Tyrese Osei-Kofi: Teen Facing Jail For Stabbing His Friend Leaving Him Blind And Paralysed During Petty Row
A teenager identified as Tyrese Osei-Kofi, 18, faces jail after he pulled out a knife and attacked his friend Jamel Boyce, 17, leaving him blind and paralysed. It’s understood the victim was knifed in the heart during a petty row only moments after they left McDonald’s where they were captured on CCTV, laughing and joking together.
According to reports, Jamel who was nicknamed Smiley by fellow pupils at St Francis Xavier sixth form college in south London, suffered permanent damage to his brain after it was starved of oxygen. It’s gathered the victim is most likely to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life and needs 24-hour care at an acute rehabilitation unit.
However, Tyrese claims he isn’t responsible for the attack and that someone else stabbed the teenager at the rear of a Sainsbury’s store in Clapham High Street. He’s been cleared of attempted murder but convicted of the lesser alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following a trial at the Old Bailey.
On October 14 2016, at around 2.30,Jamel met up with Osei-Kofi at McDonalds in Clapham after leaving St Francis Xavier. He then hung out with Osei-Kofi at McDonalds in Clapham. Both teens did not have any issues as at then. It’s gathered Jamel then left to meet a mutual friend of theirs in Wandsworth Road while Osei-Kofi met up with two of his friends. In the evening at around, 7pm, both groups met up near the back of Sainsbury’s in Clapham High Street. Later, a witness claimed to have heard someone shouting, ‘You think you are a f***ing big man.’ Another saw Jamel Boyce falling face first on the ground while three youths walked away. The witness grabbed a tire iron and ordered one of the youths to call for an ambulance.
The court also heard that Osei-Kofi was still at the scene as the 999 call was made but then left before police arrived. The victim had suffered one stab wound to the thigh and a fatal wound to the chest which pierced his lung and the right ventricle of his heart. Even though an air ambulance flew to the scene, Jamel’s brain was already starved of oxygen before doctors could restart his heart.
Osei-Kofi handed himself in at Brixton police station on 20 October following a public appeal for information.
Osei-Kofi, of Glennie Court, East Dulwich, southeast London, denied attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding with intent.
The victim’s father, Patrick Boyce, has spoken out against the ‘epidemic’ of knife crime in the capital, saying: ‘It’s like demons have taken over the youth of today.’
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