A TEENAGER was stabbed to death after a gang members were accused of straying from their territory.

Charles Hendricks Jnr, known as CJ, died following a brawl near Walthamstow Central bus station.

A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is standing trial at the Old Bailey accused of murder.

The court heard that Mr Hendricks, of Walwood Road, Leyton, and friend Bradley Campbell, an associate of Leyton’s Beaumont Crew, had a run in with the defendant and three members of Walthamstow’s Priory Court gang.

Cr-ispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said Campbell confronted the Walthamstow gang, accusing of them of ‘slipping’, or entering another gang’s territory.

Mr Aylett said Campbell, whose street name is 'Younger', suggested the group move away from the well-lit bus station to the grassed area near The Mall.

He said: “Within minutes, CJ had been stabbed twice in the chest, sustaining injuries that were fatal. Within one hour he was dead.

“Mr Campbell has much to answer for. He started this by going up to them at the bus station.”

Mr Aylett told the court that Mr Campbell has been convicted of stabbing one of the defendants' friends, known as 'Deaders', in the shoulder and back.

He will be sentenced at the end of the month.

A police search of the area following the bloodshed uncovered three knives, one covered in CJ Hendricks' blood, one with Deader's DNA and a third with the DNA of one of the defendants' friends.

Mr Aylett said: “The presence of three knives suggests that a number, if not all, of those in the park must have realised what was likely to happen – a knife fight.

“Like so many of its kind, it illustrates the madness of young people walking the streets with lethal weapons.

“In this case, one of each side got stabbed. One died, one was lucky. No one going into the park could claim to be defending themselves.”

Mr Aylett, told the court that the defendant, who denies murder, told a friend immediately after the stabbing that he had killed Mr Hendricks in self-defence.

He said it was not clear whether Mr Hendricks was a member of the Beaumont Crew, but he was associated with the gang through Mr Campbell.

The defendant denies being a gang member, but two of his friends with him that night admitted that they were.

The trial continues.