Leicester student jailed for 10 years after fatal stabbing over fake Rolex

Harper Dennis, 19, was convicted of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court after stabbing Khaleed Oladipo five times near De Montfort University.

Student convicted of manslaughter following fake Rolex dispute in Leicester

A 19-year-old student who stabbed his former friend through the heart near De Montfort University in Leicester has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison, BBC News reports.

Harper Dennis plunged a knife five times into the chest of Khaleed Oladipo, 20, on Oxford Street in Leicester on the evening of 3 February this year. A jury at Leicester Crown Court returned a not guilty verdict on the charge of murder but convicted Dennis of manslaughter, possession of an offensive weapon, and failing to provide the pin to his phone following a two-week trial.

Dennis, of Bath Lane, Leicester, was a first-year business management student at the University of Leicester at the time of the killing. Oladipo was in his third year at De Montfort University.

A friendship built online, ended in violence

Prosecutor Jane Osborne KC told the jury that Dennis killed Oladipo — a man he had met through online gaming — over a "perceived debt". Their friendship deteriorated after Dennis attempted to sell a fake Rolex watch that Oladipo had given him, an effort that ended in embarrassment at a Hatton Garden jewellers in London.

Dennis told the court he had transferred £6,000 to Oladipo — drawn from his savings and money given to him by his parents — in connection with what he described as online fraud schemes. He said Oladipo had told him: "There are ways you can make money, and with these methods you will gain large amounts of profit through it, through these websites."

When the money was not returned, Oladipo gave Dennis the Rolex as partial compensation. Dennis said he took it to two jewellers, both of whom identified it as a fake. "It made me feel a bit annoyed, bit kind of disappointed in Khaleed that he let me down," Dennis told the court.

"Five separate applications of the knife"

Sentencing Dennis on Tuesday, Judge Timothy Spencer KC said he had developed a "seething resentment" towards the victim. He told Dennis he had known "something serious" was in mind, noting that he covered his face immediately before the confrontation.

"You took a knife to the fight, you used it — this was not a one-off thrust of the knife but five separate applications, and it should have been obvious to you this carried a high risk of serious harm," Spencer said.

The judge added that neither Dennis nor Oladipo occupied any moral high ground. "The financial transactions in this case were all to do with scams. This money was designed to fund criminal activity. The dispute between the two of you was further fuelled by him providing a Rolex watch which you viewed as some part compensation for your losses, that turned out to be fake and that did not assuage your bitterness."

Final moments

At approximately 17:00 GMT on the night he died, Oladipo left his girlfriend's flat carrying a plastic bag of leftover snacks while speaking to her on the phone as he walked back to his nearby accommodation to watch football. Outside De Montfort University's Innovation Centre, he encountered Dennis, who had been captured on CCTV pacing the area beforehand.

Osborne told the court it took fewer than 30 seconds for the two men to come together, struggle, and for Dennis to flee. Oladipo's girlfriend heard him say "why did you come up and stab me?" over the phone before he asked her to call an ambulance.

A post-mortem examination found six wounds in total — five to the chest, including one that penetrated the heart, and one to the thumb. Oladipo was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary, where he was pronounced dead just over an hour after the stabbing.

Defence rejected

Giving evidence, Dennis claimed he had been "fearful" for his life and said he was "wrestling" to prevent Oladipo from stabbing him. He denied leaving his accommodation with a knife and told the court he did not know Oladipo had been hurt and had not intended to cause serious harm.

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the two men walking towards each other. Osborne suggested the footage showed Dennis using his hands to open a folding knife — a suggestion Dennis denied.

"He simply never came home"

Oladipo's sister Precious read a victim impact statement describing the effect of her brother's death on their family. Their mother, she said, had become withdrawn and "so unwell with grief".

"The loss of a child is brain-altering. He was, in every sense, her light and joy and losing him has hollowed her out. She cries every single day, including at her workplace, the hospital."

Precious said her brother would not graduate, would not reach his 21st birthday — which he had been looking forward to — and that every future milestone would now be marked by his absence. "We are bereft, there is no joy or happiness in our home. We move through life monotonously," she said.

Judge Spencer acknowledged that both Dennis and Oladipo had had "their lives ahead of them" at the time of the fatal encounter.

Source: BBC News