It was about shame. Hassan Sentamu’s burning shame. The shame he felt as he was humiliated in the middle of a shopping centre by a group of girls. And the shame he will carry forever – for ending the life of 15-year-old Elianne Andam.
Tall and wiry, with his shirt tucked into a silky pair of gym shorts hanging over his dark suit trousers, Sentamu was the picture of an overgrown boy – stubbornly hanging his head behind the dock, his long black tie swinging into his lap. With his eyes barely rising above the glass panel, at times, his only visible emotion was the force of his left hand on a green stress ball. The bandage on his right hand suggested an even fiercer rage, but it barely surfaced throughout the trial.
Recovering from the toll of a six-hour daily round trip from Milton Keynes, Sentamu made frequent exits from the back of Court 15. Sometimes, he would peer through the window, spying on notebooks and phones on the press bench. Once, he even asked, ‘What are you doing?’, perhaps curious about how he might look to the rest of the world.
But only during the prosecution’s closing speech, an incisive takedown of Sentamu and his pathologies, did he finally appear to froth and burn. Barely a minute after sitting down, Sentamu stood up and marched out – clenched fists barely concealing his apoplexy. Perhaps the jury also saw this anger and his ability to control it.
And then the verdict came… guilty.
READ MORE: Hassan Sentamu found GUILTY of murder after stabbing Elianne Andam to death
A woman lays flowers at the scene of Elianne Andam’s killing on Wellesley Road in Croydon
(Image: Carl Court/Getty Images)
Beatings at boarding school
People with difficult upbringings would be ‘actively offended’ by the idea it was a defence to murder, prosecutor Alex Chalk KC told the jury during his closing speech. It was both an acknowledgement of Sentamu’s brutal childhood, and the contention that violence can never be the answer.
Unfortunately, the trial heard evidence violence was a language Sentamu internalised from an early age – witnessing it at home, through beatings at boarding school, and in his actions towards others and himself.
Hassan Cutham Sentamu was born in Uganda on September 6, 2006. His mother fled the country when he was three years old after reporting beatings by Sentamu’s father. After joining his mother in the UK at the age of five, Sentamu was sent back to Uganda aged 11 to attend a primary boarding school where he lasted only four months.
There, Sentamu says he was thumped with a metal pole and fell down the stairs while running away from a teacher. The injury to his knee required surgery, so he returned to the UK.
Back in the UK – and aged just 11 years old – Sentamu disclosed feeling suicidal for the first time.
Hassan Sentamu reported beatings at school and accused his mother of trying to strangle him
(Image: MPS)
Teachers at Heavers Farm Primary School in South Norwood watched Sentamu smash his head against tables and walls, cut himself, and begin to dish out violence, slapping and pushing the heads of other children. It was the first time on record that anyone recognised Sentamu might pose a risk to others.
In November 2018, at Sentamu’s next school, The Quest Academy in South Croydon, he brought a knife to a lesson, pointed it at his own chest, and told the teacher he wanted to kill himself. He was disarmed by staff, referred to mental health services, and later received a police caution.
A month later, Sentamu, aged 12, was placed in care after a social worker found him home alone and was unable to reach his mum or sisters. It transpired his mum had packed a bag for him, and she told social workers to ‘take him away’.
Sentamu claimed she had attempted to strangle and beat him and smashed up his game console – something she denies. A teacher also reported him arriving two hours early for school, in freezing conditions without a coat. Sentamu’s mother said he was ‘beyond her control’ and she could not control his time on the console. It would be three years before his return home.
During this time, Sentamu’s foster mother witnessed his rage, including threats to chop off the cat’s tail. He continued to talk about suicide, she said, drank shower gel and reached for a kitchen knife.
Things also went badly at school, where on a trip to a farm in April 2019, Sentamu threatened another pupil with a knife. He later said it was in retaliation to mockery, and he felt like the teachers were not helping him.
After another referral to mental health services, Sentamu was excluded and placed into Saffron Valley Collegiate Pupil Referral Unit in Central Croydon. Here, staff reported him throwing things, slapping and punching pupils, and spitting at a teacher.
