Zombie knife attacker found guilty of attempted murder at Notting Hill Carnival

A zombie-knife attacker has been found guilty of slashing a man at Notting Hill Carnival.

Jurors accepted the prosecution’s case that Rumarni Tuitt used a 12-inch knife against Kamani Spooner, then aged 18, on August 26 last year in Canal Way, west London, just before 8pm as carnival goers were enjoying themselves.

Mr Spooner survived and the Old Bailey previously heard that he and the 19-year-old defendant, of Walthamstow, east London, did not know each other.

Jurors found him guilty of attempted murder on Thursday, the court’s listing office said.

Prosecutor Mark Paltenghi told jurors during the opening: “The trial you are about to try arises out of events at the Notting Hill Carnival on the evening of Monday August 26 of last year in which it is alleged the defendant sliced open Mr Spooner’s stomach with a 12-inch zombie knife.

“He also stabbed Mr Spooner four more times to the side and the back and in addition caused a laceration to Mr Spooner’s right forearm.”

Tuitt claimed that he was acting in self defence, Mr Paltenghi said.

Mr Paltenghi also said there was no evidence that Tuitt harboured any particular grievance against Mr Spooner.

In a witness statement for the police, Mr Spooner said he spent much of the day at the carnival drinking with his friends.

“Towards the end of the day of carnival, he could hear shouting coming from somewhere and he realised he was somehow in the middle of it,” Mr Paltenghi told jurors.

“He then saw people fighting around him – three of them were quite close, they were throwing punches.

“He then recalls being hit in the back and upon looking at his arm, saw it had been cut, then looked down and saw that his intestines were hanging out. He put his hand over them and just ran.

“He cannot cast any light on why it was he would have been attacked.”

Tuitt will be sentenced on June 27 for attempted murder and for possessing a knife, a charge he admitted earlier.

Published: 08/05/2025 by Radio NewsHub