A MAN accused of killing a rival drug runner swerved through the streets of Basingstoke in a bid to hide from a police helicopter, a court heard.

Eighteen-year-old Taylor Williams, from Bromley, died in Shooters Way on Saturday, August 31, 2019 after a stab wound to his chest fatally cut his heart, causing him to lose a litre of blood and suffer a cardiac arrest.

Olamide Soyege, 28, of Dagenham, and Terence Maccabee, 19, of Southwark, are both charged with his murder, plus robbery, conspiracy to rob and possession of a knife. Meanwhile, Basingstoke woman Paige Taylor, 23, is accused of robbery and conspiracy to rob.

Today (Thursday) a jury at Winchester Crown Court were played a recording of final police interview by one of the witnesses, a drug user who had bought heroine from Soyege on the same day as the murder.

The witness said: “He (Soyege) said to go and meet him by The Oak [pub]. Me and Paige (Taylor) left, we went to The Oak, his phone was off I think at that point Paige was trying to ring him and text him.

“Seen him coming up because he was wearing different clothes. He was sort of shifty. The helicopter was going above us that was sort of worrying him.”

The court was told that the witness saw Soyege earlier in the day wearing a burgundy tracksuit, but when she went to get drugs from him, he was wearing a grey hoodie, bottoms and flip flops with socks.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Police at the scene in Shooters Way, Basingstoke, in August last year

“Paige was asking loads of questions and he was sort of ‘not yet not yet’. Telling her not to talk about it, telling her to shush,” she continued.

The witness said that Soyege asked Taylor to “run on ahead to make sure nothing was going on near ours".

She continued: “[He was] just sort of avoiding the helicopter that was coming over the top of us, at the moment he kissed me. The helicopter was right above us.

“It was as the helicopter was there, there was nowhere for him to duck away.”

The witness said that Soyege was trying to make out that the pair had just left The Oak pub.

When Taylor, Soyege and the witness returned to her home the atmosphere was said to be “a bit up in the air, a bit hectic”.

The witness was also asked about an earlier statement she made saying Taylor had come into her home earlier that night.

She said: “Paige said how she has stabbed someone, ended up robbing someone.

“She said she had blood on her hands. I didn’t see anything on her hands as such.”

The witness said in her video interview that Taylor had also changed clothes, taking items out of the witness’s laundry basket to wear.

Maccabee did not appear at court today after he was deemed unwell by medical staff at Winchester Prison, where he is currently in custody.

The trial continues.