Latest news with #Ilkeston
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
Stab victim ‘gave grief' to murder-accused's friend over £20 debt, trial told
An 18-year-old man who was stabbed in the heart with a Rambo-style knife had given 'grief' over a £20 cannabis debt to the friend of a teenager accused of his murder, a trial has heard. Jurors were told that Charles Hartle, 18, wearing a balaclava, grinned when he 'thrust' the knife into Noah Smedley's chest after a drug deal in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, on the evening of December 28 last year. Hartle, also known as Charlie, was 17 at the time of the alleged attack. The defendant, of Station Road, Stanley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place but denies murder. Marcus Coleman, a friend of Hartle's who was 'feet away' from the attack, went with two other friends and the defendant to buy cannabis from Mr Smedley that evening. Mr Coleman, who was 17 at the time but is now 18, denied that there was animosity between him and Mr Smedley because of an incident months earlier. Peter Joyce KC, defending Hartle, cross-examined Mr Coleman, who gave evidence from behind a screen at Derby Crown Court on Thursday, and said: 'Noah had been causing you… some grief about a £20 debt of cannabis a little while before.' The witness replied: 'It was a separate incident that happened months prior, it had nothing to do with this incident.' Mr Joyce said: 'I suggest it was on this night you saw Charlie for the first time in four months, that's when you told him about the problem with Noah. 'You told him that Noah was giving you grief. Noah had really annoyed you, irritated you, hacked you off.' Mr Coleman said it was 'not really a problem'. Mr Joyce said: 'There was no need at all for four of you to go and meet Noah was there? Unless there was a second purpose that required all four of you to go, namely to give him a bit of a slapping. 'For the next four hours the three of you are together at your home aren't you? The three of you instead spent between nine o'clock and one o'clock… doing a number of things. One, smoking weed. Two, talking about what had happened and, I suggest, agreeing your stories.' Mr Coleman replied: 'No sir.' Mr Joyce asked: 'Did you decide you would not say the three of you had a grudge against Noah?' The witness said no. Mr Coleman said: 'We weren't really talking about anything sir, we were shocked. We were trying to distract ourselves with the cannabis and I think I was on my PS5 at the time, trying to distract myself from the situation.' When asked why he left the scene with his friends after Hartle ran away instead of helping Mr Smedley, Mr Coleman said he was 'scared' and added: 'I still regret it to this day.' Mr Joyce said: 'You ran away from Noah in the opposite direction and you took a roundabout route to get away so you would not be seen. 'I'm going to suggest that the reason for all of that was that all four of you – you three and Charlie – had agreed earlier that Noah was to be given a bit of a slapping.' Mr Coleman replied: 'No, not true sir.' The trial continues.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Stab victim ‘gave grief' to murder-accused's friend over £20 debt, trial told
An 18-year-old man who was stabbed in the heart with a Rambo-style knife had given 'grief' over a £20 cannabis debt to the friend of a teenager accused of his murder, a trial has heard. Jurors were told that Charles Hartle, 18, wearing a balaclava, grinned when he 'thrust' the knife into Noah Smedley's chest after a drug deal in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, on the evening of December 28 last year. Hartle, also known as Charlie, was 17 at the time of the alleged attack. The defendant, of Station Road, Stanley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place but denies murder. Marcus Coleman, a friend of Hartle's who was 'feet away' from the attack, went with two other friends and the defendant to buy cannabis from Mr Smedley that evening. Mr Coleman, who was 17 at the time but is now 18, denied that there was animosity between him and Mr Smedley because of an incident months earlier. Peter Joyce KC, defending Hartle, cross-examined Mr Coleman, who gave evidence from behind a screen at Derby Crown Court on Thursday, and said: 'Noah had been causing you… some grief about a £20 debt of cannabis a little while before.' The witness replied: 'It was a separate incident that happened months prior, it had nothing to do with this incident.' Mr Joyce said: 'I suggest it was on this night you saw Charlie for the first time in four months, that's when you told him about the problem with Noah. 'You told him that Noah was giving you grief. Noah had really annoyed you, irritated you, hacked you off.' Mr Coleman said it was 'not really a problem'. Mr Joyce said: 'There was no need at all for four of you to go and meet Noah was there? Unless there was a second purpose that required all four of you to go, namely to give him a bit of a slapping. 'For the next four hours the three of you are together at your home aren't you? The three of you instead spent between nine o'clock and one o'clock… doing a number of things. One, smoking weed. Two, talking about what had happened and, I suggest, agreeing your stories.' Mr Coleman replied: 'No sir.' Mr Joyce asked: 'Did you decide you would not say the three of you had a grudge against Noah?' The witness said no. Mr Coleman said: 'We weren't really talking about anything sir, we were shocked. We were trying to distract ourselves with the cannabis and I think I was on my PS5 at the time, trying to distract myself from the situation.' When asked why he left the scene with his friends after Hartle ran away instead of helping Mr Smedley, Mr Coleman said he was 'scared' and added: 'I still regret it to this day.' Mr Joyce said: 'You ran away from Noah in the opposite direction and you took a roundabout route to get away so you would not be seen. 'I'm going to suggest that the reason for all of that was that all four of you – you three and Charlie – had agreed earlier that Noah was to be given a bit of a slapping.' Mr Coleman replied: 'No, not true sir.' The trial continues.
