A basketball player has been cleared of murdering a man by battering him around the neck with parts of a shopping trolley.
21-year-old Elmi Awil, who played for London Paws basketball team, was accused of attacking 24-year-old Mustafa Farah, from Camden, with a metal bar after an argument broke out between two groups in the early hours of Saturday, June 4 2016.
The 6ft 7ins tall Brunel University student claimed from Brent he acted in self-defence.
He was found not guilty of murder and an alternative charge of the manslaughter of Mr Farah in Willesden High Road in Brent .
Members of Mr Farah's family reportedly gasped "what justice?" as the verdict was delivered in court.
The court heard how Mr Farah was "out of it" before Awil hit him with a blue and red pole, according to a local café owner.
The café owner described a tall man with an iron bar being "egged on" while another man was heard to say: "He's not worth it. He's drunk. Let's just leave it."
Eight days after the incident, Mr Farah, who was of Somali heritage, died in hospital.
A pathologist found he had suffered a heart attack as a result of being struck in the vagus nerve in the neck.
It is something pathologist, Ashley Fegan-Earl, says he has only seen three times out of thousands of post-mortem examinations.
Following the fight, the court heard how 20-year-old Abukar Yahye drove Awil to Victoria Coach Station, where he fled to the Netherlands.
He returned to England days later and handed himself in to Police.
Police retrieved the weapon, a 50cm long shopping trolley bar, from a wheelie bin, which had two fingerprints on it matching Awil's right hand.
In court, Awil told jurors that he left the country because he was scared, he told police in an interview that he had acted in self-defence.
Awil, of Harley Road in Brent, walked free from court and Yahye, a Middlesex University student from Brent, was acquitted of assisting an offender.
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