26th September, 2015
A teenage girl lured a bright student to his death at the hands of three knife-wielding boys in a murder compared to atrocities carried out in war-torn Syria.
Sanaa Ibrahim, 18, laid a trap for 17-year-old Jeremie Malenge after they travelled back to London together from Swindon by train.
She arranged for Tariq Williams-Dawodu, 17, Tre Morgan, 18, and a 14-year-old who cannot be named, to lay in wait outside Hackney Central station, preparing to ambush him when he arrived.
The straight A student escaped the initial attack, but Ibrahim helped them to hunt Malenge through the streets of east London.
She watched as they pounced from a taxi and brutally stabbed him to death.
Ibrahim claimed she was a victim, unaware of the killers’ intentions, but phone records showed she had secretly been in phone contact with the boys before and after the murder.
She sobbed at her sentencing today at the Old Bailey.
Judge Zoe Smith told her: ‘You could have prevented this attack. You could have told Jeremie Malenge not to go to the Kingsmead estate and could have warned your companions of the intended attack.
“You did not and that shows you to be entirely without conscience.”
The judge told the killers: “The three of you subjected him to a merciless and ferocious attack.
“He was stabbed a number of times and dies from a stab that went through the right side of his chest and into the heart with a knife with a blade of at least 12.5cm long.
“The horror of that attack we have observed from the CCTV footage.
“It was fast and furious and we can see long blades glinting in the street lighting.”
In a statement read in court, the victim’s father, Abubaker Malenge, who brought his son to Britain from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004, said the killers had broken his family’s hearts.
“As Jeremie’s dad I feel that there is a massive whole in my heart since my lovely son was sadly murdered. I will never forget the death of my son,” he said.
He added: ‘In my opinion the way the people killed Jeremie is the same as the atrocities of the innocent people in Somalia, Nigeria and Syria.
“I brought Jeremy to the UK for a better life and now he has been murdered on the streets of London.
“I have heard the evidence and believe it was a planned attack. All I want is justice for Jeremie.”
During a five-week trial, Ibrahim was branded a ‘practised liar’ as she turned on her co-defendants and blamed them for the killing.
Morgan and the 14-year-old refused to give evidence and claimed they were not involved, while Williams-Dawodu admitted attacking Malenge but said he had not stabbed him.
Malenge, a former student at Petchey Academy in Hackney, was stabbed three times in the chest, and died at the scene of the attack, in Homerton High Street, east London.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray QC said phone records linked Ibrahim to the gang of boys, while CCTV showed she met them after the initial ambush to plan the second deadly attack.
“The three defendants who did the stabbing did not act alone. They were assisted by the first defendant Sanaa Ibrahim,” he said.
“The evidence shows that she was part of the plan and that her role was as the inside woman.”
Ibrahim had been in Swindon with Malenge, known as J-Dot, and his friend Rasine ‘Popz’ Vassell earlier on January 6 this year.
The trio took the train back to London, arriving at Hackney Central station at 11:00 pm.
“At exactly the same time, a group of three other young men were seen running towards the station’, said Mr Cray.
“This second group of three had one purpose, one plan. They were determined to do all they could to kill or at least seriously injure Jeremie Malenge and/or Rasine Vassell.
“Over the next 30 minutes or so on that late Tuesday evening, the three attackers hunted their two victims through the streets of Hackney in order to find them and carry out a deadly knife attack.”
Ibrahim’s phone logs show she was in contact repeatedly with Williams-Dawodu, including just moments before the ambush outside the train station.
Shortly afterwards, she was seen on CCTV meeting the three boys around the back of Hackney town hall to plot their next move.
“Her contact with the attackers did not with end with calling the attack on,” said Mr Cray.
“She met up with them after the first chase and spends about 15 minutes talking face to face, then cool as you like she leaves the three people who have been chasing them and goes back to the boys she was with.
“There is no innocent explanation for her contact with the attackers before and during this attack.
“She was supplying information what was going on and acting with the others to execute the most deadly plan.”
Malenge and Popz were eventually caught by the three attackers near Homerton High Street.
“When it came, the attack was sudden, brutal and terrifying’, said Mr Cray.
“Rasine Vassell managed to get away but Jeremie Malenge was caught and brought to the ground.
“He was then set upon by all three of the attackers and stabbed many times.
“The fatal wound went 12.5cm through Jeremie’s ribs and pierced his heart.”
Morgan and the two teenage boys used a minicab to track Malenge and his friend, stalking them through the streets until they stopped at a shop for refreshments.
Ibrahim was initially thought to be a witness to the murder, but told a tissue of lies to the police.
When she came to court, she claimed that Malenge and his friend had been planning to steal a stash of drugs she was looking after, and she called for assistance to stop them.
She also told the court that she had seen all three boys with knives after the attack, as they ditched them in a canal.
Williams-Dawodu, who was on bail and banned from Hackney at the time of the murder, was also convicted of a second knife attack on Homerton High Street on March 22 last year.
He was part of a group who again used a minicab to track their victim.
Ibrahim, from Hackney, Morgan, from Clapham,Williams-Dawodu, from Woodford Green, and the 14-year-old from Stoke Newington, all denied murder.
Williams-Dawodu admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over a previous incident.
But a jury of seven women and five men took just two hours to convict Ibrahim and the two boys of Malenge’s murder.
Ibrahim is to serve at least 14 years in detention. Morgan, who was banned from entering Hackney after being released from custody for another stabbing, was sentenced to 16 years.
Williams-Dawodu, on bail for a previous stab attack at the time, was sentenced to 18 and a half years, with a two-year concurrent sentence for the first stabbing.
The 14-year-old was sentenced to 12 years detention.
The judge added: “Jeremie Malenge was but 17 years of age when he was brutally cut down.
“It is doubtful that any of you knew him prior to this incident and your attack on him was completely unprovoked.”
The judge told Williams-Dawodu: ‘You planned and organised this attack with the help of Ms Ibrahim.
“You recruited your fellow co-defendants to help you and took with you to the scene a massive knife and planned to make your attack in a public place.”
Culled from Mail Online