A popular and charismatic schoolgirl with a brilliant mind, a loving family and the brightest of futures.
A knife-obsessed teenage boy with autism, an ‘extremely low’ IQ and mental scars from childhood abuse in his native Uganda, whose mother begged social workers to ‘take him away’ because she could not cope with his outbursts.
Though they had friends in common and both lived in the south London town of Croydon, the paths in life that Elianne Andam and Hassan Sentamu were on could not have been more different.
Elianne, 15, dreamed of becoming a criminal barrister, and her parents Dorcas, an NHS nurse, and Michael, a care home manager, made huge sacrifices to send her to the £16,579-a-year Old Palace of John Whitgift independent girls’ school.
Sentamu first brought a knife to the classroom aged just 12 and was bounced from school to school as terrifying incidents of self-harm and unprovoked attacks against other children increased in frequency and violence.
The 18-year-old now faces a life sentence having yesterday been convicted of Elianne’s murder in a senseless act of violence that shattered her large family and the wider community.
As her father said from outside the Old Bailey after the verdict, the loss of his daughter has left a gaping hole in the lives of all who knew her.
‘She was a bright, kind, and loving soul who embraced life, her faith, and her belief in standing up for what was right,’ Dr Andam said.
Elianne Andam (pictured) dreamed of becoming a criminal barrister before her tragic death
Hassan Sentamu (pictured) was today convicted of murder by a jury following Elianne’s death
Hassan Sentamu (pictured upon arrest) was a knife-obsessed teenage boy with autism, an ‘extremely low’ IQ and mental scars from childhood abuse in his native Uganda. He stabbed Elianne to death
Elianne Andam’s father Michael pictured outside the Old Bailey
‘We think about her every moment of every day, cherishing her love and the joy she brought to everyone around her.’
The brief intersection of their lives through Sentamu’s relationship with Elianne’s friend should have ended on the morning of September 27, 2023, with a simple transaction before school.
But the day before this fateful meeting there had been an ugly confrontation between the girls and Sentamu over the callous way he had broken up with his 15-year-old ex-girlfriend.
The girls had mocked Sentamu and squirted water over him outside a branch of Card Factory in the Whitgift Shopping Centre.
Incensed, Sentamu, who was 17 at the time, called a friend afterwards and warned he ‘cannot let this slide.’
He then appeared to show uncharacteristic restraint, arranging to meet his former partner the following day to hand back each other’s belongings and draw a line under the relationship.
The schoolgirl, who was especially anxious to recover a teddy bear from her ex-boyfriend, agreed and packed his effects into a plastic bag.
But instead of collecting his former partner’s cherished items, Sentamu snatched a knife from a kitchen drawer, pulled on gloves and a mask then rode the bus to the shopping centre.
Elianne was brutally stabbed to death, with the knifeman plunging the weapon 12cm into her neck
18-year-old Hassan Sentamu (pictured) attacked Elianne Andam in Wellesley Road, near the Whitgift Centre, at around 8.30am on September 27, 2023
Family and friends of Elianne Andam at the scene of the stabbing in Croydon, south London
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It was some of Elianne’s best qualities – her strong sense of justice and desire to show solidarity with her friend – which then ultimately led to her death.
Furious that Sentamu had snatched the bag containing his possessions from her friend after turning up empty-handed himself, Elianne grabbed it back and turned to run away.
The gangly teenage boy chased the schoolgirl into a corner and stabbed her repeatedly, plunging the kitchen knife 12cm into her neck and severing her carotid artery.
It was 8.30am outside the busy shopping centre on a Wednesday, with dozens of commuters and busloads of children watching on in horror.
Elianne died at the scene less than an hour later, her promising young life extinguished for the sake of a teddy bear.
For Elianne’s friends and relatives, her heroics that morning were entirely in keeping with her kind-hearted character.
‘As a family that’s what we are like. Most of my cousins would have probably done the same thing,’ her cousin, Reverend Denzil Larbi, said.
‘It’s just the way we’re brought up to just be caring and protective towards others.’
Hassan Sentamu (pictured), 18, exploded in a ‘white-hot’ fit of rage stabbed 15-year-old Elianne Andam to death ‘like a Top Boy character’, a court heard
Elianne (pictured with her friends) begged Sentamu to stop his attack, jurors at London’s Old Bailey heard
Pictured are knives that police seized from Sentamu as they investigating the killing of Elianne
Footage appears to show Elianne grabbing the bag of belongings from Sentamu before running off
Elianne and her younger brother have 20 cousins on their mother’s side, all of whom live in Croydon and are so close they see each other as siblings.
Her father is a care home manager who holds a doctorate in Christian education and set up a religious youth charity in response to the 2011 riots.
He was born in Lewisham but attended school in Ghana before returning to Britain.
Dozens of family members have attended every day of the trial, but relatives say the devastating loss has left Mrs Andam ‘completely broken’.
She was able to bring herself to the Old Bailey for yesterday’s verdict but could not face sitting in the courtroom with her daughter’s killer, opting instead to watch proceedings over videolink from a private room.
And the friend who Elianne defended that morning remains ‘full of guilt’, family members said.
‘This one act has just torn everything apart,’ Rev Larbi said. ‘It will never, ever be the same. Elianne’s mum is struggling, of course she is.’
Elianne’s life was taken as she begun to grow into a confident, passionate and formidable young woman, her cousin Gideon Boafo, 25, a professional rugby league player said.
