A YOUNG man fatally stabbed was an ‘easy target’ for a group of young men wanting revenge on his cousin, a court heard.

Arron Payne died on September 13 last year, a week after being severely injured in an attack in Chalkhill Road, Wembley.

Five men are on trial at the Old Bailey in connection with the killing.

Tachane Roach-Johnson, 22, Jerveer Walters, 22, Jamal Walters, 18, all of Roger Stone Court, Neasden, Dean Gabay, 22, of no fixed abode and Mark Reid of Dementa Close, Wembley, all deny murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.

Mark Reid is on trial for two counts of assisting an offender, which he denies.

In her opening statement on Monday, Sally Howes QC, prosecuting, said: “It is the Crown’s case that all five defendants who are here took part in this murderous attack and it was planned and organised. There was an agreement to kill or seriously harm Arron Payne.”

Arron was 26 and lived in Rosslyn Crescent, Wembley, and worked at CP Electronics in Park Royal.

The stabbing was a revenge attack for a fight the previous day at the Preston Pub in Preston Road, Wembley, which had been won by Arron and his cousin, Simian Campbell, the jury was told.

Ms Howes said it had started after Simian thought Roach-Johnson had ‘looked at him funny’ at a car wash earlier on September 4. The group planned to lure Simian to Chalkhill Road, but when they realised he would not fall into the trap they turned their attention to Arron instead, the court heard.

“Arron was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Ms Howes.

She added: “This wasn’t a spontaneous outbreak of violence, it was a revenge attack, it was an ambush. Dean Gabay, Javeer Walters and Tachane Roach-Johnson were very much on the losing side of the fight at the Preston pub when it was fists and feet, therefore in order to guarantee success of a revenge attack, a weapon would have been used. The attack bore all the hallmarks of a ‘hit’.”

On September 5, Arron was surrounded in Chalkhill Road and stabbed in his abdomen and leg, within a matter of seconds.

Ms Howes said Gabay was the knifeman.

Arron was taken to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddingdon.

He was discharged on September 13 but collapsed as he was leaving hospital and died of a haemorrhage as a result of the stab wound.

* A sixth man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Arron Payne. The 19-year-old was arrested on Monday and has been bailed to return to a north London police station on a date in late July.