Arif Roberts

Arif Roberts was stabbed in Markfield Road, outside of Gladesmore School in Tottenham following a fight the day before that took place during a game of football.

It was heard that on 19 September 1990 a number of pupils had been playing football when a row broke out over a ball and there was a fight between the blacks and Vietnamese pupils and that the Vietnamese pupils got the worst of it.

It was heard then that the following day the Vietnamese pupils planned revenge against the black pupils and recruited other Vietnamese youths to come along to the school to fight the blacks.

Arif Roberts himself was said to have had nothing to do with the row during the football game and was said to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had just left the school grounds to get some lunch and was walking along Markfield Road when he was set upon by a number of Vietnamese youths and stabbed in the neck. The 16-year-old Vietnamese youth that was tried for his murder was said to have been one of the youths recruited to come along for the fight and to have stabbed Arif Roberts in the neck with a knife.

Arif Roberts had his jugular vein severed and died soon after.

The 16-year-old Vietnamese youth was charged with Arif Roberts's murder and tried at the Old Bailey, but the case collapsed after it was determined that evidence regarding his identification by three girls was insubstantial.

It was said that three girls had seen the Vietnamese youth stab Arif Roberts, but at the trial it was heard that when they were shown a photo of a group of youths that included the Vietnamese youth, that they had been unable to pick him out. After the finding, the judge ruled that their identification evidence was inadmissible and ordered the jury to acquit the youth.

The Vietnamese youth, from Woolwich, was never identified because of his age.