Student who stabbed former friend through the heart over fake Rolex dispute guilty of manslaughter
Harper Dennis, 19, was found not guilty of murder over the attack that occurred in February
A teenager who stabbed his former friend through the heart near a university campus after they fell out over a fake Rolex watch has been found guilty of manslaughter.
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Harper Dennis, 19, stabbed cybersecurity student Khaleed Oladipo, 20, five times on February 3 this year. Oladipo died in hospital that night.
The attack, which took place on Oxford Street near De Montfort University’s Innovation Centre in Leicester was captured on dashcam footage.
A jury at Leicester Crown Court found Dennis guilty of manslaughter, having an offensive weapon and failing to provide the Pin to his phone. The jury did not find him guilty of murder.
Read more: LIVE updates: Murder probe in Leicester as De Montfort University student dies in stabbing
Prosecutor Jane Osborne KC told the jury Dennis killed Mr Oladipo - whom he made friends with through online gaming - because of a “perceived debt”.
Mr Oladipo was on his way home before the attack to watch Arsenal's Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
He was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time of the attack, who heard him say “Why did you come up to me and stab me?”
Dennis made two calls to Mr Oladipo’s girlfriend Shekeizah Fowler-Palmer on Christmas Day last year and said her boyfriend was a “bad guy”.
In his evidence, Dennis told the court he feared for his life and was acting in self-defence when Mr Oladipo approached him with a knife.
He said he did not know he had stabbed Mr Oladipo during their fight and he was “shocked” when he was arrested on suspicion of murder at his accommodation later that evening.
After the fatal attack, Dennis left the scene and gave a bag of clothes to his flatmate.
Dennis told jurors he had sent Mr Oladipo £6,000 of savings, given to him by his parents, to make money by scamming people.
The defendant said he did not receive his money back, so Mr Oladipo gave him a Rolex watch, telling him it was real and he could sell it.
Dennis told the court: “I went to Hatton Garden to sell the watch. I went to the jewellery shop. Two jewellers looked at the watch, they examined it and realised it was fake.
“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 Mr Oladipo online as someone who “can’t be trusted” and a “bad businessman”.
Speaking before the verdict, Detective Inspector 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”.
Speaking about Mr Oladipo’s family, she said: “They are grieving. They are slowly realising that potentially this was over a silly dispute and they have to live with the loss of that for eternity and they are struggling to come to terms with that.”
Mr Oladipo’s family said at the time of the attack: “We cannot begin to put into words how sad we are to have lost Khaleed. He was an extremely loved son, brother, uncle, boyfriend and friend.
"Khaleed was a good boy who loved his family. He was in his second year at university, and we were so proud of him."
Dennis, of North Road in West Drayton, London, will be sentenced later on Tuesday.