Later, Sentamu is captured on CCTV running away from the scene of the crime
Sentamu is seen boarding a number 64 bus after he stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s friend to death
Footage appears to show Elianne (left) running away from Sentamu (right) carrying the bag of belongings
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Among Elianne’s extended family there is no shortage of high achievers, but from a young age she was the one considered destined for greatness.
‘We are all quite smart, but she was on a different level to all of us and wanted to become a lawyer,’ Mr Boafo, who is Rev Larbi’s brother, said.
‘[Her parents] sacrificed a lot to get her to private school. It meant not buying the house that they wanted.
‘They made a lot of serious sacrifices just because of her creativity, her knowledge, her intellect. That’s another of the reasons why this is so painful.’
Rev Larbi’s wife, who works at boutique corporate law firm Trinity International, had promised to help secure Elianne an internship when she finished school but the teenager had her heart set on a career in criminal law.
‘She would always say she wanted to get the bad guys. That’s why she was into criminal law in particular. She was one of those people who just loved to fight for what’s wrong,’ he said.
Had Elianne lived to fulfil her dream then her killer may have been exactly the sort of dangerous individual she could have ended up prosecuting.
Sentamu was born in Uganda in 2006 but joined his mother in Britain at the age of five after she fled alleged domestic abuse from his father.
Among Elianne’s extended family there is no shortage of high achievers, but from a young age she was the one considered destined for greatness
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He was sent back to a Ugandan boarding school aged 11, but returned to the UK three months later after reportedly injuring his knee while running away from school staff, who he claimed beat him with a metal pole.
He first brought a knife into a school in Britain aged 12, pointing it at his own chest and telling his teacher he hated his life and would kill himself.
This fascination with blades grew and in 2019 he threatened one student at knifepoint on a school trip, and on a different occasion attacked another classmate with a pair of scissors he had stolen from a teacher’s desk.
The same year a social worker attended his home and found Sentamu alone with a bag packed by his mother.
When the social worker phoned her she asked them to ‘take him away’ and Sentamu was placed into foster care.
Sentamu’s mother last night refused to speak when asked about her son at the family home in Croydon.
Aged 14, the killer’s outbursts intensified and he threatened to chop the tail off his foster carer’s cat if it got in his way.
He was moved from mainstream education to The Write Time special educational needs school in 2020, and from foster care back to his mother’s house the following year.
People attend a vigil outside the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon, south London, for Elianne Andam
Police work at the scene of a fatal stabbing of 15-year-old schoolgirl Elianne Andam
Family and friends of Elianne Andam at the scene in Croydon, south London, where 15-year-old Elianne was stabbed to death
His school observed he looked ‘hungry and unkempt’ during this time and his academic work nosedived, as his mother said he spent most waking hours on his PlayStation and would become uncontrollable if anyone tried to stop him.
He was also obsessed with the Lindsay Lohan film ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’, and would cry if he was not able to watch it on repeat, relatives said.
Three weeks before Elianne’s murder, he sent a message to a friend in which he said he was contemplating suicide, adding: ‘The real me is evil, dark and miserable.’
Even while on remand at Oakhill Secure Training Centre before his trial, Sentamu’s violent episodes continued.
He threatened another inmate who mentioned Elianne’s murder, shouting at him: ‘Do you want to end up like her, six feet under? I’ll do the same again.’
Sentamu admitted Elianne’s manslaughter by diminished responsibility but denied murder, claiming his autism caused him to lose control.
Following yesterday’s verdict, the National Autistic Society said it feared that these claims could lead to general judgements about the 700,000 autistic people living in the UK and the public understanding of autism.
And a forensic psychiatrist who interviewed the killer rubbished his defence, insisting that he knew what he was doing was wrong and his actions were to enact vengeance on the girls who had humiliated him.
A court sketch of Sentamu as he is found guilty of murdering Elianne Andam
Elianne Andam, who dreamed of becoming a barrister, had the brightest of futures ahead of her
Speaking outside court, Elianne’s father Michael (centre) said the loss of his daughter was a ‘void we will never fill’
Dr Nigel Blackwood told the jury: ‘He goes into that meeting feeling disrespected and weak, he wants to reassert dominance, to feel strong, to avenge himself on those who disrespected him the previous day. The taking of the bag is the new insult, and he then exacts vengeance.’
Sentamu had the presence of mind in the moments after Elianne’s death to flee the scene, dispose of the murder weapon and change his phone settings to withhold his number before spending seven minutes on a call to a friend.
When he was arrested 90 minutes after the attack, Sentamu then gave the fake name ‘John’ to police and lied about where he disposed of the knife.
The jury ultimately agreed with Dr Blackwood’s assertions and, after almost 12 hours of deliberations handed down their guilty verdict with a majority of ten to two.
Elianne’s relatives sat quietly holding hands until the verdicts were read, at which point her aunt Mariam sobbed ‘thank you’ and ‘Elianne, may you rest in peace’ as she staggered from the courtroom.
Bespectacled Sentamu, wearing a white shirt with rosary beads around his neck and a white bandage over his right arm, clutched a green stress ball, bowed his head and wiped his eyes as someone shouted ‘murderer’ from the public gallery.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb adjourned sentencing until March 13.
And a disturbed young man who never saw much of a future for himself faces a life sentence for depriving the world of one that could have been so bright.
