He was working as a gardener at Kensington Palace having applied for a gardening apprenticeship and beaten 500 others to secure that position.
Ellie Ng, Press Association
13:25, 17 Dec 2025Updated 13:26, 17 Dec 2025
Elyas Moussa called the police saying he wanted to hand himself in(Image: Met Police)
A man who stabbed a Kensington Palace gardener to death before calling police from a phone box to hand himself in has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years. Recorda Davey-Ann Clarke, 35, was attacked in Linacre Road, Willesden Green, north-west London, while out celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday just after Christmas last year.
What began as “friendly chit chat” between Mr Clarke and his partner and Elyas Moussa’s group turned into a series of confrontations between the two men after Mr Clarke turned Moussa’s baseball cap backwards.
Moussa, 30, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife and was convicted of murdering Mr Clarke, known as Ricardo to family and friends, earlier this month following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.
Recorda Davey-Ann Clarke, 35, tragically passed away in an ambulance on the way to the hospital (Image: Metropolitan Police)
Judge Usha Karu said: “The fact is that when you went back to Linacre Road you were armed and you knew it. You instigated the violence there by chasing him and you took the knife out after Ricardo Clarke had either been pushed by you or he tripped and went to the ground. He did not really pose any danger to you at that time, quite the opposite, it made him vulnerable to attack by you.”
Of father-of-two Mr Clarke, she said: “He was working as a gardener at Kensington Palace having applied for a gardening apprenticeship and beaten 500 others to secure that position. He took great pride in his job.
“He was part of a close-knit, loving family. The very moving victim personal statements of his brother, sister, nieces, cousins and friends have been read today. They are grieving for someone who was very much part of their lives and closely bonded to. He had a good sense of humour, was fun-loving, caring, strong and resilient and always there for those he loved.”
More than 10 victim personal statements were read out by the prosecution in court on Wednesday.
The mother of Mr Clarke’s children, Lori-Jane Forrest, said she finds herself “crying uncontrollably throughout the day”.
“I was Ricardo’s best friend, love of his life and even his enemy at times but he was my person,” she said. “He was my support system in many ways but he is gone now and we will have to fill the emptiness of no longer having our person, our provider, our protector.”
She said her children’s lives have been “destroyed” and their home “torn apart” by Moussa’s actions.
At around 3am on December 28 last year, Mr Clarke got involved in an argument and confrontation with another man who ended up producing a knife, leading Mr Clarke to arm himself with bottles, the court heard.
After that came to an end Mr Clarke flagged down a police car and reported the knife. Later Mr Clarke and his girlfriend came across Moussa and his group of friends.
“There was friendly chit chat within the group,” judge Karu told the defendant.
“Ricardo Clarke turned the baseball hat that you were wearing backwards and you did not like that. Your evidence was that he did not have your permission to do that. When he said he was from Chile you mocked him about not being able to speak Spanish. The atmosphere between you and Ricardo Clarke changed and became hostile.”
Moussa punched Mr Clarke, who retaliated by striking him on the head with a bottle.
The confrontation ended and then started up again after Moussa “went looking” for Mr Clarke, leading to the pair chasing each other around and throwing bottles.
That altercation also finished, with the two going separate ways, before Moussa returned to Linacre Road to look for lost house keys which he told his trial he found.
“Instead of leaving and returning home you walked into Linacre Road… intent upon confronting Ricardo Clarke and attacking him with your knife,” the judge said.
Moussa fled the scene afterwards, returning to the police cordon at 7am to ask whether someone had died, before calling 999 later that evening and telling officers he wanted to hand himself in.
The call had been made from a phone box miles away from the scene, and the defendant was arrested. Emergency services were called at the time of the incident and medics performed open heart surgery on Mr Clarke in the ambulance.
He was pronounced dead at 5.29am before reaching hospital, with the fatal wound described as a thrusting wound to the left side of his chest which pierced his heart to a depth of at least 6.5cm
Moussa has previous convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of bladed articles in public and possession of drugs.
Mark Gatley KC, defending, said his client “was not looking for trouble” on the night of the incident and that Mr Clarke had gotten into several confrontations that evening.
The judge accepted that Moussa did not intend to kill Mr Clarke and that the murder was not premeditated or planned.
She handed him a concurrent sentence of 12 months in prison for possessing a knife.
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