‘Lured into a terrifying trap’: Man, 21, who fatally stabbed Tommy Boom in a dark Northampton park claims he thought he was going to be killed or seriously hurt

Mr Boom sadly died in Miller’s Meadow in Semilong on 18 July, just after midnight, after he was stabbed by 21-year-old Daniel Larman from Birmingham.

After a week into the trial, the defence opened its case today at Northampton Crown Court, with defence lawyer Mr Magarian outlining their self-defence argument.

Addressing the jury of nine women and three men, Mr Magarian said, "I am only too keenly aware that the 12 of you will find my client’s drug-dealing activities pretty repulsive. We just ask you to keep an open mind when you approach the evidence you're about to hear.

"The issue in this case—there is only one—and that is self-defence. The fact he (Larman) is a drug dealer, dealing unpleasant drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, will predispose you against him, quite rightly. But he is as entitled as anyone else to defend himself if he was under attack.

"It’s not about drug dealing; it’s about those few minutes at the park when he was lured into a terrifying trap... and he was lured. They didn’t choose to go to the park to be violent; they didn’t realise what they were walking into. So, keep an open mind. You must put aside the unattractiveness of his lifestyle. Quite simply, we say to you that if he hadn’t taken out that knife and done what he did, he himself might have been the dead party. It’s up to the Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that my client was not acting in self-defence."

Larman took the stand in a blue suit, glasses, and braided hair while his family and Mr Boom's family watched on.

The court heard how Larman's drug-dealing life began in 2020 during the pandemic, when he began to 'fall away' from his football academy course at college and started dealing cannabis.

He then started selling harder drugs and continued to do so because the money he made was 'attractive'.

The court also heard that Larman has a history of carrying knives. Explaining this, he said, "After I dropped out of college, a lot of friends I associated with started getting stabbed. I just wanted to fit in with the rest of the crowd."

"Did you want to attack someone?" he was asked. "No, I had a lot of friends who got attacked with knives. I didn’t want to be a victim of a stabbing, so I would carry a knife out of fear."

The court heard how Larman had been stabbed himself after being set up by one of his 'friends,' who got him into a car while one man held him down and his friend stabbed him twice in the arm.

His lawyer asked: "What effect did this have on you?" Larman responded, "I was very nervous about going out. I didn’t know who to trust. If I did go out, I had to go out accompanied by my parents and so on."

The court heard that Larman had been staying with co-accused Kieran Okocha-Sleight at Paget House for two to three months before the stabbing of Boom.

Asked what he was doing there, Larman said, "We were selling drugs," and that they had 80 to 90 people on a mobile phone contact list.

Asked if he had met Tommy Boom before the incident, Larman said, "No, I hadn’t. Yes, I had heard of him. Various users informed us that Tommy would rob drug dealers. My friend Bailey also told us of a time Tommy had robbed him. Bailey said that Tommy robbed £80k in cash."

When asked what he understood about Boom, Larman said, "A robber of drug dealers. Even my co-accused had told us of another incident where he was robbed by Boom at knife-point at Dallington Park."

The court heard that at the end of June, Okocha-Sleight had been robbed by Boom. Larman explained, "He [Kieran Okocha-Sleight] explained to me how he and another friend were at Dallington Park when Tommy and another person produced knives and made them hand over all their belongings."

Asked how people felt about Boom, Larman said that his friend, who is due to take the stand, had been robbed by Boom before but was "scared for their reputation to go to the police about it and the repercussions of doing that."

On the night of the stabbing, Larman and Okocha-Sleight left Paget House at 11.30 pm to see if they could 'find more drug users to try and expand the drug phone contact list' around the town.

Larman admitted to carrying a knife, as he did "every day," describing it as a large hunting knife bought at an unnamed shop in Northampton town centre.

Explaining why he had a knife, Larman said: "In case someone tries to cause serious harm to me, I am able to produce it to scare them off and get away."

The court also heard from an eyewitness, a homeless drug user, who was with Tommy Boom that night. The witness rang the pair’s drug phone intending to trap them at the park so Boom could rob them.

During that call, the drug user said she would repay the £40 debt she owed them and that she had £100 to purchase more drugs.

Larman and Okocha-Sleight made their way to Semilong Park. Asked if he had any idea he was going to encounter someone else, Larman responded: "No."

Upon arriving at the park, Larman said he could not make out what was around him because of how dark it was. He and Okocha-Sleight began talking to the homeless woman, but she did not give them the money.

They spoke for around 20 seconds. Larman said, "I was quite anxious and nervous. I thought, 'What’s going on?' She wasn’t paying, and was acting differently than usual, she would normally smoke with us there."

Then, from behind him, Larman said, "Tommy Boom came out of the bushes and jumped in front of me. I hadn’t seen him before." When Boom shouted, "Yo, what you doing shotting around here?" Larman said he was 'terrified'.

He said, "I knew I must have been on someone else’s patch and I thought, 'This must be Tommy Boom, because people have told me about him going around robbing dealers.' I started sweating, and my heart started beating when Boom jumped out."

Larman said he then told Boom to "**** off." He said that Boom came out with his hands down, and Larman thought he had a weapon, although he didn't see one.

At that point, Larman said another person, known as ‘Amazon’, who was behind him, said, "Shall I slap it?" which Larman understood to mean "shoot."

As soon as Amazon said that, Larman turned around and found himself "boxed in" by Boom and Amazon, he told the court.

Asked if he wanted this confrontation, Larman replied: "Not at all. I simply wanted to go there, sell drugs, and go back."

At this point, Larman had not yet produced his knife but told the court he felt 'trapped and scared' and that he 'didn't know what would happen to him.'

Amazon had made references to having a firearm, and Larman said that when Amazon reached toward his waistband, he reacted by running to escape.

"I was running to the left of Tommy Boom when he grabbed my arm," Larman said.

When asked what was going through his mind when Boom grabbed his arm, Larman said: "I didn’t know if he was holding me to stab me or holding me there for his friend Amazon to shoot me and cause me serious harm. I had been stabbed before, and I was held in a position for someone else to stab me."

Larman said he just wanted to get Boom off him so he could get out of the park as quickly as possible.

He said: "I thought I was going to get killed or seriously hurt, either by Amazon shooting me or Tommy stabbing me."

It was then, Larman said, that he reached for his waistband and swung his knife in Boom's direction.

"I didn’t aim for any part of his body. I didn’t know how much force I used. I just wanted him to get off me. My only intention was for him to get off me. I didn’t intend to cause him death or serious harm. I was worried I might get killed." He added, "I hadn’t threatened him."

Tommy then let go of Larman and died a short while later as Larman and Okocha-Sleight ran off with Amazon chasing them out of the park.

During the incident, the jury heard Okocha-Sleight was sat on a bench with the homeless woman for the entirety of it.

The trial continues.