TWO men who launched a vicious knife attack on an aspiring rapper and young father after smashing down his front door have been convicted of murder.

Alinjavwa Siwale, 22, was stabbed and died in the kitchen of his Colchester home while his younger brother Suwi frantically cried out for help.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Phoenix Lee, 20, and Sheldon McKay, 25, carried out a swift attack “lasting less than two minutes” shortly after midnight on December 11 last year.

CCTV footage captured the pair approaching the front of the house the Siwale brothers shared in Affleck Road, on Colchester’s Greenstead estate.

Lee took a short run up before kicking in the front door, before the pair entered the home.

The court heard the door was unsecure after a police raid on the house weeks earlier.

The brothers had attempted to barricade the door with two boxes containing trampolines and a kitchen table top.

A next door neighbour reported being awoken shortly after midnight to the sound of “banging and scuffling” coming from the property.

The court heard the mother-of-four found the sound “alarming enough for her to jump out of bed”.

At about 12.14am, she heard yelling and screaming which she recognised as the voice of one of the brothers who lived next door.

Looking out of her bedroom window, she saw Suwi climbing over her fence, before running across her garden shouting for help.

The neighbour rushed downstairs to the back door and found Suwi “frantic and heavily blood stained”.

A call was made to the ambulance service and Suwi made a desperate plea for the neighbour to save his brother.

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When the neighbour noticed police cars approaching, she felt safe enough to enter the property, where she found Alinjavwa lying on his back with a wound she described as “two slash injuries to his chest”.

Police followed her inside and Alinjavwa was pronounced dead at 12.35am.

In his hand police found a portion of a blade wrapped in a sock to form a makeshift handle.

The court heard a hilted combat knife and sheath were found inside the property.

The blade was covered in Alinjavwa’s blood, and the DNA of Lee and Lee’s girlfriend was found on the handle.

Jane Bickerstaff QC, prosecuting, said: “The evidence would suggest Mr Lee and Mr McKay entered [the address] with force at 12.12am that night, with Mr Lee going inside first and armed with that combat knife.

“It is not suggested [Lee’s girlfriend] was present. The significance of the fact she had clearly touched the knife sheath and knife handle at some earlier stage, or her DNA had been transferred onto it, is proof that knife was taken into the premises by Phoenix Lee.”

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In the hours after the stabbing, McKay headed to a friend’s address in Teal Close alongside Lee.

The police were called after an occupant heard noises at the back door.

A police officer arrived at the home after 3am and found McKay outside. McKay had bloodstains on the right sleeve of his grey top.

The officer noticed another man in the garden, but when he asked the man to give himself up, he fled.

The officer noted the second man, identified as Lee, had blood on his clothes and face.

McKay was arrested and gave no comment in police interview.

Lee handed himself in at Colchester Police Station on December 13, but his clothing and footwear have never been recovered. He also answered no comment to all questions asked.

The pair told the jury they acted in self defence, with Lee claiming he and McKay had gone to the house “to chill”.

Lee said he kicked in the front door because Alinjavwa had shouted an insult from a first floor window.

The pair tried to claim McKay delivered the fatal stab wound to Alinjavwa in self defence after picking up a knife dropped during a scuffle.

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In her opening address to the jury, Ms Bickerstaff said: “The Crown say these two defendants acted together in a joint enterprise attack.

“Once inside the property they acted swiftly in that short window of time.

“Alinjavwa Siwale was fatally stabbed and was also slashed and stabbed a number of times.”

She added: “The evidence would suggest that Mr Lee provided that weapon which was if not the murder weapon, one of the murder weapons.

“Although that knife was recovered in the premises, the Crown does not exclude Mr McKay was armed with a second weapon which was never recovered.”

She said: “Mr McKay, we do know, was heavily covered in the victim’s blood.

“The Crown cannot say whether one or the other or both of the defendants was the inflicter of the fatal wound and or other fatal injuries.

“What we can say is the timing and location and the speed of the incident, the extent and the severity of the injuries, the additional wound caused to Suwi, are not consistent with any act of reasonable self defence.”

The jury deliberated for 19 hours and three minutes before returning majority verdicts on charges of murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

Lee and McKay, both of no fixed address, were convicted on both counts and will be sentenced at the same court on October 11.