TAIRU JALLOW TRIAL: Kettering victim's blood found in defendant's car, court hears

Tairu Jallow's blood was found in the getaway car belonging to a defendant in the Kettering man's murder trial, the court was told at ongoing murder trial yesterday.
Tairu JallowTairu Jallow
Tairu Jallow

The 29-year-old Gambian national was killed in his house in Havelock Street on January 14, 2018.

Clever Makande, 24, Kausa Ceesay, 24, and Ngange Sowe, 30, are all from Birmingham, while Babacarr Sylva, 33, is from Nottingham. All have pleaded not guilty to murder and a second charge of conspiracy to rob.

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Prosecutor Claire Howell told the jury that Sylva was arrested in Bournemouth on February 2 last year after police traced his BMW.

In his car, which the prosecution say is one of the getaway cars used by the defendants after Mr Jallow's death, officers found 500g of cannabis.

A forensic examination revealed Mr Jallow's blood in a rear footwell of the BMW.

"We say the implication of finding Mr Jallow’s blood are obvious," Mrs Howell told the court.

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Tim Clark QC, for Sylva, told the jury his client had travelled to Kettering in the BMW on January 14.

He was in Northamptonshire to "discuss cannabis" with another man (not one of the defendants or Mr Jallow) and after the meeting received a call from Sowe, who asked for a lift to Birmingham.

Sowe gave Sylva a postcode and he pulled up in his BMW outside what turned out to be a Chinese takeaway, Mr Clark told the court.

After finding Sowe, he got into the car alongside a man known as 'T Boy' whom, Mr Clark said, his client did not know.

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"They said they needed to do something before going back to Birmingham," Mr Clark said.

Sylva was told to pull over and wait in Havelock Street and after five to 10 minutes Sowe got into the front of the BMW and T Boy in the back.

"T Boy was carrying a bag with a large quantity of cannabis," the jury heard.

"Both men were out of breath."

The men then travelled home and Sylva "became aware that something had happened but decided against saying anything about it" after an argument broke out in a flat in Birmingham.

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Sowe's barrister Lewis Power QC told the jury his client accepts he was in Kettering on January 14 where he travelled to from Birmingham to sell cannabis.

Mr Power said Sowe was meeting an associate further down Havelock Street and that he left Kettering with Makande.

"He didn't visit the address [Mr Jallow's home] and was not involved in any attack," Mr Power told the court.

Makande, who the prosecution say tried to sell his Audi in the days after the alleged murder, was in Kettering on January 14 to sell the vehicle, his barrister Joe Sidhu QC told the court.

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"You will have heard the prosecution say that these four men were part of a team and acted together to carry out these offences," said Mr Sidhu.

"He [Makande] does not accept he was part of any team, but he will accept that he was in the vicinity of where the offences took place.

"He was in his own car. From the prosecution's perspective, it is possible he may never have left the vehicle and Makande agrees.

"He was trying to sell his car in Kettering, in that neighbourhood; that was an unsuccessful sale."

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Adrian Eissa QC, defending Ceesay, told the court his client believed he had been "wrongly identified" by Mr Jallow's friend who was outside the Kettering man's home before he was killed.

The friend had spotted a group of men and called Mr Jallow to warn him.

His jacket was slashed after Mr Jallow opened the door; the court was played the 999 call made by Mr Jallow's friend after the stabbing.

"Mr Ceesay denies that he was present at or outside the house in Havelock Street or elsewhere in Kettering," said Mr Eissa.

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"He accepts that his phone appears to have travelled to Kettering and he wasn't with it at that time."

Mr Eissa said Ceesay lent his phone to a man known as 'Tiny' who kept hold of it or left it in the car or took to it to Sowe's home.

"He didn't see his phone again until later that evening after he returned to the flat," said Mr Eissa.

The trial continues.

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