BBC News
6 days ago
- BBC News
Noah Smedley: Murder trial shown CCTV footage of fatal stabbing
A murder trial jury has been shown the moment a man was stabbed through the heart before running away and collapsing in the Hartle, now 18 but 17 at the time, is accused of killing Noah Smedley, who had met him and his three friends off Heanor Road, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, to sell them cannabis on 28 Hartle, of Station Road, Stanley, denies murder but pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place before the the jury through CCTV footage, prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC said Mr Hartle could clearly be seen lunging at the 18-year-old's chest with a knife. The trial, at Derby Crown Court, was also shown hundreds of Snapchat messages between Mr Hartle, three of his friends, his girlfriend and Mr the day of the alleged murder, Mr Hartle arranged to sleep at a friend's house where he would play Call of Duty, drink beer and smoke cannabis with two court was shown messages sent to a girl shortly after he arrived at the property in Monyash Close asking if he could bring his three friends to a house party about 10 minutes of the group arranged to buy cannabis from Mr Smedley and the four teenagers were captured on CCTV heading down Heanor Road. The jury was then shown a message from Mr Hartle to his girlfriend shortly before they met Mr Smedley, which read: "We're going to slap him up."CCTV footage showed Mr Smedley arriving on an e-scooter at about 20:15 GMT when the prosecution said the deal was made. Mr Langdale KC told the jury: "Charlie Hartle hangs back... he takes a couple of steps forward and a couple of steps back and then appears to edge forward towards the group and Noah Smedley... a small light appears in front of Noah."The pair are now facing each other... Charlie Hartle lunges at Noah Smedley's chest… he then steps back and the knife can be seen in his hand."[Mr Smedley] shouts out 'yo, yo, yo, yo, you stabbed me brother'."Noah jogs down the street and collapses on Heanor Road... this is the last time he was pictured on CCTV."Charles Hartle was then shown running from the scene while his friends appeared to linger for a few seconds before also court was told they called 999 about 30 minutes after the incident. 'Split second' stabbing In a police interview shown to the court with one of Mr Hartle's friends who witnessed the stabbing, he said there was no indication anything was amiss. "Everything was fine when we met... the transaction was made to Noah," he said."Charlie at the time was saying nothing, he was all quiet there and wasn't arguing or doing anything"And then in an instance he whipped out the knife and stabbed Noah in a split second – there was no threatening, nothing like that."We then hung around for about 10 seconds – we were scared at the time we didn't know what to do – we just went on Heanor Road and we were going back to mine."We saw Charlie and said 'why did you stab him?' He didn't want to have any conversation and we didn't want any part of him." The court was told Mr Hartle was seen on CCTV speaking to his girlfriend before he got a taxi into Derby city centre just after 21: trial, which is due to last two weeks, continues.
