Jodie Chesney killed in 'cowardly' drug turf war stabbing, court hears

Jodie was described in court as a ‘beautiful, well-liked, fun’ young woman who had nothing to do with drug dealing. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

A 17-year-old girl was killed in a “terrible and cowardly” stabbing after getting caught up in a drug turf war, a court has heard.

Jodie Chesney was with friends playing music and smoking cannabis in a park in Harold Hill, east London, when she was knifed in the back on 1 March. At about 9.20pm, her boyfriend noticed two figures coming towards them, the Old Bailey heard, and saw the taller of the pair swing his right arm at Jodie’s back.

Jodie screamed and the two figures disappeared, jurors were told. She had a deep wound to her back that bled heavily.

The court heard Jodie’s boyfriend, Eddie Coyle, caught her as she fell and eased her to the ground. Coyle, 18, was crying and screaming at Jodie to stay awake as he held her hand, the court was told. A resident heard her screams and came to help as her friends became “hysterical”, jurors heard.

By the time an ambulance arrived, Jodie showed no signs of life and was pronounced dead on the way to hospital.

The prosecutor, Crispin Aylett QC, told jurors that none of Jodie’s friends had had any idea who was responsible for the “terrible and cowardly” attack. Following national publicity, police made a “breakthrough” when a witness reported having seen two males getting into a stationary black Vauxhall Corsa.

A couple of hours after the killing, a black Corsa registered to the defendant Manuel Petrovic had been found abandoned about two miles away, Aylett said. Following his arrest, Petrovic, of Romford, admitted driving to Harold Hill with a friend and two others who had gone into the park to collect money and drugs. He denied knowing the pair were armed beforehand, the court heard.

Investigators identified Petrovic’s friend and the two others through CCTV footage and mobile phone data, jurors heard.

Petrovic, 20, Svenson Ong-a-kwie, 19, of Romford, and two youths aged 16 and 17 who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were subsequently charged with Jodie’s murder.

Aylett said Jodie was a “beautiful, well-liked, fun” young woman who had nothing to do with drug dealing and was unlikely to have been the intended target.

He told jurors: “The drug-dealing world is one of turf wars, rivalries and pathetic claims for ‘respect’. And when drug dealers fall out, they do not take their problems to the police. Instead, they take matters into their own hands, prepared to use serious violence in order to prove whatever point it is that they wish to make.

“The prosecution allege that all four defendants had gone together in Petrovic’s car to Harold Hill in order to mete out violence – – and not, as Petrovic has claimed, to collect money and drugs.

“If the prosecution are right in saying that Jodie Chesney was an entirely blameless individual who got caught up in some quarrel between drug dealers, then her murder was the terrible but predictable consequence of an all-too-casual approach to the carrying – and using – of knives.”

At the time of her death, Jodie was living with her father, Peter Chesney, her stepmother, Joanne, and her older sister Lucy in Dagenham. The Havering sixth-form college student had been studying three A-levels and was weeks away from completing her Duke of Edinburgh gold award.

The defendants, all allegedly involved in drug dealing, deny murder.