A 33-year-old security guard denies murdering East London grime rapper Hypo who was stabbed to death at a birthday party last year.
On Monday (August 24), a jury at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey, heard evidence that up to 500 people attended the event at an East London soccer club on June 2, 2022.
Prosecutors accused the defendant Laurie “Bigga” John-Phillip of an“unlawful attack” against the “unarmed” rapper, whose real name is Lamar Jackson, The Independent reports. CCTV showed an initial altercation between the victim and the defendant at around 10.30 p.m. Jurors were informed that the alleged attack was not caught on CCTV.
One witness reports seeing someone strike Jackson in the chest shortly after midnight. “I’ve been stabbed”, the witness recalled Hypo shouting.
Hypo is said to have initially dropped to the ground before exiting the venue “as quickly as he could.”
Despite the best efforts of paramedics who arrived at 12:22 a.m., Hypo was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. He was 32 years old. A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death as sharp force trauma to the chest.
John-Phillip was arrested in June 2022 and charged with murder and possession of a bladed article. He read a prepared statement in three interviews following his arrest insisting he “did not murder Lamar Jackson.”
However, he later admitted to killing Jackson but claims he acted in lawful self-defense.
“You can be sure and will be sure that this was an unlawful attack and that this was murder,” prosecutor Brian O’Neill KC told jurors.