Then, in May 2019, Sentamu returned to mainstream education, enrolling at St Mary’s Catholic High School in West Croydon. He continued to act out – including a stab threat with scissors in July 2019 and headlocks on girls in December 2019 – but he also met his best friend.
After his Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis in July 2019, Sentamu’s foster mum noticed an improvement in his behaviour. Then, after moving to The Write Time SEN school and being put on an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), Sentamu was able to return to his mother. A year later, she called the police to say he was covering his room in washing-up liquid.
In August 2023, Sentamu returned to mainstream education again, enrolling at Croydon College. There were no recorded incidents of violence here, but Sentamu was still feeling suicidal.
Texting a friend in early September, he wrote: “I break down every single night sometimes I walk outside with a smile on my face but inside I feel as if I can’t even live anymore everyday I contemplate suicide…
“Whenever you see me it’s never really me it’s a persona I put on the real me is evil, dark and miserable…
“Asking for help is easy but getting the right support or even anything is impossible no one can help me I am lost and confused I don’t know what to do anymore.”
The Whitgift Centre water incident
In June 2023, Sentamu’s best friend, a boy he had known since Year 8, introduced him to the girl who would become his girlfriend. She knew about Sentamu’s anger issues but had never seen them for herself. Instead, she saw Sentamu’s affectionate side – writing love-letters and gifting her a Hello Kitty bag.
But in September 2023, that romance soured and Sentamu told the girl ‘ur energy is dead’. In a phone call between the two later that evening, Sentamu told her to ‘shut the f**k up’. An outburst that proved a sticking point in the days to come.
After agreeing it was over, the former lovers began planning to exchange their items – including a ‘dumb little bear’ that Sentamu threatened to withhold if his stuff was not returned. Counselling her friend over Skype messages, Elianne wrote ‘he’s so rude’.
On September 26, Sentamu agreed to meet his former girlfriend at the Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon. He was joined by two boys, while his ex came along with five girls, including Elianne.
CCTV from the shopping centre showed them initially facing off alone, with Sentamu’s former girlfriend asking him to apologise for his outburst. Later in the footage, the girls rallied around their friend, urging her to stand up for herself. They were ‘schooling him’, as one girl put it.
One of the girls recorded a Snapchat video while they were ‘schooling’ Hassan Sentamu:
Defence counsel Pavlos Panayi KC called it ‘mockery, laughter, and humiliation’ as the girls dished out insults, calling Sentamu cross-eyed, shaming him for his time at an SEN school, and threatening to throw water on him.
Having had some anger management training, Sentamu stood there with his arms crossed and handed over his electronics to a friend in case the water was thrown.
That water was eventually thrown, but not before an exchange recorded on a Snapchat video taken by one of the girls – only admitted into evidence a couple of months before the trial after the video taker failed to mention it during her police interview.
“Ugh, he’s ugly” and “Oh f**king hell”, the girls are heard saying, followed by “meeeeedy” – slang for ugly – and cries of “wet him”. Then Elianne comes in: “What if there was acid in that bottle? What would you do then? It’s not acid, but what if it was? You would accept it, because you can’t say a simple word?”
Sentamu nodded when he was asked if he would rather get wet than say sorry. After walking away, the girls pursued him downstairs and threw water at him again.
A girl throwing water on Hassan Sentamu at the Whitgift Centre on September 26:
Sentamu would later claim there were threats to send people to his home, hurt his family, and destroy his property. But jurors heard no evidence of this, all the witnesses flatly denied it, and Sentamu chose not to take the stand.
While the girls said Sentamu appeared ‘unphased’ by the teasing, later that night, he texted his best friend to say he had been made to look like a ‘fool’ and a ‘d**k head’.
Then, according to Mr Chalk, came ‘the most chilling words in this trial’.
Brooding on the insults, Sentamu wrote: “I can’t let this slide bro.”
Sensing anger, Sentamu’s friend replied back: “This is your life. Don’t mess the chances in your life. Don’t do anything dumb.”
