The REAL Murder Behind Adolescence: Elianne Andam

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Sunshine Island, Elellanne Andam, Dorcas, Adolescence
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Cudden, Hassan Santamu
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Cudden
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Elellanne Andam, Cudden
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Hassan Santamu
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Hassan Santamu, Elellanne Andam
7. 30:00 – 35:00: White Ribbon, Adolescence
8. 35:00 – 40:00: Hassan Santamu, Dorcas
9. 40:00 – 44:17: Hersana, Cudden, Sunshine Island, White Ribbon

Notable quotes from "The REAL Murder Behind Adolescence: Elianne Andam"

• You can download Sunshine Island for free right now using the QR code on screen or the link down below in the description. And once you're in, you can use my exclusive voucher found in the.

  about Sunshine Island · at 3:55

• Elellanne would cross paths with one boy who would change all of their lives forever. Hassan Santamu was born on the 6th of September 2006 in Uganda and life was rough for him right from the jump.

  about Hassan Santamu · at 7:30

• Could finally fly over and reunite with their mother. So, from the ages of 5 to 11, Hassan was raised in South London.

  about Cudden · at 8:15

• Elellanne Andam had succumbed to her injuries and lost her life at 9:21 a.m.

  about Elellanne Andam · at 28:42

• And its influences will inevitably reach the boys that don't directly engage with it. In fact, Elellanne's murder was one of the cases that inspired Netflix's Adolescence…

  about Adolescence · at 30:53

• Address its root cause. And ultimately, it is all with the goal of protecting women and girls from that violence. They engage young boys and men with things like their favorite…

  about White Ribbon · at 31:52

• Every morning I wake up to a house that will never feel whole again. I walk past her empty bedroom, past the belongings that she will never use again. I cry all the time. My favorite time of day would be when I would wait for Elellanne to.

  about Dorcas · at 38:58

• To justice and holistic therapies all around forms of gender-based violence across England and Wales. They even deliver bystander intervention training that would equip…

  about Hersana · at 42:47

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Hassan Santamu — Person · Perpetrator (referenced subject of true-crime case) · 6 mentions · first at 7:35
  Central figure in the case narrative: a teenage boy who murdered Elellanne Andam; his background, behavior, and trial outcome structure the episode’s timeline and themes (knife crime, misogyny, safeguarding failures).
• Elellanne Andam — Person · Victim (referenced subject of true-crime case) · 5 mentions · first at 0:44
  The episode memorializes her life and recounts the events leading to her murder; her personality, ambitions, and family context are used to underscore the tragedy and broader social issues.
• Dorcas — Person · Victim’s mother (family spokesperson in court) · 2 mentions · first at 4:52
  Provides family background and delivers a key victim impact statement; her perspective frames Elellanne’s character and the long-term impact of the murder.

Companies & orgs

• White Ribbon — Company · Charity · 4 mentions · first at 31:41
  An organization tackling the issue of increasing misogyny and violence in young boys.
• Hersana — Company · Non-profit · 2 mentions · first at 42:40
  A London-based nonprofit for black women and girls, providing support and access to justice.

Places & events

• Cudden — Place · Setting · 7 mentions · first at 5:08
  The location where the tragic events of the podcast took place.

Media & podcasts

• Adolescence — Media · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at 2:05
  A Netflix show inspired by cases like the one discussed in the podcast.

Sponsors

• Sunshine Island — Product · Sponsor · 6 mentions · first at 2:20
  Sponsored the podcast episode, providing financial support for its production.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Hello and welcome to Outlaw Podcast. I'm Ellen O'Neal and in today's episode, we're in London in 2023 where a group of teenage girls are on their way to meet up with one of their ex-boyfriends to retrieve a teddy bear that she'd left at his house. Little do these girls know, the ex-boyfriend will be showing up wearing a mask, gloves, and hiding a knife in his waistband. What unfolded next was nothing short of pure horror. On a busy high street at 8:30 a.m. with hundreds, if not thousands of people commuting and laying witness, one of these girls was about to lose her life.

0:39 They were meant to be at school less than an hour later. They were meant to go off to college or university and achieve their dreams. But Elellanne Andam had all of that ripped away from her the day that she tried to stand up for her friend outlaw. Wednesday the 27th of September 2023 was just like any other morning for 15year-old Elellanne. She got up, she did her hair, she ate breakfast, and she left the house for school. But along the way, her and her friends made a quick pit stop to meet her friend's ex. It was supposed to be so quick. Elellanne was a good girl who never missed school, but that day she wouldn't turn up for class.

1:22 And by lunchtime, news of her very sudden and brutal death would be circulating the classrooms. And before we get any further, I want to give a disclaimer that this episode will be covering sensitive topics, including murder, abuse, and assault. Viewer discretion is always advised. And I do also want to add at this stage that while researching this case, we came across probably the highest volume of racist comments we've maybe ever seen in relation to a case. And I want to make it clear right from the beginning that there is no room for racism on this channel. And if you're thinking about leaving hateful comments, you are not welcome in the outlaw family. This is a very, very heavy case. And it was actually one of the main inspirations for the Netflix show Adolescence. So, if you know what that's about, that should give you some indication as to what today's case is like. But lastly, before

2:14 we actually jump head first into this case, I do want to take a quick minute to thank our sponsor for making this video possible, Sunshine Island. It's a cozy, wholesome game where you build your own tropical island and try your hand at agriculture. And to be honest, I am obsessed. In this game, you manage three different islands, each with their own buildings, animals, and production chains. You're on a business venture essentially. You're planting crops, decorating the island, caring for the animals. It is so fun and it's free to download and play on iOS and Android.

2:48 And it's so easy to get started. Literally now, anytime I need to unwind or chill out after a heavy day and just de-stress, I'm reaching for Sunshine Island. Which would actually explain how I've gotten through as many levels as I have. Guys, I'm in deep. Seriously. And I want to show you my work actually because I'm quite proud of my islands. So this right here is my main island. As you can see, I really need to expand a little bit more because I've I've filled it out. And over here, we're on coffee production. I've just unlocked this production chain. I'm making coffee beans. Well, I'm growing coffee beans and I'm going to make coffee with it.

3:21 Can you imagine? Oh my gosh. Wait, hold on. I've I can finish this level. Hold on. I just delivered some ostrich feathers to this guy. Anyway, I've got I've got an episode to film. But what I love the most about Sunshine Island is that this game kind of never ends. There's always something new to unlock. For example, the new fall collection album just dropped, and it's really taken me back to when I used to collect stickers as a kid. Each sticker that you collect helps to fill the album, and when you get a full set, you get to unlock some really cool in-game rewards.

3:51 It's the nostalgia of it all. I love it. Obviously, I've got you guys an offer. You can download Sunshine Island for free right now using the QR code on screen or the link down below in the description. And once you're in, you can use my exclusive voucher found in the settings menu of the game to unlock a welcome gift of 250 gems plus 100,000 coins. That'll give you the perfect head start. And I'm actually really jealous of you all because do I need coins at the moment? I'm in a drought. I'm seriously in a drought. Like I was saying, I really need to expand, but I don't I need to make the coins. Anyway, while you're playing, we might even bump into each other at some point during the next community gameplay event, which is probably one of my favorite features in the game. I love playing with other players. But yeah, thank you to Sunshine Island once again for sponsoring today's episode. Now, with that being said,

4:40 let's start from the very beginning of today's case with the birth of a little baby girl called Elellanne Andam. Elellanne Andam was born on the 28th of June, 2008. She was an absolute miracle baby to her parents, Dorcas and Michael, who had been trying to conceive for years, but with no luck until eventually Elellanne came along. And her parents would actually strike lucky again a few years later when they gave birth to a baby boy. So now this is a happy family of four and they're living in Cuddon, South London. They had a very large extended family and they were all Christian. Her older cousin was even a church reverend who made Christian music on the side. And Elellanne would go into his little home studio. I'm not sure if it was in his home or actually in the church, but she would like put the headphones on and she'd bop along to the music. She was such a musical girl. One thing that her family keep saying about

5:33 her is that the house was full of music whenever Elellanne was around. She was a singer. She was she was just so full of life. She was also really close with her three older girl cousins. Naturally, she was like the baby of the group, but they would let her come along to their sleepovers and hangouts. And overall, she just had a lot of love in her life. Her family was really close. They were all very family oriented. And Elellanne was she was of the generation where everyone gets a Tik Tok profile at like 13 years old. And while that is maybe a bit of a scary concept if you deep it too much, it is very normal. and she had a lot of fun making her own little videos dancing or like with her friends. She was inspired by a lot of the content that she saw on Tik Tok.

6:17 Whether it was teaching her easy recipes for her to start learning how to cook or giving her inspiration for hairstyles, which she loved practicing on her cousins. Elellanne was just such a sweet, loving, ambitious girl. Boy, was she ambitious. She was always trying new things and putting her all into it. Of course, that included her studies. She was very very academically gifted as well. In fact, she had her sights set on becoming a human rights lawyer. Not only did she want success and good things for herself, but she also wanted to help others with her work. That was so core to who she was. Elellanne had also found herself a really lovely group of girl mates in school. They were all so close.

7:00 They were like sisters and they supported each other through everything. All the usual 15year-old ups and downs. you know, your first love, your first heartbreak, exam stress, self-image issues, family tiffs. It's so special to have a group of friends that really genuinely care. And that was Elellanne and her girls, fiercely loyal to each other, even when boys entered the picture. You know how some friends can like ditch you for a boy? But they would always put each other first. And soon, Elellanne would cross paths with one boy who would change all of their lives forever. Hassan Santamu was born on the 6th of September 2006 in Uganda and life was rough for him right from the jump.

