A teenage boy, 17, who admitted stabbing and killing schoolgirl Elianne Andam, 15, at a bus stop on Wellesley Road in Croydon last September is set to face trial in November. 

The teenage boy still denied possession of a blade in a public space but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. A new trial is set to take place on November 25. 

He appeared via video link at the Old Bailey last Thursday where his plea to manslaughter was rejected.  

Last year, on September 27, Elianne Andam, 15, was murdered while on her way to school with a foot-long kitchen knife, the Old Bailey heard. 

The attacker stabbed the schoolgirl in the neck after she tried to retrieve her friend’s teddy bear, Croydon Youth Court heard last September. Police responded within two minutes; however, Elianne was pronounced dead at the scene.  

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC called it a “brutal attack” and the victim’s family have said they are “broken by the senseless death”. 

The prosecution claimed the attacker took the large blade out from his waistband and stabbed Elianne multiple times in the neck and chest. He fled from the scene but was later found and arrested the same morning in New Addington. 

Last October, thousands attended a vigil to remember the victim, Bishop Mark Nicholson from Acts Christian church said: “Our hearts are burning. It doesn’t matter if you are related or not. Another life [is] lost. In our city we are always majoring on knife crime. I don’t have the solution but I can pray to bring solace.” 

At Elianne’s funeral in November, her aunt said she had an “infectious enthusiasm for all things good and beautiful”.