Court hears claims 19-year-old received a phonecall requesting the weapon
The teenage son of a social worker accused of supplying the sawn-off shotgun for a train station shooting was only dealing cannabis, a court heard.
Jurors at Blackfriars Crown Court were told Joseph Mene-Otubu, 19, from Stonebridge, was said to have answered a call from a 16-year-old telling him to ‘bring the ting’, meaning the gun.
The 27-year-old victim from south London was allegedly targeted for straying onto the Stonebridge Estate.
The court heard he was chased into Harlesden Train Station by at least four youths, including a 17-year-old girl.
The victim was making his way back home after playing in a crime prevention football match in Stonebridge when a group of youngsters including a 16-year-old aggressor warned him off his patch, it is said.
The same boy is said to have telephoned the 19-year-old to come with the gun, telling him: “Bring it now, bring the ting.”
Judith Benson, defending Mene-Otubu, told the jury they could not be sure the person on the other end was her client because just a minute later the boy was on the phone to another associate.
She said there were a string of calls between Mene-Otubu and the 16-year-old throughout that day, and it was ‘about cannabis’.
Ms Benson described Mene-Otubu as a churchgoer who has a ‘good relationship with his mother, a social worker’.
Mene-Otubu denies intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an indictable only offence, namely the provision of a firearm.
A 16-year-old boy, two 17-year-old boys and a 17-year-old girl, none of who can be named for legal reasons, deny attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
The girl also denies perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
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