JODIE Chesney’s boyfriend arrived at court today to give evidence after it was alleged the Girl Scout was murdered by drug dealers when her friend bought cannabis from a rival seller.
The 17-year-old Girl Scout had been playing music and smoking cannabis with friends near a playground at Harold Hill, Romford, on March 1 when she was knifed in the back.
The “blameless” sixth-former was fatally stabbed in the east London park after she got caught up in a “pathetic” drugs turf war, jurors were told.
Manuel Petrovic, 20, Svenson Ong-a-kwie, 19, and two youths, aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, deny her murder.
The court was told Petrovic and Ong-a-kwie were in business together selling drugs.
Crispin Aylett, prosecuting, said the 16-year-old defendant acted as a “runner” for Petrovic and the 17-year-old defendant was helping Ong-a-kwie sell drugs on March 1.
DRUG DEAL
The Old Bailey was told yesterday that two of Jodie’s friends, Kane Compton and Bryce Henderson, had previously bought cannabis from Ong-a-kwie.
However when a new strain of cannabis called “Pineapple Express” they wanted to try failed to be delivered they ordered from another dealer, the court heard.
Mr Aylett told the court: “Now Bryce and his friends have the cannabis, and they’re in [the] park and they’re no doubt smoking it”.
He added that Ong-a-kwie “must have either heard or seen something that upset him”.
Jodie was stabbed in the back about an hour later by two men who ran out from a car, which contained the four defendants, into the park where she was sitting, the court was told.
The 17-year-old died in her boyfriend, Eddie Coyle’s, arms after the attack.
Mr Aylett described her murder as “the terrible but predictable consequence of an all too casual approach to the carrying and using of knives”.
Jodie collapsed from a deep-penetrating wound close to her spine following the 9.20pm attack.
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She was pronounced dead an hour later at an Esso petrol station in Gants Hill.
Mr Aylett told the court how Jodie’s dad described his daughter as a “beautiful, well-liked, fun, young woman who judged no-one and loved everyone.”
The defendants, all allegedly involved in drug dealing, deny murder.
The trial continues.
