Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir, 16, died after he was chased and stabbed by a ten-strong gang armed with a ‘formidable’ array of weapons.
He was cut down in a ‘brutal and merciless attack’ near his home in Pimlico, south-west London, last January - yards away from some of London’s most expensive properties.
Arber Barbatovci (left), 20, and Ahmed Mikhaimar
(right), 20, were convicted along with three others for the murder of
Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir, 16
Craig Boyce (left), 26, and Tarquai Joseph (right), 19, were in the ten-strong gang which killed the victim
Hani was attacked with swords, a meat cleaver, knives and a Taser stun gun and was stabbed through the heart.
Arber Barbatovci, 20, Craig Boyce, 26, Ahmed Mikhaimar, 20, Tarquai Joseph, 19, and a fifth man, who cannot be named, were convicted last month at the Old Bailey of murdering Hani.
The murder was the result of a bitter rivalry between two local street gangs.
Judge Charles Wide QC, told them: ‘The murder by you of Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir was as calculated as it was savage.
'The horror of what you did is demonstrated and compounded by the degree of planning and organisation.
'It must have involved the recruitment of the ten who would carry out the murder - that could not have been the work of a few minutes.’
He added: ‘It involved arranging to meet at a particular place at a particular time, clothed in a way so the garments you were wearing could be used to conceal your identity.
‘You had a fearsome armoury of long knives and meat cleavers and then a co-ordinated meet after which, moving together through the streets of Pimlico, to the alarm of anyone that saw you, to find your victim, hunt him down and kill him.
‘Having killed him plainly by arrangement, the getting together of the weapons and putting them down a drain in Sussex Street, was all planned.
‘The main feature of the case is what must have been Hani’s horror as he realised in Johnson's Place what you were doing and we have all seen the chilling CCTV of seeing you men coming out from behind parked cars ready to attack.’
Victim: Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir, 16, died
after he was chased and stabbed by a ten-strong gang armed with a
'formidable' array of weapons
The judge said the victim must have been ‘utterly terrified’ as he was being chased by the gang.
The killing took place in full public view at 6.50pm on a Sunday evening.
‘There must have been a reason for it, though there is no evidence. I am quite satisfied that it must have concerned a gang-related turf war to do with drugs,’ the judge said.
Boyce was given a life sentence with a 27-year minimum term while the other four defendants all received life sentences with 26-year minimum terms.
The killers set out together from the Pimlico estate during the evening of January 27 2013.
‘They wore a variety of items of clothing from hats to scarves and balaclavas - these ten carried a formidable array of concealed weapons,’ said prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC.
‘They were heading towards Lupus Street, specifically the Churchill Gardens Estate because that estate represented to these ten men a rival faction in a turf war that they clearly developed.
‘An agenda of murderous proportion was at play that evening by way of simply which side of a street they lived on.’
Hani was walking through the estate with his girlfriend and another young man when he was seen by the gang.
He was spotted and ran through the estate and into the fully lit main road of Lupus Street.
‘It afforded him no protection and his assailants gave him no quarter - he was caught in that main road and overwhelmed by the number of assailants,’ Mr Jafferjee said.
‘As he lay on the ground completely defenceless he was brutally and mercilessly attacked.
‘Such was the frenzy that even two of the attackers ended up cut as they rained down on the victim.
‘His murder was the produce of brazen lawlessness on the streets of Central London on a Sunday evening.’
Horrific: The 16-year-old died from multiple stab wounds after he was set upon on the edge of Pimlico
Grieving: Family members including Hani's mother
Pauline Hickey, pictured with her hood up, lay flowers next to the
scene where he was stabbed
Barbatovci, of Pimlico, Boyce, of the Paddington area, Mikhaimar, of Vauxhall Bridge Road, of Pimlico, Joseph, of Maida Vale, and the fifth defendant had all denied murder but were convicted unanimously.
A sixth man, Yassine Sidi-Ammi, 20, was cleared by the jury of perverting the course of justice, while the court heard another man, Dilwar Hussein, has fled to Bangladesh since the attack.
The seventh defendant, Donjeta Gashi, 20, of Kentish Town, was cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment