‘I’ll bring my samurai’

Monday, 23 July 2012

TWO teenagers from South London who joined a rampaging mob that killed a schoolboy at Victoria station are facing years behind bars.

Chris Goncalves and Tayo Ajayi, both 19, were part of a pack of up to 20 youths involved in chasing down Sofyen Belamouadden, 15, on March 25, 2010.

The Old Bailey was told that Ajayi boasted on Facebook the evening before, writing: “I will bring my samurai.”

The attack was the result of “simmering tensions” between students at a sixth form college in Ladbroke Grove, west London, and Sofyen’s school in Fulham, the court heard.

The court heard the two groups were seen arguing at the railway station the previous day, and one of the sixth form boys was left with a bloody nose.

Ajayi was said to have helped plan the attack and research weapons on the internet.

Goncalves was part of a mob that chased Sofyen down into the Tube station ticket hall, where he was fatally wounded.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood said: “Each was involved to a greater or lesser extent in the use of threat of violence that led directly to that death, and it cannot be ignored.

“The young man who died, Sofyen Belamouadden, was pushed down and killed in broad daylight.

“His killers were so brazen, so confident, that they openly carried various weapons with them as they ran at him and hunted him down.”

Goncalves, of Island Road, Bermondsey, and Ajayi, of Mayhew Court, Denmark Hill, denied violent disorder but were convicted on Wednesday. Ajayi was cleared of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Twelve others have already been jailed for offences linked to the killing, receiving sentences totalling 122 years.

Ajayi and Goncalves will be sentenced on a date yet to be fixed in September.

l A final defendant, Junior Bayode, 19, of Sherwood Avenue, Norbury, is due to stand trial alone later this year charged with murder.

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