Mobility Scooter Row: "Best Mate" Stabbed To Death

Stabbed: John Kennett

A man stabbed his “best mate” to death hours after becoming enraged at the victim losing his late mother’s mobility scooter, which they used to collect a pawned television, a court heard today.

Kenneth Pitcher, 51, of 7 Woodcroft Road, Thornton Heath denies repeatedly plunging a knife into 61 year-old John Kennett at the address on December 23, last year.

He has pleaded not guilty at Croydon Crown Court to one count of murder.

Prosecutor Mr. Hugh Davies QC told the jury Pitcher dragged the wounded Mr. Kennett onto the pavement at 9pm and pretended he did not know him when paramedics arrived.

Drunken Pitcher, who had also smoked crack cocaine and taken methadone that night, was seen by emergency services leaning over the dying man, asking: “Mate. What’s your name?”

“He told the paramedics the patient had knocked on his door, asking for help and then had stumbled and fallen to the floor,” explained the prosecutor.

Pitcher told the paramedics the man had been stabbed and was bleeding, despite there being no visual evidence of this and when pressed, replied: “I was just trying to f***ing help. I hope he’s okay.”

Pitcher then returned inside and slammed his front door.

“He gave contradictory and false accounts of events at the scene to distance himself from what he had done,” explained Mr. Davies.

“He knew the man lying on the ground very well, a man who he later told police was his: ‘best mate’.

“Mr. Kennett had not knocked on the defendant’s door. It later became obvious he had bled heavily inside the defendant’s living room.

“He suffered multiple stab wounds, including wounds to his left thigh and chest and bruising to the right side of his face.”

Pitcher’s Polish lodger Seb Wierzchoski had witnessed him dragging Mr. Kennett outside and called 999 on the order of the defendant, the court heard.

Regarding Pitcher’s defence case Mr. Davies told the jurors. “He says it was not him. It must have been the lodger by implication.”

Earlier that day the lodger saw Pitcher and Mr. Kennett together, making plans to collect the defendant’s tv from Cash Converters.

“The lodger says Mr. Kennett often rode on Pitcher’s late mother’s mobility scooter, not because he was disabled, but because he was lazy.”

CCTV captured the pair travelling along London Road with the scooter and television.

“When the defendant returned home with the television and no scooter he was furious and was shouting that Mr. Kennett was a w*****,” explained the prosecutor.

“He was angry because Mr. Kennett had left the mobility scooter somewhere between Croydon town centre and the house.”

Mr. Kennett, who was a regular visitor, apologised and the pair settled down to drink and smoke crack cocaine.

“What led to him to stab Mr. Kennett in his front room later that night is known only to him,” said Mr. Davies.

Police recovered a washing-up bowl and towel covered in Mr. Kennett’s blood from a neighbour’s garden and a wet wipe inside the address contained both the deceased’s blood and Pitcher’s DNA.

Trial continues…………..