Murder accused 'ditched phones after stabbing'

Eddie Kinuthia, 19, died after being stabbed near his home in July 2023

Two men accused of stabbing a teenager to death used temporary phone numbers in a bid to stop mobile network data linking them to the crime, a court has been told.

Zachariah Talbert-Young, 27, of Easton, and Paul Hayden, 22, of Hanham, are on trial for the murder of Eddie Kinuthia, 19, who was attacked in the Grosvenor Road area of St Pauls, Bristol, on 21 July 2023.

The defendants are also charged with the attempted murder of another 19-year-old man in February 2024.

A third man, Remi Hitchcock, 30, Mr Talbert-Young's cousin, is on trial accused of assisting an offender for allegedly helping his co-defendants dispose of an e-bike used in the attack on Mr Kinuthia.

On Wednesday, the jury at Bristol Crown Court heard that investigators built a picture of Mr Talbert-Young and Mr Hayden's movements on the night of the attack on Mr Kinuthia using mobile phone data, despite never recovering sim cards or handsets used by either defendant.

Georgina Jones, a criminal intelligence analyst with Avon and Somerset Police, told the court investigators can request data linked to a phone number from a mobile network.

Mr Hayden is believed to have left his usual phone and handset at home on the day of the killing, but Ms Jones said police had identified a temporary number he used via calls made to a taxi company.

The number also matched a booking made at a barbers he visited on the afternoon of the murder.

"It's quite a stringent process, [mobile networks)] don't just give this out. We have to really justify it," Ms Jones said

Eddie Kinuthia was killed in the Grosvenor Road area of St Pauls, Bristol

"[The data] is usually given in the form of a spreadsheet with thousands of rows of data - of call records and text records."

The jury were played a number of calls recorded via an app used by the Veezu taxi firm that showed Mr Hayden being collected from his home address at Reade Close in Hanham.

The jury also heard Mr Talbert-Young swapped a new SIM card into his handset on the afternoon of Mr Kinuthia's murder, and used it for just 13 hours - covering the period of the killing.

He allegedly used the number to make a number of calls, including to Mr Hitchcock both before and after the stabbing, and to another man said to have provided the van used to move the e-bike.

'Neighbourhood rivalry'

Prosecutor Andrew Langdon KC told the jury in his opening address that the defendants' precautions over their use of their mobile phones "are of themselves revealing in relation to the murder of Mr Kinuthia".

It is not known why Mr Talbert-Young and Mr Hayden would want to kill Mr Kinuthia, but the jury have been told of a rivalry between young men in the St Paul's area of Bristol and those living further east in the city.

The rivalry dates back to about 2018 and has been linked to a number of killings in recent years, the court heard.

Men associated with St Paul's have come to be known as the "2-4s" while those from east Bristol as the "1-6s".

Mr Talbert-Young and Mr Hayden were closely associated with the 1-6 cohort, the jury heard, while Mr Kinuthia was regularly seen associating with members of the 2-4s.

The trial continues.