'Killed for his baseball cap'

Schoolboy Kieran Rodney-Davis was stabbed to death for his fashionable baseball cap, the Old Bailey heard today.

Kieran, 15, died from a single stab wound to the chest after he was confronted by a gang of three boys, also teenagers, the jury was told. As he was left to die the gang walked away laughing.

The schoolboy was a victim of three youths in their mid-to-late teens who roamed the streets as if "hunting in a pack", the court heard. They all had their faces covered, with the knifeman wearing a red bandanna.

Kieran had been to buy blank CDs from PC World in Fulham with a friend when he was confronted by the gang.

They demanded his mobile phone, snatched his distinctive black New Era fitted baseball cap and then a knife was thrust into his chest with "a single but deadly blow", the court heard.

"The first youth pulled Kieran's hat off. Kieran demanded it back. It was to be his downfall," Aftab Jafferjee, for the prosecution, told the court.

He showed jurors CCTV footage of Kieran leaving the computer store wearing the black hat moments before his death.

"There he is, sadly just moments away from losing his life," said Mr Jafferjee pointing at the screen.

Two of Kieran's alleged killers, who are both 17 and cannot be named for legal reasons, have denied murder and robbery on 23 June last year.

Neither of them is alleged to have actually wielded the knife, but were part of a joint enterprise, Mr Jafferjee said.

The youth who stabbed Kieran has never been traced but one of the two defendants in the dock passed him the knife.

The court heard that during the confrontation one youth asked: "Where are you going?" Kieran replied "Sullivan Court", the block of flats where he lived.

"What have you got?" he was asked. The reply was: "Nothing."

Then the second youth, who was to wield the knife and is described as "mixed race or Asian", said to Kieran's friend: "Give me the change" and he was handed £2. "Is that all you've got?" he demanded.

The first youth passed the knife to the second who threatened the two terrified boys. The first youth pulled Kieran's distinctive and expensive hat from his head and Kieran demanded it back.

Kieran was asked: "Do you want to get shanked?" [street jargon for stabbed].

He replied: "No, no, no." He was asked again and repeated the entreaty. He was then stabbed in the chest with a single, fatal blow. He staggered away but collapsed on nearby ground, within sight of his home.

Mr Jafferjee told jurors a witness saw the three walking along laughing afterwards. The knife had been wiped on leaves on a bush.

The gang culture and willingness to use knives is just another example of "the scourge of our times", the jury was told.

"This case highlights the scourge of our times, especially in relation to our towns and cities - the carrying of knives, even by youngsters in the school environment, and the formation of gangs who roam around together committing crime," Mr Jafferjee said.

"Each member of the gang is part of a joint enterprise - in good old-fashioned English 'in it together'. Each was feeding off each other, enabling them to behave in a way they are almost certainly unlikely to behave in if alone. It is the equivalent of hunting in a pack.

"It comforts them little to say 'I didn't put the knife in', especially when one of them hands the knife to the stabber."

The case continues.