Age: 28
Sex: male
Date: 22 Oct 2011
Place: New Horizon Community Centre, South Lodge Avenue, Pollards Hill, Mitcham
Akilakumar Kanthasamy was stabbed in the rear car park of the New Horizon Community Centre in Pollards Hill on 22 October 2011.
He had been stabbed through the heart and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was then taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south-west London where his post-mortem examination was carried out.
A man was tried for his murder but acquitted.
It was heard that the man had admitted being at the community centre near the time but that he had run away before Akilakumar Kanthasamy had been stabbed.
There had been about 60 guests at the party which was part of a Sri Lankan festival being held at the New Horizon community centre in South Lodge Avenue, Pollards Hill.
Around 11.30pm a fight broke out outside the community centre, in the car park, during which Akilakumar Kanthasamy was stabbed at about 11.40pm. He was said to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Witnesses said that they had seen a group of about five black male youths and two girls, one black and one white, hanging about outside the community centre and demanding money from guests at knifepoint. They said that one guest had £60 stolen from him. The man was said to have then gone back into the community centre to get help and that minutes later Akilakumar Kanthasamy stumbled into the community centre clutching his chest, with a stab wound to the chest. They said that when he came in he was speaking very quietly in Tamil and that he then fell to the floor. It was said that people were calling 999 but that the ambulance didn't arrive for 25 minutes.
It was said that the fight had been over some stolen cannabis that had been taken by some local youths.
Two knives were later recovered by the police.
The man who was tried for his murder was identified as the attacker by two of his friends, however, there was no strong forensic evidence linking him to the attack and he said that he had run away before Akilakumar Kanthasamy was stabbed.
Akilakumar Kanthasamy was a Tamil and had come to the UK eleven years earlier. He had lived on Glebe Avenue and had worked at the TK Food and Wine store in St Albans, Hertfordshire. He had a wife and a child.
