A 26-year-old from Norwich convicted of the murder of a man in Northampton had threatened people living in a city estate with a machete six months before his arrest, it has emerged.
Rakeem Leandre was found guilty of the murder of Christopher Allbury-Burridge who was stabbed to death when Leandre and three others turned up at his home to steal cannabis plants on December 11 last year.
Leandre, of Brewers Court, Norwich, together with Jordan Parker, 24, from Walthamstow and Calum Farquhar, 24, from Leyton, were found guilty of murder while Joel Cyrus, also from Leyton, was convicted of manslaughter.
The quartet were convicted following a six-week trial at Northampton Crown Court which started at the beginning of last month.
People living near to Leandre at Brewers Court, off Mousehold Street in Norwich, have described how the defendant thought he was "untouchable" and had threatened people just months before he was arrested.
A 66-year-old woman, who did not want to be named but lived near to Leandre, said: “He went out and was threatening people with a machete.
“He had it down his trousers and was threatening people with it.
“The police were called and took him away but he was back in a few minutes.
“It was about six months before he was arrested.
“He just thought he was untouchable.
“He had said it (the machete) was for his own protection."
The woman recalled Leandre being arrested by police in December last year, just before Christmas, although did not initially know what it had been for.
But it was not until the next day that the woman became aware Leandre had been arrested in connection with a murder.
The woman said both she and a number of others in the area had endured run-ins with Leandre.
She said: "He was getting these drugs all the time she was worried about who was going to come in.
“I just think he thought he was untouchable.”
“He was having young girls up there. There was drug dealing - kids were coming out of school and waiting outside for their drugs.
“He got away with so much, he wasn’t a nice person.”
The woman said Leandre had been responsible for "killing my dog" about four years ago.
She said: "It was an awful thing.”
She said her dog had been out in the communal area in the flats when the Bull Mastiff-type dog, being looked after by Leandre, came over and attacked her dog.
The woman managed to get her dog off the ground and took it to the vets but if died the day after the attack.
She said: “He never said sorry, I never got anything at all.
“Going through all that, I will never get over it.
“It was a frightful thing I had to witness and go through.”
The woman said has since been threatened by Leandre after she asked him to clean up after the dog.
She said he “shouted and bawled at me” before later scooping up the dog dirt in a grow bag and “threw it at my door”.
Meanwhile another woman from Brewers Court, also 66, recalled the time he had been out in the area "with a machete" and described how a neighbour had called police to say he was armed.
The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "He was going mad because he'd had his car windscreen smashed. He ended up being taken away.
"People are relieved he's been found guilty, a lot of people are, I can assure you.
"We're all relieved around here, we all know he's nothing but trouble."
The woman, who has lived in Brewers Court for more than 30 years, said they used to never have any trouble but described how Leandre had been responsible for "quite a lot of it".
Leandre, Farquhar and Parker were also convicted of conspiracy to rob and possession of an offensive weapon while Cyrus was convicted of conspiracy to rob but found not guilty of possession of an offensive weapon.
All four will be sentenced on November 29.
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