Judge halts murder trial

(First Edition)

THE TRIAL of a 16-year-old Vietnamese boy accused of murdering a black schoolboy was halted yesterday at the Old Bailey.

Judge Lawrence Verney, the Recorder of London, ruled identification evidence presented by the prosecution was inadmissible and ordered the jury to clear the boy.

The boy, of Woolwich, south-east London, had denied stabbing 15-year-old Arif Roberts in the neck outside Gladesmore Comprehensive School in Tottenham, north London, in September 1990.

William Clegg QC, for the defence, said evidence from three girls who saw the murder was 'insubstantial'. Detectives had shown them a group photograph which included the defendant and they had not identified him.