Brother held dying schoolboy after attack

The brother of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen today told a jury how he held his dying sibling in his arms following an alleged attack at a bakery.

Tommy Mizen, 27, rushed to the Three Cooks Bakery in Lee, south London, after receiving a phone call that his brother was "in trouble".

Once inside the bakery Mr Mizen found his grievously wounded 16-year-old brother hiding behind a door at the back of the store.

A major artery in Jimmy Mizen's neck had been severed after he was hit by a shard from a glass oven dish allegedly thrown by Jake Fahri, 19, following a row in the shop.

Jimmy Mizen's other brother Harry, 19, had called Tommy to come to their aid following an argument with Fahri on the morning of May 10th last year.

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Tommy Mizen said he was told on the phone: "Jimmy's in trouble. Get round here quick."

Bursting into the shop, Tommy Mizen had shouted "Where is he, where is he?"

He was confronted by a female shop assistant hiding behind the counter who Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said was "screaming hysterically".

Another customer told him that his brother was in the rear of the building.

Mr Aylett said: "Did you go through an archway into the back of the shop?" To which Mr Mizen replied that he did.

Mr Aylett asked: "Did you go through the archway following a trail of blood as you went?" Again Mr Mizen agreed.

Jimmy Mizen was discovered by his elder brother standing behind at door at the back of the shop.

Mr Aylett continued: "Did he collapse into your arms?" Mr Mizen, speaking in a soft voice, replied "yes".

Mr Aylett asked: "Did you ease him onto the floor and was he bleeding from his neck?" Mr Mizen again agreed.

An ambulance was then called as Jimmy Mizen's mother arrived at the shop.

Mr Aylett asked if Mr Mizen had "screamed at his mother to get out" so she didn't have to see what he had seen.

Mr Mizen replied that he had.

Fahri of Milborough Crescent, Lee, denies murder.

Tommy Mizen had arrived at the bakery to see Fahri running from the scene, he said.

He pursued him but gave up as Fahri was too fast a runner.

Tommy Mizen's brother Harry, 19, had earlier told the court that Fahri had initially thrown an advertising sign at the two brothers while inside the shop.

Harry Mizen said the sign had missed the two of them so Fahri picked up the glass oven dish from the hot food counter of the bakery and launched it at his brother while standing "no more than a metre" from him.

Mr Aylett said: "What was the next thing that you saw or heard?"

Harry Mizen replied: "I turned round and saw blood. There was lots of blood."

Asked how fast the dish had been thrown he replied: "It was thrown hard."

Mr Aylett asked how long the gap was from the dish being thrown and Harry Mizen seeing blood on his brother. He replied: "Seconds."

Harry Mizen told the court that Fahri fled the bakery following the alleged attack.

He explained: "I looked around and saw all the blood on the floor. He was out of the shop by then."

Harry Mizen told the court that Fahri had targeted him twice in the years preceding the bakery attack.

In 2001, while Harry Mizen was a Year Seven student, Fahri had demanded money from him, and punched him in the stomach on his way home, he said.

The incident led to Harry Mizen's mother contacting her son's school.

Then two years later Harry Mizen said he was again approached by Fahri who he alleges punched and kicked him.

Harry Mizen explained: "Again I was coming home from school, he approached me and was basically saying that I had grassed on him to my mum, who had told my school."

Harry Mizen described his brother Jimmy as an "outgoing, normal 16-year-old, we were very close".

On the morning of 10 May the pair had visited a nearby newsagents so Jimmy Mizen could buy his first ever lottery card as he had celebrated his 16th birthday on the previous day.

His brother Harry said they had gone into the Three Cooks Bakery to buy sausage rolls. Jake Fahri was already inside the shop.

On seeing the two brothers behind him, Fahri had told Jimmy Mizen to "get out of the way".

Harry Mizen said his brother told Fahri that if he "said please" he would step aside.

He explained: "Jake became very aggressive, he stood in front of Jimmy, right in front of his face."

Mr Mizen said he tried to step in to diffuse the situation but Fahri responded by pointing a car key directly in his face.

He explained: "He said that he remembered me, he said 'You grassed on me to the police'."

At this point one of the bakery staff asked Fahri to leave. On exiting the premises, Mr Mizen said that Fahri told the brothers that "he was going to wait for us outside the shop because he wanted to give us a slap".

Harry told the packed courtroom that he then called his older brother Tommy to come to the shop to help them.

Asked to explain why he made the call he said: "I was scared about what was going on."

Fahri then returned to the shop demanding to know who Harry Mizen had been calling.

The trio continued to row with Harry telling the court that Fahri threw two bottles of soft drink at the brothers.

They then cornered Fahri and Harry admitted that both he and his brother began punching him before pushing him out of the shop.

Moments later Fahri returned to the shop, kicking through a glass panel in the door as he made his way inside.

Mr Mizen said that Fahri then picked up the advertising sign and rushed at the two brothers while holding it.

Mr Aylett asked: "Did he do anything with it?"

Mr Mizen replied: "He threw it towards us."

After missing the two brothers with the sign, Fahri then picked up an oven dish containing sausages from the hot food display cabinet, Harry said.

He demonstrated to the jury how he believed Fahri had picked up the dish with both hands and launched it at shoulder height at his brother.

Under cross examination, Sally O'Neill, prosecuting, said that Fahri had not picked up the dish with two hands as both he and Jimmy Mizen had been grappling with the sign.

She said that Fahri had instead grabbed the dish with one hand and "slung it" in the direction of Mr Mizen.

Harry Mizen insisted that her account was wrong.

The jury was shown a police video detailing the aftermath of Jimmy Mizen's death.

Broken shards of glass and discarded sausages littered the floor, police identification tags could clearly be seen highlighting areas where blood had been spilled.

Samantha Pampling, 17, who was working in the bakery on the morning Jimmy Mizen died, broke down in court as she described the moments leading up to his death.

Wiping away tears she explained that she ran to the back of the shop to call the police after the arguing between the three teenagers got out of hand.

She told the court: "I remember Jake said something to one of the boys and Jimmy said 'some manners wouldn't go amiss"'

She said she thought Fahri had told the brothers to get out of his way.

The arguing escalated when Jake re-entered the shop, she said.

Ms Pampling explained: "Jake came back into the shop and they started shouting, they started arguing.

"That's when my manager told me to go around the back and call the police."

Mr Aylett asked: "Did you hear or see anything else?"

She replied: "When I was on the phone I heard smashing and shouting, then I heard someone scream."

The case was adjourned until tomorrow