carnegie, 29, of Union Close, Leytonstone, and Tyler Burton, 29, of Aberdour Road, Ilford, deny murder and causing GBH. Dyer’s girlfriend Aimee Penfold, 25, of Oaks Way, Epsom, is accused of perverting the course of justice.

Following the party, Ashley was standing outside the entrance of The Beaver Centre in Selinas Lane at about 5.30am with friends, said prosecutor Simon Denison QC.

“One or more of the seven defendants had spotted him and they decided together to inflict upon him severe violence,” he said.

“We do not know why and it does not matter why. What they did had no legal justification.”

He added: “At least one of them had a knife. One of them picked up a bottle.”

They stabbed and battered him, the jury was told.

Doctors battled to keep his heart beating until he arrived at hospital.

“He didn’t stand a chance,” said Mr Denison. “It was sudden, sustained, utterly brutal and without mercy.”

Latty had suffered five stab wounds to the chest and was pronounced dead at hospital at 7.15am. A post-mortem gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

The trial continues.