A MAN accused of murdering a City lawyer confessed to a prison officer that the stabbing happened after a robbery went terribly wrong, a jury at the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Delano Brown, 18, said that he took part in the brutal robbery of Thomas ap Rhys Pryce, but insisted that it was his cousin, Donnel Carty, 19, who launched the ferocious knife attack in northwest London.

The lawyer, who had been walking to his home in Kensal Green, was stabbed in the chest twice and once in the thigh. He bled to death just yards from his home.

Giving evidence at the murder trial, Laura Reader, an officer at Feltham Young Offender Institution, said that Brown, who was on remand, confessed to robbing the 31-year-old Cambridge graduate. Her report said: “He said he was present when the victim was murdered and in fact robbed the victim. He also told me his cousin was the one who murdered the victim.”

Both teenagers deny murdering Mr ap Rhys Pryce on January 12. While Brown admits robbing him, Carty denies the charge. Both men admit robbing a man 20 minutes earlier and being part of a gang of nine who had robbed people on the London Underground.

Elisha Brown, Carty’s former girlfriend, told the court that shortly after Mr ap Rhys Pryce’s murder she received a number of calls from the lawyer’s stolen mobile telephone.

The trial continues.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The playboy and the Tory party leader
• Bin Laden's family tree is impenetrable jungle
• Paul McCartney