7:44 When he was three years old, his mother fled the family home to get away from her abusive husband, Hassan's father. Her plan was to move to England on her own, get a job, save up some money, and then send for the kids to come and join her over in London. But of course, this was going to take a little while for her to make that money. In the meantime, Hassan and his three older sisters were living with different relatives out in Uganda just to get away from their dad. That was about two years of just jumping around different families until they could finally fly over and reunite with their mother. So, from the ages of 5 to 11, Hassan was raised in South London.

8:21 I'm pretty sure Cudden, but he was a handful. He was always misbehaving and causing trouble for his mother who had three other kids to care for as well and money to make to provide for them. Hassan was exhausting her. And so the decision was made to send him to a boarding school back home in Uganda, which was awful for him. He reported being abused, beaten, hit with metal poles. He was so young and so far from home, so far from his family, and he was so scared. Hassan was at that school for all of three months before his mother pulled him out and had him flown back over to London. But at that point, the damage was done. Hassan was showing symptoms of PTSD. On his return, he had become withdrawn. He selfharmed. He lashed out at other kids and even talked about suicide. Bear in mind, he's only in primary school. He's not even a teenager yet. And he's having such horrific, depressing thoughts. When he

9:20 was 12 years old, Hassan started high school in Cudden, and he was even more trouble than before. He was now skipping class, causing fights, getting violent with other students. Teachers had to physically restrain him, and even disarm him of anything that he was trying to use as a weapon. In one lesson, he actually pulled out a kitchen knife that he had seemingly brought from home. and he stood up in this very busy class, pointed the knife at his own chest, and declared that he wanted to end his life. This was no longer just a naughty, disruptive kid. He was a danger to himself and presumably everyone else.

9:57 Something was clearly very wrong, and this young boy needed medical support. The school instantly referred him to our NHS's child and adolescent mental health services, CAMS, as it's known. Cams is famously [ __ ] and inadequate. I can't lie. Literally every young person, not every majority of young people that you meet will have a horrific experience with cams. I know I do. I know all of my friend group do. It's really not surprising. I mean, it's very disappointing, but it is really not surprising that cams didn't seem to help Hassan at all. They just didn't do anything really. They were described as having intermittent contact with Hassan, which is worrying considering how unstable and violent he seemed to be at such a young age. The fact that the authorities and and cams weren't on this boy, I think that's exactly what led to this case. One day in February 2019, a social worker dropped by the house to do

10:58 a random welfare check on Hassan, and they found him home alone at 13 years old. He had just been left to care for himself. They couldn't get a hold of his mother. And when she hadn't returned home the next day, and this young boy had been left alone all night in this home alone, social services took her son out of his mother's care. He was placed into a foster home and he bounced between families for the next two years. Life was unpredictable. It was unstable and frankly turbulent. He no longer had a reliable, loving support network. He was treated like a burden, an unfixable problem. And so Hassan never really had the drive to do better or be better. In fact, he seemed to lose all hope together and just go all in on his bad behavior since he felt unfixable. He grew a very worrying obsession with knives around this stage. He began collecting them and he was so aggressive in general. He was always up for a

11:57 fight. He was the instigator. He loved conflict and he would drag other students into it often. His drawings and doodles that he was making around this time reflected just how dark his mind was becoming. All of them would be violent, gruesome, murderous. He would draw pictures of decapitations and stabbings. And one time on a school trip, Hassan was like 13 years old when he pulled a knife on another kid for mocking him. It's absolutely horrifying just how young he was when he was already doing all of this. For that incident, he was expelled from school and put into a unit for dangerous kids where he only continued to lash out. He would attack staff members and other students alike. Eventually, after a few months of showing progress within that unit, he was transferred to a new Cudden High School, but he was still the same violent boy. From stealing teachers scissors and threatening to stab other

12:56 students to putting two different girls in a headlock and slamming them on the ground on two different occasions, even Hassan's foster families were scared of him. They reported that he was threatening to harm them. And one of them even said that he'd threatened to chop her cat's tail off. Don't listen to that, Pluto. In December 2021, he would have been 15 or 16 years old when Hassan was finally sent back into the care of his own mother. But before that month was even up, she already had to call the police on her own son, who had flown into a fit of rage and was terrifying her. Not long after this, Hassan was finally taken seriously in a medical context and he began having appointments and assessments that concluded with him being diagnosed with autism. This made a lot of sense to his mother. He had had so many little routines and behaviors that needed to be completed or he would be inconsolable. On top of that, he

13:52 would also struggle to make friends and to talk to people. And I guess it also explains his big emotional outburst. He really struggled to control his emotions. He was then after this diagnosis was made, he was placed into a school for children with special educational needs where staff and teachers would have a much better understanding of what he was going through and therefore a lot more patience with him than his previous schools would have had. During his time at this seen school, Hassan showed real progress. He had less violent outbursts.

