Two drug dealers have been found guilty of killing 17-year-old Jodie Chesney.

The student had been smoking cannabis and listening to music with friends in a park in Romford on the evening of 1 March when she was stabbed in the back.

After deliberating for nearly six hours, the jury found Svenson Ong-a-Kwie, 19, and a 17-year-old boy guilty of murder. Their co-defendants – Manuel Petrovic, 20, and a 16-year-old boy – were cleared of murder at the Old Bailey in London on Thursday.



Jodie, who was described as a “girl next door”, was not known to the pair convicted of her murder. She had been a victim of of “casual violence” in the drug-dealing world, jurors heard.

While the motive for the murder remains unclear, there were some indications that it was a drug-related attack meant for somebody else. Police have largely dismissed the theory that the murder was some kind of gang initiation.

Police had to rush to find Jodie’s father, Peter, who was celebrating his birthday in central London, as news of the stabbing spread via social media. The Chesney family shouted “Yes” when the verdict was returned.

The prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC had told jurors the defendants took a “casual approach to violence” in a world where knife crime was routine. The court had heard how Ong-a-Kwie had been stabbed in the thigh six months earlier and was looking for his assailants on the day of the murder.

The defendants were said to have come from broken homes and turned to drug dealing as a way to make “easy money”.

Det Ch Insp Dave Whellams, of the Metropolitan police, said Jodie’s murder was a tragedy that had shocked the nation. “It could have been anybody’s daughter,” he said. “She was a very nice girl, she had a small circle of friends, she did well at school, worked in the community. She was in the Scouts. She had been up to Downing Street. She was the girl next door.

“They have gone there purposefully to stab somebody and they have not cared who they stabbed. They stabbed a 17-year-old girl in the back for no reason.”

The court was told that on the night of the murder, Petrovic had driven the defendants to Amy’s Park in Harold Hill, east London, after Ong-a-Kwie sent an urgent request for a lift. Petrovic waited in the car with the 16-year-old defendant as Ong-a-Kwie and the 17-year-old ran into the park armed with a knife.

CCTV footage showed the pair disappearing into the park before Jodie’s scream was heard.

Her boyfriend, Eddie Coyle, 18, told the court how she collapsed in his arms in front of their horrified friends. He said he had thought the taller of the two assailants – probably Ong-a-Kwie, who is 1.88m (6ft 2in) – was going to punch Jodie when he “swung his arm out” and stabbed her.

Coyle said: “She was in shock at first. She started screaming continuously, very loud, about two minutes straight. After she stopped screaming she began to faint.”

Jodie, who received an 18cm deep stab wound to the back which almost passed through her body, died before she arrived at hospital.

Whellams said the murder investigation was difficult. “No lighting, no cameras. House to house is far away from the playground area,” Whellams said. “This has happened at 9.15pm in March – it’s pitch black – and that is the problem we have.”

His colleague DI Perry Benton said: “We don’t know how the suspects got there … It’s a needle in a haystack working out how they arrived. It’s quite chaotic initially.”

The breakthrough came when Andrei Mihai walked into Romford police station to report two people running from the park and jumping into a black Vauxhall Corsa. Mihai had been waiting for his girlfriend when he saw the suspects.

Police were able to narrow down their search for the car using numberplate recognition technology, then link it with a report of an abandoned vehicle matching the description. Petrovic had bought the Corsa days before the murder and Ong-a-Kwie’s fingerprints were found on it.

Petrovic was arrested first and told police there were four people in the car, but refused to name anyone. The 16-year-old was arrested next, having been linked to Petrovic through CCTV footage. Text messages led police to Ong-a-Kwie and the 17-year-old, who were arrested on 10 March.

In court, Ong-a-Kwie admitted being in the park but said the 17-year-old had stabbed Jodie, thinking she was someone called “Tash”. The 17-year-old said Ong-a-Kwie was responsible and had confessed that he “messed up”, before disposing of the knife and burning his clothes. Petrovic said he knew nothing of what was about to happen in the park.

The pair will be sentenced on 18 November.