A group of five teenagers who carried out the killing of a 17-year-old Lord Promise Nkenda have on Monday, 4 February, been sentenced.
All five denied murder which happened in London but were found guilty on 21 December 2018 following trial.
[A] Anton Muir, 18, was sentenced to 17 years’ detention in a young offender institution or prison, less time served on remand.
[B] Ephraim Idris, 18, was sentenced to 16 years’ detention in a young offender institution or prison, less time served on remand.
[D] Ishaq Ahmed Musa Abdille, 18, was sentenced to 18 years’ detention in a young offender institution or prison, less time served on remand.
[F] Shemar Dawes, 18, was sentenced to 18 years’ detention in a young offender institution or prison, less time served on remand.
[C] A 15-year-old boy – was sentenced to 14 years’ detention in a young offender institution or prison, less time served on remand.
The court heard how the group used car they stole as a weapon when they tracked the victim, Promise, down in Canning Town on Wednesday, 14 February.
Promise bravely managed to scramble away from the car which had been driven at him at speed and ran for his life down Butchers Road in the direction of Goldwing Close.
He was pursued by four of the five occupants from the car and stabbed repeatedly in the head, back and chest by the culprits who wore white latex gloves during the attack – reaffirming it as both premeditated and calculated.
An investigation was launched after officers were called by the London Ambulance Service shortly after 20:00hrs on Wednesday, 14 February to reports of a male suffering stab from injuries on Goldwing Close, E16.
Officers attended and found Lord Promise Nkenda – known as Promise – who was from Newham was pronounced dead at the scene at 20:38hrs.
A post-mortem examination held at East Ham Mortuary on Thursday, 15 February gave cause of death as stab wounds to the chest.
Officers then commenced a meticulous investigation which included spending hours viewing and reviewing CCTV images of the defendants along with the retrieval and analysis of DNA evidence.
The court heard that the car used by the killers was carjacked from a woman in Fairland Road, E15 at approximately 18:00hrs.
The stolen BMW which was used as both a battering ram against Promise and as an escape car following the stabbing and would later be found crashed in Victoria Dock Road.
Incriminating evidence was found in the boot of the car by investigators.
A knife and pair of latex gloves were later discovered behind a nearby telephone junction box in the crime scene and forensically linked to the attack.