Shaking hands in
celebration on a bus, thugs who had just hunted down a schoolboy, 16,
like a pack of animals and stabbed him to death
Leaning across the bus seat,
these teenage killers shake hands in a sickening moment of
self-congratulation.
One is heard to say to
another: ‘You’re the new young boss.’
Just half an hour earlier they
had been among a vicious gang who hunted down a schoolboy ‘like a pack
of wild dogs’ before knifing him to death.
Triumphant: Lamarr Gordon and Dale Green
shake hands on a bus after the stabbing of Nicholas Pearton, with
Gordon heard to call Green 'the new young boss'
Sauntering off: Dale Green casually looks
back at the murder scene after fleeing following the stabbing of
Nicholas Pearton
The gang are now behind bars.
They were jailed for a total of 74 years yesterday over the killing in
broad daylight in a busy shopping street of 16-year-old Nicholas
Pearton.
The teenager was pursued
across a suburban park by his attackers, many of whom were still in
their school uniform, before he was stabbed through the heart and
collapsed in a shop doorway in front of his mother, Kim.
Victim: Nicolas Pearton was killed in South
London after being chased by seven
gang members across a park before being stabbed in a shop door
As the gang fled, they waved
their knives in the air and shouted the name of the gang ‘triumphantly’.
The still from bus CCTV
footage shows two gang members, then aged just 16, celebrating. Dale
Green, who minutes earlier plunged a kitchen knife into Nicholas’s
back, can be seen clasping hands with gang leader Lamarr Gordon in a
‘sickening gesture of approval and congratulation’.
Gordon – known as ‘Lamarr the
scar’ because he had a scar from 23 stitches in his face – was heard to
praise Green’s knifing, telling him: ‘You’re the new young boss’.
Another member Joseph Appiah,
then 15, carried out a head count to make sure none of the gang – known
as Shanks and Guns (shanks being slang for knives) – had been arrested
after the attack in Sydenham, South London, in May last year. Other
gang members had abandoned an armoury of weapons including knives and
wooden poles in the park.
Killers: Lamarr Gordon,
left, and Dale Green both received life sentences for the stabbing,
with Gordon's tariff being a minimum 14 years and Green's 15 years
Jailed: Joseph Appiah,
left, also received a life sentence, while Terell Clement was locked up
for ten years after being found guilty of manslaughter
The Old Bailey heard that
Nicholas, who was training to be a carpenter, was ‘in the eyes of his
attackers’ involved with a rival gang, the Sydenham Boys. It was a
rivalry, the court was told, fuelled by a threatening video posted on
YouTube.
Yesterday the victim’s father
Vince Pearton, 43, and mother Kim Whoolley, told of how their family
had been torn apart by the death of their son. Lucy Kennedy,
prosecuting, read an emotionally-charged statement from the parents.
Eight years: Claude
Gaha and Demar Brown both received the sentence for their involvement
in the killing
In it, Mr Pearton said his
son’s murder had ‘broken the chain that bonds our family together and
we will be forever incomplete. Our loss and accompanying feeling of
emptiness is an all-consuming and inescapable daily torment for us’.
Locked up: Edward Conteh was given a
seven-year term by the judge
The gang were all from South
London and aged between 15 and 17 at the time of the attack. They were
unmasked yesterday as judge Anthony Morris lifted a ban on reporting
their names.
Passing sentence, the judge
said the gang was responsible for the ‘senseless and tragic loss of a
young life’.
‘This case involved gratuitous
violence in public places, which seriously discourages law-abiding
citizens from walking the streets,’ he said. ‘The group was like a pack
of wild dogs hunting down its prey.
‘This was a particularly
cowardly attack, as all the defendants knew he was alone and unarmed.’
Green, 17, of Catford, Gordon,
17, of Bromley, and Appiah, 16, described as a talented athlete of
Lewisham, had denied murder but were convicted. They were all sentenced
to life with Green jailed for a minimum 15 years, Gordon 14 years and
Appiah 12 years.
Four others, Terell Clement,
18, of Deptford, Claude Gaha, 17, of Bromley, Edward Conteh, of
Peckham, and Demar Brown, 16, of Hither Green, were jailed for a total
of 33 years after being convicted of manslaughter.
Dignity: The judge in the murder case
praises the conduct of Nicholas's family throughout the case
