'Shaquille's killers had violence on their minds'

A schoolboy was stabbed to death just yards from his front door by a teenage gang, the Old Bailey heard today.

Shaquille Smith, 14, would have been doing the washing up when he was attacked, the jury was told, but his mother had decided he would be safe in the park with a teenage girl and a neighbour. His killers were in the London Fields Boys gang who had "violence on their minds," said Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting.

The girl's face and neck were slashed and Shaquille was stabbed in the abdomen, the court heard. He died the next day. There were 10 in the attack in St Thomas's Place, Hackney, last August. The six defendants - Amisi Khama, 18, who claimed he was at home but now accepts he had been present, George Amponsah, 18, Godiowe Dufeal, 20, all of Hackney, a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds - plead not guilty to murder and to violent disorder. The case continues.