Man 'stamped on pregnant girlfriend in bid to kill unborn baby'

A heavily pregnant young woman was brutally stamped and kicked on the ground by her ex-boyfriend intent on killing their unborn baby boy, a court heard.

Marks & Spencer shop assistant Malorie Bantala, 22, refused Kevin Wilson's pleas to have an abortion so on the evening of June 15, he allegedly took matters into his own hands and recruited a teenager to help.

Disguised in motorcycle helmets, the pair pounced on Miss Bantala outside her home in Peckham, south London, deliberately targeting her stomach in a "cowardly and callous attack", jurors were told.

Miss Bantala allegedly recognised her ex-boyfriend and they made brief eye contact as he emerged from bushes where he had been lying in wait.

After the assault, he turned his head to look back at her when she shouted out to him: "Kevin, I'm going to kill you, watch" before he ran off, the court heard.

The attackers made off on a Vespa scooter and were caught on CCTV jumping a red light in their haste to return to Wilson's home one-and-a half miles away in Bermondsey, jurors were told.

Meanwhile, family and neighbours rushed to help Miss Bantala as she lay curled up in the street with life-threatening injuries, unable to feel her baby moving inside her.

When emergency services arrived, she told police that her child's father's was responsible, saying: "He doesn't want the baby."

Later that night, the stillborn baby boy was delivered by emergency Caesarian section at 32 weeks gestation.

Miss Bantala was treated for severe internal bleeding and broken bones in the hand she had used to try to guard her baby from the onslaught.

Before the attack, Miss Bantala had spent the day buying decorations for a baby shower with a friend.

Teaching assistant Wilson, 22, and a 17-year-old youth who cannot be named for legal reasons, deny causing grievous bodily harm to Miss Bantala and child destruction.

Opening the case at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said: "It was a cowardly and callous attack, each male wearing a motorcycle helmet in an apparent effort to conceal his identity.

"It is the prosecution case that one of the attackers was the unborn baby's father - Kevin Wilson. He had made it clear that he didn't want the baby to be born and was not pleased when Miss Bantala informed others that he was the father.

"We say that he took matters into his own hands and decided that he would end the pregnancy by violence."

A post-mortem examination of the foetus found that if it had not been for the assault, there was no reason why he would not have been born alive and a DNA test confirmed that Wilson was the father.

At the time of the attack, Miss Bantala, then 21, lived with her mother and sister in Peckham while Wilson lived with his mother, stepfather and brothers on the Longfield Estate in Bermondsey.

Miss Bantala and Wilson met in the summer of 2011, ahead of their first term at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton.

They embarked on a sexual relationship but it fizzled out in the middle of their first year, although they remained friendly.

Last summer, during a group holiday to Ibiza, they slept together again, Mr Rees told the jury of nine women and three men.

Their baby was conceived around November 15 last year when Miss Bantala turned to Wilson following the death of her five-year-old nephew from sickle cell anaemia.

The following month, she phoned him to say she was pregnant and Wilson reacted by telling her he was not ready to be a father.

On being informed that she had decided to keep the baby, he cut her off but rang back to ask: "Why are you doing this to me?"

Wilson went on to arrange a visit to an abortion clinic but became angry when she still refused to end the pregnancy, accusing her of being "selfish".

A few days later, he made a further attempt to get her to agree to an abortion when they had dinner at Nando's in London Bridge, the court heard.

In May, Miss Bantala was annoyed to learn on social media that Wilson had moved on and she confided in a mutual friend that he was the father of her unborn child.

Wilson found out and called her a "jezzy", accusing her of sleeping around and demanding she stop spreading the story about him, the court heard.

She responded by visiting his home and telling his mother that her son had made her pregnant, jurors were told.

Following his arrest, Wilson denied taking part in the attack on his ex-girlfriend, and told police he was visiting his brother and a friend on his estate at the time.

Investigators then turned their attention to the second defendant's ownership of a Piaggio Vespa. They discovered that on his 17th birthday on May 22, he had arranged insurance cover but, since the assault on Miss Bantala, the scooter has disappeared.

Phone data showed that both defendants had left their mobiles on the Longfield Estate, in what Mr Rees said was an attempt to conceal the fact they had gone to Miss Bantala's address.

He told jurors that the victim would be giving evidence in court tomorrow morning.