Footballer, 17, ‘killed in row over his afro’

A talented teenage footballer died after being stabbed in the neck with a bottle during a race row, Plymouth crown court was told yesterday.

Alex Peguero Sosa, 17, who had been a youth player with Plymouth Argyle, was killed by Lee Dent, 42, when an argument between two groups of friends at a taxi rank in Kingsbridge, south Devon, turned violent, it was alleged.

The row started when a friend of Mr Dent, the owner of a second-hand tyre business, made an offensive comment about Alex’s “afro” hairstyle, according to the prosecutor, Simon Laws, QC. After the killing, Mr Laws said, Mr Dent had told a friend: “That f***ing n***er deserved it.”

He dumped his blood-soaked clothes in a bin bag in a recycling bin, but police found them the next day, the prosecutor said. The teenager had died from the “terrible injuries” inflicted by the single blow with the bottle, he added.