Rizwan Darbar was fatally stabbed in West Ham Park in 2007 PA

A TEENAGER was stabbed to death in West Ham as a gang of youths mugged his friend for a mobile phone, a court has heard.

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Rizwan Darbar, 17, bled to death from a wound in the stomach after the incident in West Ham Park, east London, in October 2007.

He was stabbed after one of the attackers, holding a knife, was urged to "poke him", said Alan Kent QC, prosecuting.

The teenager was sitting in the flower garden of the park listening to music on a mobile phone with two friends when it happened, the Old Bailey heard.

Jurors heard that they were approached by Amos Wahome, Kirkland Gayle and the alleged knifeman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Kent told the court: "One of them snatched a telephone that one of the friends was holding.

"When the three boys stood up from the park bench to remonstrate and ask for the phone back, the third defendant appeared from the bushes from the side of where the three boys had initially been sitting. He had a knife."

The knifeman and Gayle approached Rizwan and one of his friends while Wahome held back the other, jurors were told.

"It would seem that what happened is that [the alleged knifeman] held his hand back and Mr Gayle said 'poke him' upon which he stabbed Rizwan Darbar in the abdomen," said Kent.

"That caused massive blood loss and subsequently his death. The death of Rizwan Darbar is a tragedy."

All three defendants were said by the prosecution to be "in it together" in the murder of Rizwan and the robbery of his friend Nijib Karim's mobile phone.

The court heard that Nijib, who was around the same age as his friend, died in a car crash six weeks before the start of the trial, and the evidence he gave to police will be read to the jury.

Wahome, of Stratford, Gayle, of Ilford, and the third defendant, all deny murder and robbery. They are all now aged 19.

Gayle is said to have demanded to know if Rizwan and his friends were from the area, before snatching the phone as Nijib protested: "They can't be taking it."

The alleged knife man is then said to have produced a blade from his trousers and held it in his outstretched arm.

After being urged to "poke him" by Gayle, he is said to have done so "jabbing the knife at fast speed into the stomach area of Rizwan Darbar".

Kent said: "Realising that he had been stabbed, Rizwan Darbar said to his friend 'I have just been duked'."

Meanwhile Wahome, allegedly holding back Nijib, demanded money from him but he refused and Wahome said to his friend: "Come and pokey this one."

The three attackers then ran off, the court heard.

Shortly afterwards when a friend of Rizwan's group rang the stolen mobile phone, a youth who answered said "your boy's been jacked", meaning robbed, and asked who he was said he was the "lord of the mikes".

Rizwan, who had been knifed through an artery, died in Newham General Hospital just before 7pm, an hour and a half after being stabbed.

Proceeding