The stabbing
Sentamu, then aged 17, woke up early on September 27, 2023, putting on gloves, a Covid mask, and three layers of clothes. Taking a knife from under the kitchen sink, he slid it into his waistband and took the bus towards Croydon.
Sentamu had agreed to meet his ex-girlfriend at a car park in the town centre before school – an exchange of items and the definitive end to their relationship.
Surrounded by her entourage, including Elianne, the girl handed over Sentamu’s possessions, including a Tesco bag containing his love letters, but he had arrived empty-handed.
Initially ‘unbothered’ when she repeatedly asked ‘Where’s my teddy?’ Sentamu then delivered a message Mr Chalk said was ‘laden with threat’.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.
It was already obvious to her that something was wrong. Sentamu had never worn gloves and a mask. The temperature did not demand it. She was reminded of the Netflix drama Top Boy where a character in black gloves usually means someone is about to get killed.
Tragically, she was right.
Elianne Andam took a Snapchat video moments before she was stabbed to death:
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Mr Chalk described it as ‘a gesture of solidarity with her friend’. Mr Panayi said it was the moment Sentamu ‘snapped’.
As Sentamu left the meeting and walked down Wellesley Road, Elianne ran up behind him and grabbed the bag of love letters in a fit of giggles.
“It was the type of thing Elianne would have done. Like not to get anyone mad… she took it as a joke,” her friend later told police.
Moments earlier, Elianne recorded her final video, smiling and joking that Sentamu’s ex-girlfriend was a ‘mug’ for thinking he would play ball.
But when she took the bag in jest, Sentamu boiled over and Elianne’s smile disappeared. ‘Oh you know what’ Sentamu was heard saying, simultaneously lifting his hoodie to draw the knife.
With the knife gripped in his right hand, a bus camera captured Sentamu running after his 15-year-old target. It was an unsettling image shown to jurors at the opening of the trial.
Then Sentamu stabbed Elianne four times, plunging the knife 12cm into her neck, severing her carotid artery. She begged for her life, but Sentamu continued raining down blows at her flailing legs.
As one witness recalled: “I saw Elianne backing up on the floor with her hand out like basically saying stop stop stop, and he… I’m pretty sure I saw him bend and like try to do something else, like stab her again.”
It was, Mr Chalk told the court, “a savage act of murderous violence”.
CCTV from a passing bus caught the moment Hassan Sentamu brandished the knife:
As an off-duty bus driver ran to Elianne’s side, trying his best to stem the flowing blood, Sentamu fled down Wellesley Road, dumping his mask and gloves in a bin before hiding the knife behind a wall.
He was heading back to his home on Rowdown Crescent in New Addington, but the Met was already on his case. Moments after alighting the bus, PC Peter Nolan spotted Sentamu with his Oyster card in his mouth on a grassy verge and approached him, asking for his name.
Sentamu tried to give a false name, but PC Nolan asked to look at his Oyster card before putting him in handcuffs. In the full body-worn camera video, Sentamu is told he’s under arrest for GBH against his ex-girlfriend. He corrects the officers on this. Then, it emerges the GBH charge needs to be amended.
Hassan Sentamu tried to pretend his name was ‘John’ during his arrest:
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‘One of them must be wrong’
In his police interview Sentamu made ‘No comment’ to all but one of the questions. Asked if he had anything to say to Elianne’s family, he said ‘No’.
Just over two weeks later at, Oak Hill Secure Training Centre in Milton Keynes, another prisoner repeatedly accused him of killing girls.
In the shouting match that ensued, Sentamu said: “I’ll do it again. I’ll do it to your mum… Do you want to end up like her, six feet under? I’ll do the same again.”
With a mountain of evidence against him – from witnesses, CCTV cameras, and chat logs – Sentamu needed an ace card to have any chance of launching a defence to murder.
As it turned out, that defence would hinge on his 2019 autism diagnosis, and a single psychiatrist’s belief his autism substantially impaired his ability to exercise self-control.
With thick glasses and mismatched waistcoats, the two eminent forensic psychiatrists at the heart of the case were uncannily similar in appearance, but each formed opposing views on Sentamu’s behaviour.
