A Norwich Crown Court jury convicted 28-year-old Benjamin Katabana for the murder of UK-based Nigerian student Uchenna Okirie.
A 28-year-old Congolese national, Benjamin Katabana, has been found guilty of murdering a UK-based Nigerian student, Uchenna Okirie, following a fatal stabbing at a shared accommodation facility in Norwich, England.
The conviction was returned by a jury at Norwich Crown Court after an 11-day trial in which prosecutors detailed how the victim was attacked inside the communal corridor of the building where both men lived.
According to Norfolk Constabulary, police were called to Somerleyton House in Norwich in the early hours of November 22, 2025, after reports that a man had been found bleeding and unresponsive inside the premises.
Despite emergency efforts, Okirie, also known as “Uche,” was pronounced dead shortly after officers arrived. Authorities later confirmed that the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest.
Katabana had denied murder during trial proceedings and instead offered a guilty plea to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. The jury, however, unanimously convicted him of murder.
Investigators said CCTV footage reviewed during the investigation showed the two men meeting in the corridor before Katabana, who was reportedly holding a knife, launched what police described as a sustained attack.
Following the incident, Katabana reportedly handed himself over to police, telling officers: “I have killed someone, I think.”
The case drew attention both within the local Norwich community and among Nigerians in the United Kingdom because of the circumstances surrounding the killing and the profile of the victim, who had been identified in earlier reports as a postgraduate student.
Norfolk Constabulary said a sentencing date has not yet been fixed.