A man has been charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a park in east London.
Jodie Chesney was knifed in the back near a children’s playground in Harold Hill, Romford, last Friday.
Scotland Yard said Manuel Petrovic, 20, was arrested in Leicester on Tuesday on suspicion of Jodie’s murder .
Mr Petrovic, of Highfield Road, Romford, is due to appear before Barkingside Magistrates’ Court later, the force added.
Officers said a second murder suspect arrested in London remained in custody.
Jodie was the fifth teenager to be stabbed to death in the capital so far this year.
‘Amazing young woman’
Her father Peter led tributes, describing his daughter, who was a keen Scout, as a “great girl” and a “proud geek”.
Tributes have been left outside the park where she died, and purple ribbons have been hung across Harold Hill and Romford.
Students and teachers at Havering Sixth Form College, where Jodie studied, remembered her by donning her favourite colour on Friday.
Former classmates described her as a “bundle of joy” and said she was “so beautiful – inside and out”.
Scout leader Anna Skipworth said Jodie “blossomed into an amazing young woman” during her time with the Scouts.
“She was funny, intelligent and a joy to work with,” she said.
People laid flowers near the entrance to the park
Jodie was pronounced dead after police were called to the park near St Neot’s Road at 21:25 GMT on 1 March.
She was with friends at the time of the attack.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of her death as trauma and haemorrhage.
Source: www.bbc.com