14:24 He seemed happier. He seemed more engaged with lessons. He even joined a youth club. But then the time came to go to college. Hassan would be taking a sports science course at Cudden College. And while I'm sure they have good special educational needs support there, it wouldn't be anywhere near the level of the SEN school that seemed to be doing him so well. And inevitably, Hassan's mental state began to deteriorate when he went to college. He made a post on social media that read, "The real me is evil, dark, and miserable. I really don't think I will make it past 20 years old. I look at the kitchen knives every night, wondering if I should just end my misery now or live another day to see the ones I love."

15:09 This was a young boy crying out for help. But help would never come in the way that he needed it. And soon, he would act on those feelings. But it wouldn't be his own life that he would take. Hassan would kill someone else exactly three weeks after posting that. In the summer of 2023, Hassan got himself a girlfriend. And this girl has been kept anonymous throughout reports. So, we're going to call her Sarah. She was a couple of years younger than him. He was 17, she was 15. And obviously, they went to different schools cuz he was in college now, but she was still in high school in Cuden. And while we don't know for sure how they met, you just kind of do meet people from neighboring schools in your area. You end up having mutuals on social media, friends of friends. I don't know. They they met.

15:56 Anyway, Hassan's girlfriend Sarah was best friends with Elellanne Andam. So, she will have seen or at least heard about this relationship from the very beginning. And it wasn't a very long one, mind you. Sarah was very quickly put off by how fullon Hassan could be. He was calling her his wife, sending her love letters, bombarding her with affection, love bombing, let's be honest. And if she didn't respond to him quickly enough, he would go ballistic at her. He was he had a very short temper. He would sometimes turn up at her family home with gifts and letters for her when she was mad at him. And despite her telling him to stop, he wouldn't. And eventually, she had to end things with him in September 2023. Despite only being 15 years old, Sarah knew her worth. She hated how Hassan spoke to her and treated her. And she knew that she deserved better. But little did Sarah know. The anger issues and love bombing

16:55 were only a glimpse into the bigger picture with Hassan. She had no idea about his past with knives, how violent and volatile he could be, him threatening to stab people with scissors, his own mother having to call the police on him. Sarah got out before things could get too awful. But then, as with any breakup, came the dreaded swapping of belongings that you'd left over at each other's places. Sarah had left her beloved teddy bear over at his, and I think she had a hoodie or a tracksuit of his, something, I don't know. So, they were planning to meet up and make the swap. But Sarah was kind of scared to see him again. Hassan was already being difficult about meeting up again. Every time they spoke, an argument sparked. When she would try to call him to sort out the plan, he would just shout and scream down the phone at her. She told him, "Never speak to me like that ever again. I've never been

17:49 spoken to like that in my life. No man should speak to a girl like that." But Hassan replied, "Oh, well, there's a first time for everything." It's scary how misogynistic he already is at such a young age. All of Sarah's friends knew about Hassan's abuse and how volatile their relationship had been. And this is where Elellanne Andam, fiercely loyal best friend, comes back into the picture. She told Sarah that she would happily come along and escort her to get her teddy bear back. She wasn't scared of some boy. There was power in numbers after all. But Elellanne didn't truly know Hassan. She didn't know what he was capable of. A few days after the phone call altercation on Tuesday, September 26th, it was nine days since the breakup and the girls decided to hit up the Wick Gift Shopping Mall in Cudden after school. It was a popular hangout spot for the kids in the area. A bunch of the kids that went to the local schools

18:48 would all just go there after the bell rang. But the girls did have ulterior motives for going there that day. They knew that Hassan would be there and they had a plan to get justice to make Hassan apologize to Sarah. Hassan was there with his friend whose identity has also been protected. So, we'll call him Kai. And the two boys bumped into the group of girls. And when they did, all hell broke loose. They were throwing petty and and cutting insults at each other, things about their looks. The girls even made fun of Hassan for having been to a special educational needs school. It's a lowb blow. I know. I I don't condone that [ __ ] but also they're 15. He's treated their mate like [ __ ] It's not nice, but that's kind of how things are in school. People said the most evil [ __ ] that they could that they knew would cut deep. They were just trying to hurt him. Anyway, at one point, the girls started recording a Snapchat video

19:45 of them demanding that Hassan apologized to Sarah, and he was refusing. And the more he refused, the more angry they got. And eventually they squirted a bottle of water over him. Elellanne can be heard saying in this video, "What if this was acid? It's not acid, but you'd just accept it just because you can't say a simple word." Essentially saying, "You would rather be attacked by us right now than just swallow your pride and say sorry to someone that you've wronged." The girls, after they'd squirted this water bottle at him, they ran off giggling. And let me clarify, at least for audio listeners that didn't see the CCTV footage, it wasn't a lot of water. The boy wasn't drenched. He was splashed at most. Initially, Hassan didn't react at all, which was quite uncharacteristic of him. We've spoke at length about how he struggles to control his emotions, especially the unpleasant ones. So, when he was that calm, the

20:42 girls all found it quite scary. During the entire thing, his friend Kai had been warning the girls to stop because, in his words, Hassan was crazy. He was saying that he had anger issues and he reacts to things irrationally. They don't want to provoke him. And once the girls ran off, Kai looked at Hassan, who was kind of covered in water and saw that he was fuming. Kai jumped in to try and calm him down, telling that him not to do anything stupid. It wasn't a big deal. It was just petty [ __ ] and he didn't need to react. Kai worried what could happen after this. He could tell that Hassan wasn't going to let this go.