In the prosecution corner: Professor Nigel Blackwood, of King’s College London, with expert evidence in around 100 criminal cases. For the defence: Professor Seena Fazel, of Oxford University, an expert witness for the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal with around 30 criminal cases under his belt.
From the off, jurors were told they had worked together, respected each other, and might even consider themselves friends. Their only duty, Mr Justice Cheema-Grubb was at pains stress, is towards the court.
Professor Nigel Blackwood (called by the prosecution) and Professor Seena Fazel (called by the defence)
(Image: Getty Images/King’s College London/University of Oxford)
Professor Blackwood went first, telling the court he thought Sentamu felt ‘belittled’ by the confrontation at the shopping centre and ‘weak’ after he failed to challenge the girls.
“He then made the terrible decision, in my view, to carry a knife to reassert dominance, to exact revenge,” said the professor, adding that he thought the defence of diminished responsibility does not apply.
Professor Blackwood diagnosed Sentamu with Conduct Disorder, a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour which involves aggression toward people and animals, destruction of property, and violation of rules. It is a diagnosis given to children. The diagnosis for adults is psychopathy.
Professor Blackwood was unique among the psychiatrists in this assessment, but he insisted he had reached the conclusion on the basis of documentary evidence, like school and police records, without needing to speak to Sentamu’s family members directly.
Conversely, Professor Fazel did not look at the records but said he would only have made a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder having spoken to Sentamu’s mother. Having done so, Professor Fazel decided the behaviour was not persistent enough, nor pervasive enough outside the context of school, to warrant the same conclusion.
Sentamu also seemed to give the psychiatrists conflicting information, telling Professor Fazel the girls had threatened him while telling Professor Blackwood he ‘did not take those threats seriously’. The alleged threats could not be used as evidence, because Sentamu refused to take the stand and could not be questioned on it.
Across three days, Mr Panayi went at Professor Blackwood, trying to wear him down with a series of questions on how he reached his diagnosis, emphasising that the professor had never viewed the one-minute Snapchat video of Elianne talking about acid in the water bottle while the girls mocked and teased Sentamu about his appearance.
It was the only moment Professor Blackwood, an experienced courtroom witness, looked ruffled, but he agreed to watch the video for the first time and remained unmoved in his view.
“I do not think anything in that footage changes what I think of what happened in the Whitgift Centre,” he said.
Mr Panayi then pursued other attack lines, squeezing the professor on whether autism could have had ‘any’ impairment on Sentamu’s ability to exercise self-control. It was an attempt to get even the faintest admission of autism’s relevance from the prosecution’s key witness.
A very long pause followed, in which Professor Blackwood looked down, drew breath, and calmly held his notes.
Looking up to fix his eyes on Mr Panayi, he said: “Anyone who has stabbed someone four times in response to a perceived threat from the previous day, clearly could act to assert self-control and not act in that way.”
After the judge stepped in to focus the question again, Professor Blackwood insisted autism had no bearing on Sentamu’s ability to exercise self-control.
Two Swedish academic studies on the relationship between autism and violence – Lundström (2014) and Heeramun (2017) – were also central to the psychiatric evidence, with both concluding autism was not a risk factor. The Lundström study concluded ASDs ‘are not associated with violent criminality’, while Heeramun found any risk was ‘markedly attenuated’ by the presence of co-occurring ADHD or Conduct Disorder.
Asked if the combination of autism and ADHD could have led to substantial impairment, Professor Blackwood said: “Not to the level for diminished responsibility. There is impairment on his ability to control his anger, but that is clear from his history.”
Prosecutor Alex Chalk KC (the former Justice Secretary) and defence counsel Pavlos Panayi KC
(Image: Getty Images/7BR)
Given his turn on the witness stand, Professor Fazel said it was ‘hard to disentangle’ Sentamu’s personality and conduct difficulties but insisted he would have had a ‘heightened sense of anger and fear’ due to his autism.
“This would explain him carrying a knife and his extreme, violent reaction when the victim grabbed the bag from him.”
