Nigerian man who killed CBBC presenter found guilty of murder

Jeffrey Okafor (left), who was only 18 when he stabbed Carl Beatson Asiedu (right) 19, outside a nightclub in Vauxhall, central London in August 2009 when a late-night row escalated into violence, has been found guilty of murder.

On the night Carl was killed, he was with friends and had performed a set at the Club Life nightclub near Vauxhall station.

Carl who was a DJ at the time, was outside the club when he and his friends were approached by a gang of clubbers, which included Okafor, and an argument broke out.The court heard that Carl became separated from his friends and it was at this time that he was stabbed by Okafor.

Within an hour of the attack, Okafor confessed in a phone call to his girlfriend that he had stabbed Carl, and days later he told the same woman that he had stabbed the DJ in the stomach. She said he gave her a pair of black gloves to look after which were later passed to police. DNA which may have come from the victim was found on one of the gloves.

Police arrived at his East Dulwich home on August 13, 2009 to arrest him but he was already in hiding and took a flight from Heathrow to Lagos using his brother's name and passport.

A post-mortem examination concluded the cause of Mr Beatson Asiedu's death was a single stab wound to the front of the chest.

Sarah Whitehouse QC, prosecuting, told Woolwich Crown Court that Okafor had no connection with his victim prior to the attack. She said "It is not clear, and will probably never be known, what led up to the killing of Carl Beatson by Jeffrey Okafor. You may hear that there was some ill-feeling between some members of the two groups, but there was nothing serious enough in the background for anyone to explain why knives should be drawn. What is clear, the prosecution say, is that Jeffrey Okafor was the man who killed him."

The prosecution said four days later Okafor boarded a flight from Heathrow Airport to Lagos using his brother's passport.

He was extradited from Nigeria in November last year.

Okafor pled not guilty to the murder but the jury took just two hours to convict  him in London yesterday - six years after Mr Beatson-Asiedu's death.

Judge Christopher Kinch QC will sentence him today.