The murder of a music manager in Euston was “unforeseen and unintended”, a court heard.

On February 18 last year, shortly before 11pm, Bright Akinleye, 22, of Abbey Wood, south east London, was stabbed three times in a flat in Starcross Street, Euston.

Mr Akinleye fled to the foyer of a nearby hotel, where he collapsed and died. Earlier that evening, the victim shot a drill music video in Deptford, the second part of which was to be filmed in the Euston flat where he was later stabbed.

Standing trial at the Old Bailey, Abdoulie Ceesay, 28, of St Norbert Road, Lewisham, Silas Loko, 27, of Tenterden House, Southwark, and Tashawn Brewster, 31, of Kennington Park Road, Kennington, all deny Mr Akinleye's murder.

Oliver Petts, 30, of Swiftsden Way, Bromley, was also charged with murder but this was dropped when, during the trial, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which the prosecution accepted.

The court previously heard the attack on Mr Akinleye was planned and targeted following a long-running dispute ignited on social media.

On Friday (February 21) Michael Bromley-Martin QC, for Loko, said: "There is no evidence that Silas Loko participated in the attack on Bright Akinleye, let alone that he either encouraged it or that he himself had any dispute with Bright Akinleye such that he should want to encourage an attack on him.

"Or indeed that even he had any intention to cause him any harm at all, let alone to intend really serious harm which is what would be necessary for him to be considered guilty of murder.

"When you look at where he was on February 18, we know that Silas Loko wasn't at the video shoot at Starcross Street, we know that he didn't travel to Starcross Street and that he didn't drive to, or was driven away from, Starcross Street."

Mr Bromley-Martin denied Loko instigated and orchestrated the stabbing over the phone and argued the prosecution's case against him to be based on inference, rather than evidence.

Isabella Forshall QC, for Ceesay, said: "We suggest there is a real question as to whether anyone involved in the incident had requisite intent for murder.

"Of course this murder was disastrous but there is a real possibility it was unforeseen and unintended."

The trial continues.