27th April, 2012
A teenage girl who organised the killing of a 15-year-old schoolboy at Victoria Station on Facebook and kicked him as he lay bleeding to death was jailed for 12 years.
Victoria Osoteku had just turned 18 when she joined a 20-strong mob armed with an array of weapons as they hunted down Sofyen Belamouadden, 15, in front of hundreds of horrified rush hour commuters at the busy London train station.
The teenager helped to set up the attack on the social networking site Facebook and then bought a £3.99 knife set from Argos, which was used to stab Sofyen at least nine times.
Osoteku was then seen kicking the victim as he lay helpless on he ground with stab wounds to his heart and right lung.
The Old Bailey heard Osteku claimed she just ‘nudged’ him with her foot ‘to see if he was okay’.
But Osoteku, now aged 20, was convicted of manslaughter after giving evidence for 21 days – the longest testimony at the Old Bailey in recent years – in a four month trial.
She was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of murder.
Sentencing her to 12 years in a young offenders’ institution, Judge Christopher Moss QC told her: ‘You played a pivotal role in the events of and leading up to that day and must take a substantial share of the responsibility for that.’
Osoteku is the 13th teenager to be sentenced for her part in the killing. Her jail term brings the total sentences handed down to 124 years.
Three other teenagers – Samson Odegbune and Christopher Omoregie, both 18, along with Obi Nwokeh, 19 – were convicted of murder during a series of trials last year and jailed for 18 years each last week.
Pastor’s son Femi Oderinwale, 18, along with Adonis Akra, also 18, and Samuel Roberts, 19, were each given 12 years after they were convicted of manslaughter.
And Enoch Amoah, 19, and Tyrone Richards, 17, were locked up for seven years after they were found guilty of violent disorder.
Lewis Sinclar, Olawale Olaribigbe and Melvin Mensah, all 18, along with Selassie Ahiaku, 19, all got two years after they pleaded guilty to violent disorder before their trial got underway last September. The attack was the result of ‘simmering tensions’ between students at a sixth form college in Ladbroke Grove, west London, and Sofyen’s fellow pupils at Henry Compton School, in Fulham.
On March 24, 2010, the two groups were seen arguing at Victoria Station and one youth was left with a bloody nose.
Determined to get revenge, the Ladbrooke Grove group used the social networking site Facebook to recruit ‘troops and weapons’.
Osoteku, who was taken into care at the age of eight, was at the centre of the conversations and agreed to buy a box set of kitchen knives from Argos.
The next day, March 25, they arrived at Victoria on two buses at around 5.14pm armed with a samurai sword, knives, sharpening steels, and metal bars to confront the rival group.