21:19 He wasn't the type to let things go. And Kai knew that the very next day was the planned meetup to swap Hassan's hoodie for Sarah's beloved teddy bear. But Hassan Santamu had something up his sleeve. Wednesday the 27th of September 2023 started off like any other morning. obviously with lingering chaos from the night before, but all of Sarah's friends didn't regret standing up for her that day. You don't let guys treat your mates like [ __ ] and get away with it. You know, we can only imagine how active the girls group chat would have been that night and even into the next morning with them all planning to accompany Sarah to retrieve her teddy. And they were all theorizing how Hassan would be with them if he was still angry from the day before. In fact, one of them even joked about him turning up and just killing all of them as revenge for the water. And we know where this story is going. So, knowing that that was a

22:15 genuine thought on the girls' minds, even if it was a joke, it's so devastating. That morning before school, all of the girls made their way to the Wick Gift Shopping Center once again, which was the planned meetup spot. Hassan was there, but he was empty-handed. He hadn't brought Sarah's teddy bear. He expected her to hand over the hoodie or whatever it was that she had, but he was unwilling to keep his end of the bargain, perhaps trying to punish her for what had gone down yesterday. But the girl's attention was quickly diverted elsewhere when they clocked what her son was wearing, a blue surgical mask and gloves in 2023. Maybe in 2020 or 2021 at the height of the pandemic, this would make sense. But it seemed so out of place. This wasn't Hassan's usual get up. And it freaked the girls out. And honestly, they were right to worry because there was even more going on that they couldn't see. He

23:13 was wearing two layers of gloves and in his waistband was a knife. He had gone into the kitchen and grabbed a weapon before leaving the house that morning to see this group of young girls. Of course, they had no idea how much danger they were in at 8 on a school morning. So, they were acting as petty and confident as they were the day before. Elellanne even filmed a quick Snapchat update to post to her story as she followed behind Sarah and Hassan, telling all of her friends how they'd gone to pick up the stuff, but he hadn't even brought any of it. We come to collect the stuff from Hassan yet like an interchange. She gets her stuff, he gets his stuff. He didn't even bring the stuff.

23:56 Sarah had initially given Hassan the bag of his things and asked him where her stuff was. But he was reluctant to give an answer. He looked at Sarah, rolling his eyes, saying, "I don't want to hurt you." But not as in like emotional hurt. This was a physical warning. Sarah was angry, though. She went on, "Where's my teddy? Where is my teddy? It was so unfair that he would do this to her and she didn't want him to get away with it. But she was starting to get the vibe that Hassan might actually hit her. He might actually get physical over this.

24:30 Meanwhile, Elellanne is standing a little back from Sarah and Hassan. And she calls out to them, "We're going to be late for school. We don't have time for this." And quickly analyzing the situation, Elellianne must have realized if Hassan takes the bag of his belongings that Sarah just gave to him, then Sarah would have no leverage on him to be able to get her teddy bear back. So, partly in justest and partly as an act of solidarity for her best friend Sarah, Elellanne made the split-second decision to run at her son, grabbing the bag from his unsuspecting grip. She sprinted off with it down the main high street that was full of people commuting to work and school. She has a huge smile on her face. She's giggling because the girls had finally been victorious.

25:17 But not for long. Hassan charged after her. She'd only managed to run a few meters down the road before he tackled her to the ground, pulled the knife out of his waistband, and began stabbing her. He had her down on the ground near a bus stop. There are tons of people laying horrified witness to this vicious attack. He stabbed Elellanne three times in her shoulder area and her legs while she begged for her life. She is fully conscious. She's screaming in total agony, trying to back away. People can hear her saying, "Stop. Stop please."

25:53 All her friends had to run and catch up with her. They were all screaming in terror as Hassan dealt the final blow. a fourth stab wound right through Elellanne's neck that severed her corroted artery. And with that, it would be practically impossible to save her life. Hassan fled the scene immediately while 999 calls from onlookers began pouring in. A nearby offduty bus driver had jumped out of his vehicle to try and give Elellanne first aid. He held her hand and told her, "I won't leave you. You're going to be okay."