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Council vows to tackle graffiti in Long Eaton and Ilkeston
Erewash Borough Council has declared "a war on graffiti" in Long Eaton and Ilkeston after a recent spate of vandalism, some of which was highlighted as being offensive or racist in two towns are to receive £20,000 from the authority for graffiti kits that will be available for businesses and community "anti-graffiti action plan" will also be developed to target problem money is part of an overall package of £2m which forms part of the Erewash Investment Fund. The deputy Labour leader of the council Rebecca Everett said the council had been contacted by the public expressing concerns about the nature of some of the graffiti."We've seen recently in some spots in Erewash however much it gets cleaned, it keeps cropping up. If we don't have this takes a lot longer to get it cleaned," she said."The graffiti is quite wide-ranging but before the election there was some graffiti that highlighted Reform UK. There was also some some people found to be offensive, such as racism, and we wanted to get rid of that as quickly as possible."I don't think anyone likes graffiti and especially when it's offensive it needs to be cleaned as quickly as possible. The general idea is to make Erewash a nicer place to live." Phrases such as "no room for mosques" and "illegals out" have appeared around the town centres. Graffiti relating to the Gaza conflict has also been an walls in Long Eaton town centre in particular have been repeatedly targeted for the graffiti. The kits will be made available for local businesses and community groups so they can clean graffiti quickly if it staff have to gain the permission to remove graffiti from business and property owners who are not always based in the is hoped that giving kits to shop managers will ensure offensive graffiti is tackled sooner. The funding forms part of £700,000 allocated as part of the first phase of investing £2m into the projects include £210,000 for street cleanliness and £135,000 to increase the capacity of Erewash's Neighbourhood Wardens service, which deals with issues such as fly-tipping, graffiti and town centre town centre will also receive £101,000 for replacing street furniture and the council will abe investing £50,000 to partner with local artists to commission street art murals.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Balaclava-clad teen with 'unhealthy interest' in blades 'grinned' as he stabbed 18-year-old through the heart with a Rambo knife, court hears
A balaclava-clad teenager who had an 'unhealthy interest' in knives grinned before fatally stabbing an 18-year-old man through the heart with a Rambo-style knife, a murder trial has heard. Jurors at Derby Crown Court heard that Charles Hartle, who was aged 17 at the time, allegedly carried out an 'utterly pointless killing' when he attacked Noah Smedley on a dark street in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The alleged attack happened on the evening of December 28 last year with the knife he kept hidden in his tracksuit bottoms. Hartle, now aged 18, sat in the dock on Tuesday wearing glasses, a black jacket and white shirt while Adrian Langdale KC opened the prosecution case. Mr Langdale told the jury of seven women and five men: 'On December 28 2024 you will have been getting over Christmas and preparing for the new year - Charles Hartle was going out on the streets armed with a knife. 'He moved towards Noah, he grinned or smiled before deliberately aiming for and stabbing him in the chest. 'There is no dispute that this lethal weapon was in the hands of that young man Charlie Hartle. 'Noah Smedley, the Crown will say, did absolutely nothing wrong, he did nothing to deserve what happened to him. 'He wasn't himself armed... he did not offer any violence. 'The Crown will say it was an utterly pointless killing other than this defendant's unhealthy interest with knives and the fact he was, the Crown will say, a habitual carrier of knives. 'You will hear that the defendant was planning on meeting up with three of his friends who would later witness, and be feet away from, the murder.' The court was told that Hartle and his friends arranged to meet Mr Smedley who arrived at the scene on an electric scooter and sold them cannabis before the fatal attack. Mr Langdale continued: 'It was agreed to meet him at a bus stop on Heanor Road, Ilkeston, and so the defendant and his three mates are captured on CCTV shortly after 8pm going to meet the deceased. 'This defendant deliberately hangs back at the back of the group, whilst the others are chatting with Noah and he gives them the cannabis. 'All seemingly, in these matters of seconds, are in good spirits - there is no animosity. 'This defendant will pull his balaclava down over his face, he moves forward in the group to get closer to Noah and reaches into the back of his tracksuit. 'Hartle immediately takes one stride forward and in the same motion thrusts the knife forward and through Noah's heart.' The jury heard that Hartle and his friends ran from the scene leaving Mr Smedley 'staggering and bleeding profusely'. The knife penetrated the right ventricle of Mr Smedley's heart and his left lung causing internal bleeding and his lung to collapse, the prosecutor said. Mr Langdale told the court: 'The defendant raises the idea of self-defence claiming to the police he had recently been threatened by others with knives. As a result of that he decided to take this knife out. 'The Crown say this is an entirely false account, instead it was the defendant who routinely carried a Rambo knife... and did so for the kudos and bravado.' The prosecutor said Hartle carried the weapon to show others he was a 'big man'. Jurors heard the defendant, of Station Road in Stanley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place but denies murder. CCTV of the group was shown to the jury, including the moment Mr Smedley was fatally stabbed with a knife described to be 'eight to nine inches' long. The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.
