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'He was planning his wedding'
31/10/2006 21:23 - (SA)
London - A young city lawyer was stabbed
to death at night near his home by robbers who targeted him as a
"means to an end", a court heard on Tuesday.
Tom Rhys Pryce, 31, was attacked for his travel card,
mobile phone and bank cards as he walked home after work in
northwest London in January.
Opening a murder trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Richard
Horwell said the lawyer was a "proud man" who may have put up a
fight when he was attacked.
Donnel Carty, 19, and Delano Brown, 18, both from northwest
London, were charged with murder. Brown pleaded guilty to robbing Rhys
Price, a charge Carty denies.
"Mr Rhys Pryce was a proud man and there was a real prospect
that he did not submit to the demands of the robbers," Horwell
told the court. "He may well have taken them on."
The Cambridge graduate, who worked for law firm Linklaters,
was due to marry his fiancee, Adele Eastman, also a lawyer, this
year.
His attackers followed him from Kensal Green tube station
because they thought it was likely he would "have something
worth stealing," Horwell said.
"It did not matter to them that this man had worked hard for
his possessions," Horwell said. "He had a promising career in
the legal profession ahead of him."
"It did not matter to them that this man was planning his
wedding - he was due to marry in September."
"All that was best in life was ahead of him. To them he was
a means to an end and they treated him accordingly."
Horwell told the court the police had little to go on during
the early stages of their investigation.
There were few witnesses, apart from neighbours who saw two
young men running from the scene.
A breakthrough came when police uncovered telephone calls
made by the defendants "in their naivety" to their girlfriends
on the stolen mobile phone, Horwell told the court.
The trial continues.
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