Professor Fazel also said he did not think the Swedish studies, relied upon by Professor Blackwood, gave enough insight into Sentamu the individual.
“I’m looking at the individual. How he presents with autism spectrum disorder. I’m interested in his particular circumstances,” he said.
Giving a summary, the professor said: “It’s my view Mr Sentamu’s ASD impacted on his ability to control his feelings of anger and being disrespected and feelings of being mocked and humiliated in front of others. In other words, ASD substantially extenuated these feelings and regulations of his emotions.”
Mr Chalk took a more ‘tabloid’ approach to his cross-examination of the defence witness (according to Mr Panayi), opening with the headline: “It’s Conduct Disorder wot done it.”
After the prosecutor listed incidents from Sentamu’s youth, Professor Fazel agreed that Sentamu had displayed aggression throughout his childhood and that he had shown the ability to control his actions.
But the professor insisted there was evidence of ‘poor communication’ and problems with ‘the regulation of emotion’. On Sentamu’s chilling message to his friend – ‘I’m not going to let that slide’ – the psychiatrist said it could mean ‘thinking things through for some time’.
The stunning mural to Elianne Andam on Wellesley Road in Croydon
(Image: Jake Holden)
Then just as Mr Panayi drilled into Professor Blackwood, so did Mr Chalk zero in on Professor Fazel, asking him to focus on the evidence from the Swedish academic studies.
“But there is no evidence from Heeramun or Lundstrom that says an autistic style response, failing to regulate your emotions, is an explosive act of violence,” said Mr Chalk.
After a shorter pause than Professor Blackwood, Professor Fazel said: “That’s a difficult question to answer, because the evidence we have looked at says in a small number of people autism can be associated with violent crime.
“The paper doesn’t discuss more explosive examples of crime, but the fact it does not discuss it does not mean it does not exist. Or those people were involved in more serious of violent types of crime. I don’t think you can draw on a paper that looks at a population of people to the individual.”
It was a long answer and not the one he wanted, so Mr Chalk rephrased himself again.
“We can’t speculate, right? I’m interested in what the evidence says. There’s no evidence that says that an autistic brand of response, a failure to regulate their emotions, is an act of savage explosive violence. That is a yes or no answer.”
After taking another moment to think, Professor Fazel said: “I think that’s a fair statement.”
Once Professor Fazel had left the witness box, the prosecution decided against calling another psychiatrist, Dr Alfred White, whose opinion fell between his peers. Dr White did not diagnose Conduct Disorder but ruled out diminished responsibility as a defence.
After four days of dense psychiatric evidence from two distinguished professors, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb’s instruction to the jury was remarkably straightforward.
“In this case, the two equally eminent highly-qualified experts are in disagreement, so one of them must be wrong,” she said.
Elianne Andam
A painting of Elianne Andam held above family and friends after her death in Croydon
(Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Elianne Andam was on her way to school when she was killed.
Her mother, Dorcas Andam, an NHS children’s nurse, had saved to send her daughter to Old Palace of John Whitgift School, a £16,000-a-year private school in Croydon, so she could have a ‘bright future’ and fulfil her dream of being a lawyer.
The school was ‘deeply shocked’ in the aftermath of Elianne’s death, while her family said they were ‘overwhelmed by sorrow and grief’.
A month later, thousands of mourners, including the rapper Stormzy, joined a candlelit vigil, sharing in prayers and singing Amazing Grace with a choir.
There, Dorcas paid tribute to her “smart, charismatic” daughter, who “loved living life to the fullest”.
“She brought joy to so many, including her friendship group,” she said, “She was an amazing, beautiful, girl. She loved and touched lives around her.”
Youth worker Anthony King also called for an end to knife crime at the vigil. He also sat in the public gallery for some of the trial.
MP for Croydon South, Chris Philp also spoke of attending Elianne’s funeral, telling the House of Commons he ‘will never forget’ seeing the grief of Elianne’s family, including her parents and little brother.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb fixed the sentencing for March 14.
Got a tip, a court date, or some gossip? Please email callum.cuddeford@reachplc.com or WhatsApp 07580255582.
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