Man is quizzed on stab killing in Forge Place

Published: 4th November, 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

MURDER detectives last night continued to hold a man in custody after a mysterious fatal stabbing.

The victim, who has not been named by police but sources say is “Martti” Novak, 27, believed to be a Polish national, died in hospital on Sunday afternoon following an incident at a second-floor flat in Forge Place, Kentish Town, shortly before 1am earlier the same day.

Police sources said they believe the murder is not “drugs-related” and it is understood the victim did not live at the address.

A post mortem examination gave the cause of death as stab wounds to the chest.

Yesterday, police re­leased two women, aged 49 and 42, without charge and continued to quiz a 52-year-old man for a fourth day in connection with the inquiry. 

Yesterday the block of flats remained taped off and guarded by police while forensics officers continued to comb the flat for clues as to how and why the man was killed. They removed kitchen equipment and residents were forced to enter their flats by the back door.

Officers were called to the flat by the ambulance services at 12.48am. Medics reportedly gave emergency treatment to the victim in the central square outside the building before he was rushed to hospital.

A police spokesman said they knew the identity of the man, but had yet to track down his next of kin.

In Forge Place, just off Malden Crescent, residents said they were being “kept in the dark” by police. One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I was asleep when police knocked on our door. They asked whether I had heard anything but when I asked what happened, they couldn’t say much. They said the guy didn’t live in the flat, and that they thought he was Polish. As far as I know there was just one woman living up there but I don’t know much about it. It is very shocking.”

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 12.40am to reports of an assault in Forge Place. We sent one ambulance, one response car and one air ambulance person in a car. Our staff treated a man for stab wounds.”