A student has been found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing his friend through the heart near a university campus in Leicester, following a dispute over a fake Rolex watch.
Harper Dennis, 19, was convicted on Tuesday (August 25) at Leicester Crown Court of manslaughter, having an offensive weapon and failing to provide the Pin to his phone. He was found not guilty of murder.
The stabbing killed Khaleed Oladipo, 20, near De Montfort University on the evening of February 3.
Falling out over a perceived debt
Prosecutor Jane Osborne KC told the jury that Dennis killed Mr Oladipo, who he had befriended through online gaming, because of a “perceived debt”.
Both men were in Oxford Street near De Montfort University’s Innovation Centre when the attack happened, which was captured on dashcam footage. After the fatal attack, Dennis left the scene and gave a bag of clothes to his flatmate.
Mr Oladipo was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time of the attack, who heard him say “Why did you come up to me and stab me?”.
Defendant's account
The court heard Dennis made two calls to Mr Oladipo’s girlfriend on Christmas Day last year, during which he told her that her boyfriend was a “bad guy”.
In his evidence, Dennis said he feared for his life and was acting in self-defence when Mr Oladipo approached him with a knife. He told the court he did not know he had stabbed Mr Oladipo during their fight and was “shocked” when he was arrested on suspicion of murder at his accommodation later that evening.
Dennis said he had sent Mr Oladipo £6,000 of savings, given to him by his parents, to make money by scamming people. He said he did not receive his money back, so Mr Oladipo gave him a Rolex watch, telling him it was real and he could sell it.
Dennis said: “I went to Hatton Garden to sell the watch. I went to the jewellery shop. Two jewellers looked at the watch, they examined it and realised it was fake. It made me feel a bit annoyed, bit kind of disappointed in Khaleed that he let me down.”
Impact on the community
Dennis, who told the court he had a gambling addiction, said he threatened to expose Mr Oladipo online as someone who “can’t be trusted” and a “bad businessman”.
Dennis, of North Road in West Drayton, London, will be sentenced later on Tuesday.
Speaking before the verdict, Detective Inspector Lorna Granville, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Major Crime Team, said: “It’s a shocking set of circumstances and quite rightly, and expectedly, creates a huge impact on the student community.
“This is not deep entrenched criminality. What it appears is two young men with their lives ahead of them have had a falling out and one has reacted, I would say, completely disproportionately and unnecessarily to exact some retribution”.
Speaking about Mr Oladipo’s family, she said: “They are grieving. They are slowly realising that potentially this was over a silly dispute and they have to live with the loss of that for eternity and they are struggling to come to terms with that.”