26:28 Three ambulance crews soon turned up along with an air ambulance helicopter in the sky. Everyone knew just how serious this was and it was all hands on deck desperately trying to save. Meanwhile, her attacker was on the run. Unlucky for him, he'd been caught on CCTV every step of the way. He's seen discarding various bits of evidence. The outer pair of his gloves went in a public wheelie bin. Then he runs down a residential road and ditches the knife behind a front garden wall. This is at 8:38 a.m. So all of this had happened in the space of about five minutes. Hassan then removed his hoodie and caught the two buses that he needed to get back to his house. And he arrived there for maybe 9:40 a.m. But by 9:44, police were swarming the area on the lookout for Hassan Santamu specifically.

27:21 There was no question in who had done this. They had found out where he lived very quickly. So, of course, they were there waiting for him on his street as he got off his second bus home. One officer spotted him and he ran over to stop him. Weirdly, Hassan was quite calm and normal, compliant. But I think that's cuz he thought he was going to outsmart this police officer. But [ __ ] get a load of this. The officer asked him his name. Hassan gives over a fake name. He says that his name is John. But this [ __ ] idiot was holding his Oyster card between his lips as the officer approached. If you don't know what an Oyster card is, it's basically London's version of a travel card. So the officer sees this in his mouth. He's just said that his name is John. And he goes, "Hand over that Oyster card. I want to see it." And it obviously has Hassan's picture and his full [ __ ] real name on it. So within a minute, an

28:12 entire team of police had turned up and surrounded him. He was arrested 90 minutes after attacking Elellanne. And as they were patting him down and handcuffing him, they asked over and over, "Where's the knife? Where is the knife?" But he wouldn't tell them. And then the officer's radio rang through with an update. They weren't just arresting Hassan for attacking someone anymore. They were arresting him for murder.

28:36 Hello. Just listen to me. Hassan, it's murder, right? Under us for murder. Elellanne Andam had succumbed to her injuries and lost her life at 9:21 a.m. close to where she'd been attacked on the street. She was only 15 years old. She bled out in the street in her school uniform, all because she had defended her friend. That same day, the news of Elellanne's murder traveled fast. There were so many witnesses, her friends, kids going to school, commuters, people shopping. Knowing that it was spreading like wildfire, police got in contact with Elellanne's family as soon as they possibly could to break the devastating news before they could find out just through the grapevine. At that moment when they were told, of course, it was so sudden. It was such a shock. To their knowledge, she had gone to school that morning. She'd made it there safely. And in that moment, their whole world went dark. Her parents had never expected to

29:35 outlive their daughter, never mind so suddenly. the absolute horror of not knowing that the last time you spoke with someone would be the last time ever and you're never going to get a chance to say anything else to them. Her friends were also informed that Elellanne hadn't made it and they were all inconsolable. Her death was like a tragic symbol of how deep her love and friendship went. She was murdered for standing up for someone that she loved. This was a girl who would have grown up to be an amazing human rights lawyer.

30:07 just like she dreamed of. She had such a strong sense of justice. It came so naturally to her. The entire nation was shocked by Elellanne's senseless murder. A 15-year-old girl with her whole life ahead of her, murdered by a knife wielding teenage boy in an argument over a teddy bear. This case truly was a sign of the times. Young boys are becoming more misogynistic and violent at a younger age. It goes handinhand with this red pill manosphere wave that we are suffering through right now. To clarify, I'm not saying that Hassan himself was swept up in the manosphere [ __ ] but way too many Gen Z and Gen Alpha boys are watching pure misogynistic, hateful, sexist content, and its influences will inevitably reach the boys that don't directly engage with it. In fact, Elellanne's murder was one of the cases that inspired Netflix's Adolescence series, which was another huge commentary on this exact issue. In

31:08 it, a young boy infected by the manosphere and misogyny murdered a young girl because she rejected his advances. While Hassan's case isn't identical, it does share a lot of similarities. A teenage boy who snuck a knife out to go and meet a young girl, and then when he got mad, he used the knife that he was going to use anyway. Let's be real. Otherwise, why would he bring it? He used it to murder a young girl who had done nothing more than simply piss him off. She'd not even laid a hand on him. And he killed her. And it's on that note that I want to take a minute to talk about today's charity, White Ribbon, a very, very important organization trying to tackle this exact issue of increasing misogyny and violence in young boys to address its root cause. And ultimately, it is all with the goal of protecting women and girls from that violence. They engage young boys and men with things like their favorite footballers speaking

32:04 out and being allies for women. They're trying to make it a movement. They're making it cool to be an ally. The idea is to engage these young boys that are at risk of developing harmful ideas and values before it even happens. White Ribbon go into schools and youth groups and they teach boys how to spot and correct toxic masculinity and aggression within each other and how to hold their peers accountable. I just love that White Ribbon's mission is not to burden girls with how to be safe from boys, but instead to educate boys and to put the responsibility on them to be good, safe people. There's actually a whole day dedicated to the cause which is coming up. It's on the 25th of November in the UK, which should be about a week after this episode goes live. The day is dedicated to speaking up for women and girls and raising awareness for those warning signs in how boys interact with girls. Warning signs that could

