Man charged with Christmas Day murder

11:57am Friday 2nd January 2009

A MAN has appeared in court accused of murdering his neighbour during a party in his flat in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Michal Fiema, a 21-year-old Polish national, was charged with the murder of a 37-year-old man in a rented house in Shrubbery Road, Edmonton.

The victim, who is also believed to be Polish, has not yet been formally identified by police.

Friends were gathered at the house for a party on the night of the alleged killing, according to neighbours.

They said up to ten Poles rent three houses in the street and hold noisy parties every Friday.

One neighbour, Ken Smith, said they “seemed to be good hardworking boys”.

Another neighbour, personal trainer Hose Cuenco Jnr, 25, said he worked with some of his Polish neighbours on eight-hour shifts packing frozen goods at an Iceland warehouse in Enfield Lock but didn’t know the two involved.

He said: “They would party all night at the end of their shift. Music would be on and off. This was a rowdy one. It is just quite sad really. I think it got out of hand.

“We were in here enjoying ourselves and having our Christmas and the following morning there were guys in forensic suits.

“Police were coming and going for three days afterwards.”

His mother, Valentine, said: “They were always saying ‘hello mum’ and offering to lift things for me. We wouldn’t complain about their music because we knew how hard they worked.”

A neighbour who was woken in the commotion, at about 5am on Christmas morning, said she saw ambulance staff trying to resuscitate a man on a stretcher who was wearing a neck brace and had been stripped to the waist.

She said that police took five men with them for questioning, one of whom was wearing handcuffs.

The noise levels had been a problem for other neighbours, she added, who had complained to the police and Enfield Council.

She said: “I have foxes, but they made more noise than that. There was one lady who had three children who were kept awake. She was nearly crying.”

Mr Fiema was remanded in custody after his hearing at Highbury Corner magistrates court on December 27.

He will appear at the Old Bailey on April 6.

Shrubbery Road is opposite Plevna Road, where Henry Bolombi was knifed to death last New Year’s Day.