Sian stabbing accused takes the stand

A schoolgirl was stabbed to death in the street by a teenage rival in a petty squabble over the 'attentions of a young man', the Old Bailey heard this week.

Sian Simpson, 17, was found dying in the street surrounded by a crowd of girls shouting at each other after a knife had been used 'all too depressingly' to settle a row, the court heard.

The A-level student collapsed after being stabbed in the chest by 18-year-old Chelsea Bennett, jurors were told.

The wound pierced her lung and heart causing 'shock and massive internal bleeding', said prosecutor Brian Altman QC.

She was pronounced dead in hospital after being found in Scarbrook Road, Croydon, south London, on June 19 last year.

Bennett, now 19, denies murder. She wiped tears from her eyes as Mr Altman opened the case against her. 

The court was told she admits stabbing Sian, but claims she acted in self-defence when the victim produced a knife.

Members of Sian's family sat hand-in-hand in the well of the court as the details of the case were read out.

Mr Altman said: 'Sian's assailant was this defendant, 18-year-old Chelsea Bennett.

'As you will hear, her death by stabbing was the culmination of an afternoon and evening of an escalating fight between two groups of young females.

'All apparently over the attentions of a young man, where you will hear the resort was made in the all too depressing and familiar use of a knife to settle a score with one fatal outcome, the death of Sian Simpson.'

Jurors heard the girls were rowing over Nathan Davidson, a father of a young baby, who had previously been dating Sian's cousin Chantelle Campbell, the mother of the child.

Bennett was said to be angry with Mr Davidson for going to visit that son while her best friend, Danielle Cooke was also pregnant by him.

The court heard she left a voice message on his phone, which Chantelle heard, jurors were told.

It said: 'You hear? I am coming to your house so if she's there she's going to get ******* up and so are you.'

Giving evidence, Housing Association worker James Akintola said he heard girls shouting "stab her" before 17-year-old Sian Simpson was attacked in Mann Close.

Witness Mr Akintola, who was holding a promotional event for the housing association in Mann Close that day, agreed with defence counsel Sasha Wass QC that victim Sian Simpson was "angry and aggressive" and the fight was not one-sided.

He told the court of seeing Miss Simpson with a knife first, but could not say if it was the same one later used by Bennett.

Another witness, Beverley Wright, who watched the events from her balcony window, told the court she saw Bennett approach Miss Simpson and they started arguing. Bennett then punched Simpson several times, she said.

She later saw the defendant trip and fall into a kerbside puddle, causing a few of the girls to laugh at her.

Moments later, she passed between her friends towards the victim, who shortly after fell to the floor bleeding.

The witness broke down in court as she recalled seeing the teenager falling to the floor after being struck in the chest.

Between sobs, Miss Wright said: "She slid down the front of the car then I just saw her roll back on the pavement and I saw blood on her top."

A friend of Sian's then ran over in distress and was heard shouting, "look what you've done, look what you've done", as the girls ran off, the jury heard.

Police arrived at the scene just after 8pm to find a mass of young girls crowding round a Citroen Saxo car 'screaming and shouting at each other'.

'At the front of the car, lying on her right hand side on the pavement in a puddle of water was a black teenage girl,' said Mr Altman.

'A couple of people were crouching down by her side attempting to give first aid.

'This was Sian Simpson…she had been the victim of a single stab wound to the chest.'

The victim was taken to hospital but despite the work of paramedics and doctors nothing could be done and she was formally pronounced dead at 8.43pm.

Grilled by prosecutor Mr Altman, Bennett denies grinning after being seen making stabbing motions towards the dead girl's chest.

Bennett said her claim of finding the knife with which she stabbed the girl on the ground was "not nonsense".

Mr Altman said the teenager claimed she tried to disarm Sian and as she fell managed to pick up a knife that 'happened to be on the ground'.

'As she persisted in attacking her, in an effort to protect herself she the defendant stabbed Sian in the chest,' he said.

Bennett, formerly of Gilroy Court Hotel, London Road, Croydon, denies murder.