A hooded gang stabbed a Swiss Cottage man to death on a sports pitch in a planned attack, the Old Bailey heard on Tuesday (March 20).

Jurors heard how the group pounced on 22-year-old Milad Golmakani, from Winchester Mews, while he was playing football with friends at the Mortimer Crescent estate in Kilburn.

They fled the scene in a taxi moments later, leaving the victim bleeding from 14 knife wounds to the neck, back and buttocks.

Mr Golmakani’s friend Zain Salahuddin was also chased and stabbed in the shoulder but managed to escape and hide in a nearby shop on the afternoon of April 20.

Prosecutor Neil Moore said: “‘The purpose of their trip was to seek out and attack Milad Golmakani and his friends.

“These three men attacked Milad Golmakani from both the front and back in a forceful and sustained attack.

“The prosecution case is that this was plainly a planned attack.”

Mr Golmakani, whose right lung was punctured during the attack, was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.07pm.

Sean Hutton, of Malden Road in Belsize Park, Sean Ferdinand from Gilbey’s Yard in Chalk Farm, Mohammed Hashi from Enfield – all 19 – and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murder, attempted murder and wounding with intent.

The trial continues.