A former Barnet College student stabbed his friend to death after a row over a computer game descended into violence, a court heard this week.

Yonis Jama was 16 when he stabbed Steven Siewlal, also 16, in the face and body 60 times with two knives and a screwdriver, in September 1999. Now 18, Jama denied murder at Inner London Crown Court this week, but admitted manslaughter, either through provocation or diminished responsibility.

Mr Siewlal's mother Chandra, 44, told the court she returned home in Willingdon Road, Tottenham, from work in Finsbury Park to find her son's body covered in blood, with knife wounds across his face and neck.

Prosecuting, Mark Ellison said Jama had lost his temper when Mr Siewlal said he wanted his Sony PlayStation games console as payment for losing a computer game.

After repeatedly stabbing him, he tied his friend up with a vacuum flex to make it look like a robbery and left, Mr Ellison said.

Giving evidence for the defence, psychiatrist Dr Stephen Brugha told the court Jama, an information technology student from Roslyn Road, Seven Sisters, was suffering from Asperger's Syndrome a form of autism which causes sufferers to react with extreme behaviour when faced with a problem.

"This may occur if something of great importance to them is threatened as in this case the removal of a Playstation," Dr Brugha said.

The trial continues.

November 21, 2001 18:53