Vaso Kakko murder: Canonbury teen’s killer found guilty

Vaso Kakko’s murderer is facing life in prison after today being convicted of stabbing the Canonbury teen to death in Holloway.

Uchechukwu Ejimonye, 20, of Holloway, was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey following a seven-day trial. He will be sentenced tomorrow.

Det Insp Mick Norman from the Met’s homicide and major crime command said: “What started as an evening out with friends quickly escalated into a moment of extreme violence.

“While it is unclear what led Ejimonye to fatally stab Vaso, it is obvious to most people that there is never any excuse to take someone else’s life.”

Chukwu, also known by his street name Realz, stabbed Vaso just before 8.45pm on November 23, in a small community garden off Yoke Close on the Shearling Way Estate, Holloway.

The 6cm-deep neck wound severed his jugular and ceratoid veins and his voice box, and would have “bled rapidly and quickly become life-threatening”, jurors were told last week.

Another 9cm wound to Vaso’s lower back, which Ejimonye conceded he must have inflicted even though he claimed he did not remember doing so, also contributed to his collapse.

Paramedics and the Air Ambulance tried to save the former Mary Magdelene student’s life at the scene but he was dead within 35 minutes.

In evidence on Tuesday, drug dealer Ejimonye said he had acted in self-defence after Vaso pulled a knife on him and threatened to “make him dumb” with a baseball bat.

He added he did not realise how seriously he had wounded the boy.