33:02 eventually lead to serious violence. So, as always, we've linked the White Ribbon. That felt like I'd said it wrong, but we've linked the white Hello. We've linked the White Ribbon website down below and it has so many useful resources, so much information on how you can get involved and of course you can donate to help fund their mission. And please, please do if you have the means. This is such an important cause, such a new thing that we have to be worried about is how these boys are being infected by the content that they're seeing online. But anyway, like I said, the link is down below in the description. But with all of that being said, let's get back into Elellanne's story where police have just arrested Hassan for her murder. When Hassan was arrested and taken into custody that day, he was acting very strangely and clearly not taking any of it very seriously. He was smiling and joking.

33:56 The officers said that he seemed more interested in their weapons and asking questions about them than the situation at hand, the fact that he was a [ __ ] murderer. And another observation that the police made actually was that Hassan seemed to treat female officers worse than the male ones. He'd be more aggressive, less cooperative, just generally nastier to women. At one point, there was actually an incident with a female officer where Hassan got written up and in his statement he said that he got angry and felt like hitting her. During his questioning, Hassan tried to deny everything that they accused him of, but clearly that wasn't going to work. Absolutely everything was caught on CCTV with real life witnesses.

34:37 If anything, he was just being annoying doing this, making the whole investigation drag out. He wouldn't give any details. He'd barely answer any questions in general. He seemed to answer no to most things, such as when police asked him if he had anything to say to Elellian's family. He said no. He lied to them about where he ditched the murder weapon, but of course, police found it pretty damn quickly anyway. And when it was sent for DNA testing, of course, it had Elellian's blood all over it and Hassan's DNA on the handle.

35:07 Hassan Santamu was charged with the murder of Elan Andam. And there would be no option for bail. He was to be held in a detention unit until his trial. But when he was sent there, Hassan just caused even more issues. He got into physical altercations with the other kids. One of them he punched so hard that he knocked them straight to the ground. But Hassan was quite low on the detention center hierarchy, so he was quite a big target for the other boys. It's quite a universal thing in prisons and other institutions like that around the world. Inmates have a pecking order.

35:43 And people that harm children or women tend to be at the very bottom of that order. They're the punching bags of the prison. They're the [ __ ] And the other inmates tend to use them to get out their aggression. Hassan was very quickly targeted and essentially bullied for killing a girl. One particular day he was getting [ __ ] from another inmate and Hassan turned around and threatened, "Do you want to end up like her 6 feet under?" And then he even went on to say, "I'll do it again. I'll do it to your mom." This is a boy with an incredibly clear hatred for women. to threaten the life of this other lad's mom who has nothing to do with any of this instead of threatening the boy who is actually upsetting him speaks volumes about Hassan Santamu. I think it also speaks to his weakness and insecurity. He knew that he was a scrawny, awkward little fella and being perfectly honest, I think he knew that he would have a hard

36:37 time taking on other other boys. Women and girls are the only groups that Hassan thought that he would have guaranteed control and power over. Also, another thing to note is that up until this stage, Hassan's identity had been kept secret from the public because he was 17 when he committed the murder, so technically a minor. But when his trial took place at the end of 2024, he would be officially an 18-year-old adult. And now he could be publicly named as 15-year-old Elellian Andam's killer. Hassan's murder trial began on the 9th of December, 2024 at the Old Bailey in London. He would be entering a plea of guilty to manslaughter. He was still denying that this was murder and he was actually trying to argue that since he was on the autistic spectrum, he was of diminished responsibility for violently attacking this young girl in the middle of a busy street. It was never going to fly. autism had nothing to do with him

37:35 bringing the damn knife from home when he planned to meet up with these girls. He can't argue that it was some sort of emotional outburst that he struggled to control because he premeditated using a knife on someone the second that he hid it in his waistband before the meeting. Passan chose not to give evidence and throughout the trial that lasted four weeks, he just sat in the dock and played with fidget toys. Just like we saw in the case of Brianna Jai, teenage killers who also tried to claim diminished responsibility due to autism and failed. I hope it goes without saying that murder and homicidal tendencies are not a bloody trait of being on the autism spectrum. There is no trend. There is no diminished responsibility to be argued. These murderers were just clutching at straws to not take responsibility for their actions. In court, Elellanne's mom, Dorcas, stood up and gave one of the

