A brave girl stood up to her friend’s violent ex. Minutes later she was murdered in front of horrified friends
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An aspiring human rights lawyer, Elianne Andam was described as an ‘amazing, beautiful girl’ by her friends and family before her tragic killing in Croydon, south London. “Where’s my teddy, where’s my teddy?” would be one of the final words Elianne Andam would hear, before she was brutally stabbed to death in front of her horrified friends.
![[Hassan Sentamu had hidden a kitchen knife under his clothing which he used to attack Elianne]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/14/17/hassan-sentamu111.jpg)
The 15-year-old schoolgirl died while bravely trying to defend her friend, the ex-girlfriend of Hassan Sentamu, who was refusing to give her back her beloved toy in the aftermath of their breakup. Little did the aspiring lawyer know that Sentamu, who had a history of violent outbursts, was hiding a large kitchen knife under his clothing, which he readily brought out to plunge into her neck at the most minor of confrontations.
![[Elianne seen on CCTV with her friends shortly before her death]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/10/16/0159efb9-e451-4c74-b145-54a1db6dedc3-2.jpg)
Despite admitting her manslaughter, the 18-year-old denied Elianne’s murder on the basis of “loss of control” due to his autism. His lawyer’s attempts to detail his traumatic childhood, which saw him flee domestic abuse in Uganda to detailing plans to kill himself, failed to convince the jury that he was not a murderer.
![[The kitchen knife used to stab Elianne in front of her horrified school friends (Met Police/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/18/13/a327bf8b3f4e1b563a223182f14152c3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0NjEyMjY5-2.78446774.jpg)
Described by her family as “an amazing, beautiful girl”, Elianne had been a pupil at the prestigious Old Palace of John Whitgift School where she had excelled at music, drama and English studies, and had hopes of studying human rights. Unable to face being “disrespected”, Sentamu, who had been studying sports science at Croydon College, had plotted to take drastic action after being humiliated by Elianne and her friends at Whitgift shopping centre.
![[Elianne appeared on a Snapchat video moments before she was attacked (Met Police/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/10/15/c813b3363f8277bfdbc7d02bb18c1128Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzMzOTMwNjE4-2.78441339.jpg)
