Teenager ‘killed amid tit-for-tat gang violence’

Two men on a bicycle chased and stabbed a teenager to death amid “tit-for-tat” gang violence boasted about in drill rap videos, a court has been told.

Michael Lebbie, 20, and Melvis Mariano, 23, are on trial accused of carrying out the ride-out killing of Kamal Nuur, 19, in Islington, north London.

The motive was linked to violent clashes between two rival gang alliances, the 51st and the 71st, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Nuur, known as Dirtz, was said to have been associated with the 71st and involved in the drug trade.

He had been rehoused in Birmingham after he was stabbed and his family home attacked in 2018, jurors were told.

Around the time of his death, Mr Nuur had been reported missing by his family after returning to the capital.

Just before 8pm on September 14 2020, he was approached by two males on a bicycle, chased into an alleyway leading to North Road and stabbed eight times, prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC said.

He collapsed and died in a nearby car park as his attackers rode off.

Ms Newell told jurors: “He was undoubtably murdered in an attack by the two individuals who arrived on the bike and chased him into the alleyway and the real issue for you is the identity of the attackers.”

Lebbie and Mariano were allegedly associated with the 51st and tracked by CCTV and cell site analysis before and after the killing.

Ms Newell listed a series of deadly and non-fatal clashes between the two rival alliances.

It included an incident in March 2019 when Lebbie was run over and stabbed next to the Regents Park Estate in north-west London.

Members of the Agar Grove gang, part of the 71st alliance, took responsibility in drill music for the attack, jurors were told.

Mr Nuur was targeted near the spot of another drill video uploaded to YouTube seven weeks earlier.

The video performed in and around the North Road area taunted the 51st about the deadly stabbings of Alex Smith and Calvin Bungisa in 2019, the court heard.

Mariano, of Kentish Town in north London, and Lebbie, of Ilford, east London, deny Mr Nuur’s murder.

Co-defendant Abby Lowne, 20, denies assisting an offender by helping Mariano leave the area after the stabbing.

She is also charged with failing to comply with a notice to provide the Pin for her mobile phone.

The Old Bailey trial continues.