38:27 most moving character statements I think I've ever heard. She said, "Elleanne was my world, my answered prayer after a long time. She was the kindest, most loving daughter I could have asked for. She was vibrant, creative, and purposeful. Our home was full of her music, laughter, and energy. Now the music has stopped. Elellanne aspired to become a lawyer, to fight for justice, to make a difference. But her life was stolen before she even had the chance to fulfill those dreams. Every morning I wake up to a house that will never feel whole again. I walk past her empty bedroom, past the belongings that she will never use again. I cry all the time. My favorite time of day would be when I would wait for Elellanne to return home from school. She would talk with me for hours, telling me all about her day, and we would laugh so much. You brutally and mercilessly murdered her in the most humiliating way in broad

39:24 daylight, chasing her and killing her on the floor while she pleaded for her life. This was not a random act. It was calculated, deliberate. I have lost laughter and love. There will never be an answer good enough to satisfy why you stabbed my daughter to death. One day you will finish serving your sentence, walk free, and get to see your family again, build a future. However, I will never have that freedom. I am serving a life sentence of grief. I am a prisoner in my own mind. And the question that will forever haunt me is why. I stand before you today as the voice of Elellanne because she can no longer speak for herself. I speak for her dreams, for her future, for the life that was stolen from her. I urge you to impose the strongest possible sentence.

40:14 Elellanne deserved to live. She deserved to grow up. She was here. She mattered. In January 2025, the trial ended and the jury went to deliberate. Almost 12 hours later, they found Hassan Centamu guilty of murder, not manslaughter. What he did to Elellian was straight up murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 23 years. But at this point, he'd already served a couple of years being held on remand. So the minimum time that he had left to serve as of 2025 is 21 years. Meaning if he is really, really well behaved in prison, there's a possibility that he could be out before his 40th birthday, which is a terrifying thought quite honestly.

41:00 Elellianne's funeral had actually taken place 2 years prior to her son's sentencing on the 11th of November 2023, about two months after her murder. Her coffin was brought through the streets of Cudden in a white carriage covered in pink bows and flowers pulled by two white horses. Over 800 people attended, lining the streets as she passed by. Roads were closed. The entire community followed behind her. Even Stormy was in attendance because he was apparently a family friend. If you're unaware, Storzy is like a national treasure here in the UK. He's a rapper and he is such a good man. He's done so much for the youth of today. Obviously, I don't know him personally, but I know his activism.

41:45 I've been following everything that he's done for the youth, and I can imagine that this case really struck a chord for him. On the one-year anniversary of her murder, a memorial artwork of Elellanne was unveiled in Cryen. It's this beautiful mural painting with her signature buns in her hair. It's painted in all different shades of pink, her favorite color. And it's not only there to memorialize Elellanne forever, but as a reminder for all the boys and young men in London to put the knives down. Knife crime truly is an epidemic in our city that has claimed the lives of so many young people who had long and promising lives to live, but the chance to do so was ripped from them by their reckless, violent peers. The final act of hope and justice to help others in Elellanne's name like she dreamt of doing her whole life was the commissioning of a London-based nonprofit called Hersana, an organization for black women and girls

42:44 that design safe spaces, support, access to justice and holistic therapies all around forms of gender-based violence across England and Wales. They even deliver bystander intervention training that would equip businesses and commuters, anyone passing through with the skills to recognize, diffuse, and intervene safely if they see an al a violent altercation brewing. So now, although Elellanne will never get to become a human rights lawyer like she dreamed of, her legacy remains in her sana, helping others who are in need of defending, bringing confidence and strength to other black women victims.

43:24 And just a reminder before we sign off this episode that the link to both White Ribbon and Herana will be available in the description of this episode for anyone who needs their support or for anyone who wants to donate. Please do consider it. But that is all we have for this episode. Thank you so so much for tuning in to Outlaw Podcast once again. And thank you again to Sunshine Island for sponsoring this video. Remember, you can download the game for free with the link down below in the description or the QR code on screen right now and use my exclusive voucher in the game settings menu to unlock a welcome gift of 250 gems plus 100,000 coins. And I'll say it again, I'm jealous of you all. If you're watching on YouTube, please don't forget to subscribe, leave us a like, leave us a comment so that we can continue the conversation after upload.

44:08 If you're listening on a podcast platform, please rate us five stars and I will see you in the next episode.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "The REAL Murder Behind Adolescence: Elianne Andam"?

In order: 0:00 Sunshine Island, Elellanne Andam, Dorcas, Adolescence; 5:00 Cudden, Hassan Santamu; 10:00 Cudden; 15:00 Elellanne Andam, Cudden; 20:00 Hassan Santamu; 25:00 Hassan Santamu, Elellanne Andam; 30:00 White Ribbon, Adolescence; 35:00 Hassan Santamu, Dorcas; 40:00 Hersana, Cudden, Sunshine Island, White Ribbon.

What is mentioned in this OUTLORE with Eleanor Neale episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Hassan Santamu, Elellanne Andam, Cudden, White Ribbon, Dorcas, Hersana. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The REAL Murder Behind Adolescence: Elianne Andam"?

The episode runs 44 min; the transcript is about 8,020 words in 57 timestamped sections.

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