Man jailed for killing student over fake Rolex row

A student who stabbed his former friend through the heart in Leicester after they fell out over a fake Rolex watch has been found guilty of manslaughter and jailed.

Harper Dennis, 19, plunged a knife five times into the chest of Khaleed Oladipo, 20, near De Montfort University in Leicester on the evening of February 3 this year.

A jury at Leicester Crown Court found Dennis not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, having an offensive weapon and failing to provide the pin to his phone after a two-week trial on Tuesday.

Dennis, of Bath Lane, Leicester, was sentenced to a total of 10 years' imprisonment.

Prosecutor Jane Osborne KC told the jury Dennis killed Oladipo, who he made friends with through online gaming, because of a "perceived debt".

The trial heard their friendship soured after an unsuccessful attempt by Dennis to sell a fake Rolex given to him by Oladipo.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC told Dennis, who wore a dark suit in the dock, he had developed a "seething resentment" towards the victim.

He said: "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."

He added: "The background is murky. You and Khaleed were certainly known to each other. You were probably, at times, pretty friendly.

"The moral high ground is simply not open to you. You have painted yourself as wronged, but the reality is 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."

The judge said both Dennis and Oladipo had their "lives ahead of you".

He said: "This is not a case of a single desperate stab wound – this is one of five thrusts of the knife. You knew you had something serious in mind because you covered your face immediately before."

Oladipo's sister Precious Oladipo said in a victim impact statement that their mother had become withdrawn because she was "so unwell with grief".

She said: "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. She mumbles that she sent Khaleed off to university, as she always did after the holidays, and he simply never came home."

She added: "The home we shared that was once full of laughter is now largely silent.

"Khaleed will not graduate, he will not see his 21st birthday, which he had been so looking forward to. Every future milestone will now be marked by his absence instead of his presence.

"We are bereft, there is no joy or happiness in our home. We move through life monotonously.

"No-one is okay."

At about 17:00 GMT on the night he died, Oladipo left his girlfriend's flat carrying a plastic bag of leftover snacks and was on the phone to her while he walked back to his accommodation nearby to watch football.

But outside the De Montfort University's Innovation Centre, he was met by Dennis who was captured on CCTV walking up and down in the "busy" area.

"It took less than 30 seconds for the two men to come together, to struggle and for the defendant to leave," Osborne told the court.

The court was told Oladipo's girlfriend heard him say "why did you come up and stab me?" over the phone before asking for her to call the ambulance.

A post-mortem examination showed he had suffered six wounds, five to the chest including one which penetrated his heart, and one to his thumb.

Despite being taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary, he was pronounced dead just over an hour after the stabbing, which took place near the DMU campus.

Giving evidence in his defence on Wednesday, Dennis said he was "fearful" for his life when Oladipo approached him with a knife, adding he was "wrestling" to prevent the 20-year-old from stabbing him.

In cross-examination, prosecutor Jane Osborne KC asked if Dennis knew he had stabbed Oladipo, to which he replied: "I didn't know and I didn't know he was hurt, and I didn't intend to cause any serious harm."

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Oladipo and Dennis walking towards each other, with Osborne suggesting Dennis used his hands to open a folding knife.

Dennis denied the suggestion he had a knife in his possession, and said he did not leave his accommodation with one.

Addressing Dennis, the prosecutor said there was "bad feeling" between Dennis and Oladipo - and suggested Dennis left his accommodation with a knife "to settle it".

Dennis, who was a first-year business management student at the University of Leicester, told jurors he had been talking to Oladipo - who was in his third year at DMU - about money and "doing fraud".

He said: "Khaleed initiated it - saying that there are ways you can make money, and with these methods you will gain large amounts of profit through it, through these websites."

Dennis said he wanted to "make some profit", so sent Oladipo £6,000 - from his savings and money his parents had given him - but did not get his money back.

The defendant said Oladipo gave him a Rolex watch. Dennis added: "He said that the watch is real and you will be able to sell it and make the money back from it."

Dennis, the court heard, took the watch to a jewellers in Hatton Garden in Camden, London, and "was laughed at".

"Two jewellers looked at the watch, they examined it and realised it was fake," Dennis said.

"It made me feel a bit annoyed, bit kind of disappointed in Khaleed that he let me down."

Dennis, who told the court he had a gambling addiction, said he threatened to expose Oladipo online as someone who "can't be trusted" and a "bad businessman".

Det Insp Lorna Granville, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Major Crime Team, said: "It's a shocking set of circumstances and quite rightly, and expectedly, creates a huge impact on the student community.

"This is not deep entrenched criminality.

"What it appears is two young men with their lives ahead of them have had a falling out and one has reacted, I would say, completely disproportionately and unnecessarily to exact some retribution".

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