Southwick boy 'threatened man with machete months before stabbing boy'

The boy was caught on CCTV slashing at a blue Transit van with a “20 inch machete” outside Portslade Station three months before he stabbed Mustafa Momand to death in Queen’s Road, Brighton.

The boy is also accused of throwing a claw hammer at the same van a month after the machete incident.

He was trying to attack convicted criminal Stephen Slark who lived near him in Southwick, Brighton Youth Court heard today.

Mustafa Momand died on October 5 (Image: Family handout)

Mr Slark, 47, was getting in his van when someone shouted “suck your mum” on July 18 last year.

“I could not do anything because he was 15,” he said.

"I went to drive off, I could not be bothered with a 15 year old. By then he pulled out a machete and hit my wing mirror. 

"I could see him panicking in the street in my wing mirror. He had no idea what to do. 

"In my own state of mind I was going to go back and hurt him but then I decided to call the police. That is my honest truth."

An eyewitness statement read in court said that Mr Slark drove back towards the defendant who ran away. 

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also threw a claw hammer at Mr Slark’s van as he was driving off on August 16, the court heard.

Two months later on October 5, he stabbed 17-year-old Mustafa Momand in the chest with a “force so severe” that it penetrated his breast bone and severed one of his pulmonary arteries.

The police cordon on the night of the attack on October 5 (Image: The Argus)

The defendant denies murder, threatening with a bladed article and threatening with an offensive weapon.

Balraj Bhatia, defending, accused Mr Slark of being a liar and said he "fabricated evidence against the defendant" for the hammer incident as he wanted to get local authorities to move his partner to new social housing away from where she lived, near the defendant.

Mr Bhatia said someone else threw the hammer at his van and described Mr Slark as a “thoroughly dishonest man”.

Mr Slark replied that he “used to be” dishonest. Mr Bhatia said his list of convictions were "offences of dishonesty".

The court heard that Mr Slark has 44 convictions for 119 offences all involving burglary from businesses, theft and handling stolen goods. His offences range from 1991 to 2019.

Mr Slark told the court he was not dishonest as he pleaded guilty to all of his 44 previous convictions.

"This was all part of your idea to try and fabricate evidence against him so you could move away somewhere else," Mr Bhatia said.

"Stephen Slark has been using the incident to move away from this address." 

There was no CCTV evidence of the hammer incident.

Mr Slark lived with his mother for a period in an area near the defendant’s address. He said by the time of the incident in August he lived in his Transit van.

The trial continues.