Osman Shidane was killed by a knife that he had been carrying himself, claims the defence in a South Ruislip murder trial.
A 17-year-old boy is standing trial for the murder of Osman, who was stabbed outside St Gregory the Great Church, in Victoria Road.
The court heard from one of Osman's closest friends, Mohammed Abshir, who told the jury he had worked with Osman, 20, for the last few years.
Call logs and text messages showed that Osman, who was also known as "Bounty" and "Scrambles", spent much of his last three days "chilling" with Mohammed. On one of these occasions, just a day before he was seriously stabbed, a "long knife slid down his trouser leg" while celebrating a goal scored on the video game FIFA.
"Osman came around 4ish and we were sitting on the sofa playing FIFA", Mohammed recalled.
"Someone scored and we all over-exaggerated our celebrations, but when he stood up a knife fell from him and came down his trousers."
Later, Andrew Hall QC for the defence showed the court a picture of the knife found at the scene of Osman's murder, and Mohamed confirmed this was the knife that fell from his friend's trousers the day before he was stabbed.
After the knife fell, Mohammed and Kane Augustine, the other friend present at the time, confronted Osman about the knife, the court heard.
The previous day, Osman had been in an argument with a drug dealer called Sticker, Mohamed told jurors, suggesting this was why the young salesman had taken to carrying around a knife.
Kane provided him with "the ugliest bag in the world to conceal the knife in and Osman left it with Mohamed, who was staying at his sister's home.
The Old Bailey was shown Osman's text messages with Mohamed the following day, May 15, just hours before Osman would be stabbed.
In the texts, Osman wrote "bruv should I come down and pick up the ting", which both prosecution and defence agree is a reference to the knife.
"Need it G it's bait as well" Osman added, meaning that he needed the knife and that it was in an obvious location, in Mohamed's sister's kitchen.
"Before your sister clocks" he concluded, suggesting Mohamed's sister could easily come across the knife.
"Bell me when you're going yard, I need the ting" he later texted Kane.
Osman met Kane and Mohamed at the home, picked up his knife and they all boarded a train for Eastcote, the closest station to Osman's home, Mohammed told the jury."
"We were sitting on the wall outside his house and he went in to put the knife back", said Mohammed.
However the witness was cross-examined by the defence, where he conceded that he had just assumed Osman has returned the knife to his kitchen, however he was still wearing the bag when he came out.
A plan was made for Osman to buy cannabis from the defendant, whom it was heard earlier from PC Solanki of South Ruislip ward, is well known to police for allegedly dealing drugs from his bicycle.
The 17-year-old cannot be named for legal reasons.
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Mohamed said that he and cane could "not be a****" to meet the dealer with Osman as their meeting point had changed from near Osman's house to the BP petrol station in Victoria Road, just a few metres from where Osman was stabbed, near the Old Dairy Cineworld and Asda development.
"After half an hour we kept texting him saying we're at your home, we decided to follow the helicopters and sirens" said Mohammed.
Tracing the path to their friend's seriously injured body, Mohamed said that all he could see were his friend's shoes, which he recognised but said he "couldn't be sure" it was him as there was "lots of police surrounding him".
Osman Shidane passed away in hospital three days later, on May 18.
The trial continues at the Old Bailey this afternoon
