Teenage girls among four accused of murdering man over crack cocaine row

Two teenage girls have been accused of murdering a man over a row about crack cocaine in London.

Eymaiyah Lee Bradshaw-McKoy, 18, and Mia Campos-Jorge, 18, were among a group of four who attacked Anthony Marks near King’s Cross station in August 2024.

Mr Marks died five weeks later after being hospitalised and then recalled to prison, the Old Bailey heard on Tuesday.

Drug dealer Jaidee Bingham, who used the alias Ghost, and Harry Gittins,were also involved in the incident, the court heard.

The victim used a county lines drug network called Aaron operated by the two girls and Bingham from a ‘trap house’ near Gray’s Inn Road.

Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told jurors it was likely the defendants were also victims of exploitation and that the operation was controlled by older people.

He said: ‘It is objectively both depressing and no doubt shocking to be confronted by the realities of this for young people and in terms of them wasting their human potential.’

He added: ‘The case illustrates the depressing realities of the industry of class A drug supply and those dependent on class A drugs.

‘At one end of the line are the users, in this case including Mr Marks and Mr Gittins – they were men in early middle-age whose lives were controlled by their habitual need to take class A drugs, that is depressing enough.

‘Perhaps even more depressing is that they were being sourced from a county line, the Aaron line, that was being controlled on the ground by people that were still in law children.’

One of the girls claimed she had been violently robbed during a drug delivery for Bingham.

All of the defendants did not deny they were on CCTV footage, but claim they were just spectators.

Grittins acted aggressively at points aggressively and held items that could be used as weapons but was outnumbered and attacked while on the ground, jurors heard.

Marks, a habitual drug user, had breached his licence on release from prison.

He had entered Kings Cross Station intoxicated and with ‘very obvious and significant facial and other injuries’, Mr Davies said.

He told police he had been kicked before being hit with a glass bottle and a black car bonnet by a man, after an altercation involving cocaine.

The drug user told officers: ‘I met my local drug dealer, his name’s Ghost, he has a complaint. He’s complained that one of, one of the smokers had taken some drugs off one of the subsidiary girls and had run away with it.’

‘Subsidiary girls’ are used in county lines to deliver drugs and collect payment.

Marks continued: ‘I told him basically it’s got nothing to do with me, but he claims that I know who the people were. I said, yeah, I know who they were, but I never took nothing off them.’

A CT scan at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, revealed a subdural haematoma that caused his brain ‘to displace five to 8mm millimetres to the left’ and was in the area of a pre-existing subdural haematoma.

He was then transferred to Brixton Prison, which recorded he had suspected epilepsy, the court heard.

But he was not receiving a therapeutic dose of antiepileptic medication while at the prison, increasing his risk of seizure, and he was not referred for a neurological scan after reporting slurred speech and losing consciousness, Mr Davies said.

His brain started to bleed on August 29 and doctors at King’s College Hospital, Camberwell, diagnosed him with an acute-on-chronic subdural haemorrhage.

He died on September 14 as a consequence of acute haemorrhage, according to several medical experts.

Bradshaw-McKoy, 18, of Longford Walk, London; Campos-Jorge, 18, of Milton Road, London; Gittins, 36, of Regent Square, Camden; and Bingham, 18, are also accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Bingham is further charged with possession of an offensive weapon, the bottle, a claim he denies.

Jurors were told the defendants’ identities were not in dispute but that questions remain over who did what, why they did it, as well as what were the intentions and consequences of their actions.

The trial continues.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.