The Samurai Tube killers: Gang of teenagers who punched, kicked and stabbed boy of 15 to death in feud between schools are jailed



Promising footballer Sofyen Belamouadden was stabbed nine times after pupils from two rival schools clashed at London’s Victoria station



A teenage gang who hacked a boy of 15 to death in front of horrified commuters received sentences totalling more than 100 years yesterday.

Sofyen Belamouadden was punched, kicked and stabbed in a murder planned on Facebook following a feud between his school and a sixth-form college.

A pack of up to 20 students aged between 15 and 18 went to Victoria underground station in London armed with a set of kitchen knives bought for £3.99 from Argos, a Samurai sword, flick knives, metal bars and extendable batons which were used to batter the GCSE pupil with 'indescribable aggression'.

Murderers (from left to right): Obi Nwokeh, 19, Christopher Omoregrie, 18, and Samson Odegbune, 18, were all given a life sentence and told they must serve a minimum of 18 years

Victim: Schoolboy Sofyen Belamouadden, 15, was stabbed to death at London's Victoria station during rush hour

Samson Odegbune held the 12in sword above his head as he, Christopher Omoregie and Obi Nwokeh led the chase of the victim in the ticket hall during the early-evening rush hour.

Sofyen, a promising footballer, was stabbed nine times in the lungs and chest in a 12-second attack.

As the ringleaders of the attack, Odegbune, 18, Omoregie, 18, and Nwokeh, 19, were sentenced to a minimum of 18 years behind bars after being convicted at the Old Bailey of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Judge Christopher Moss QC ordered the three to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure – the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence owing to their ages at the time of the killing.

He added: 'None of you has shown any kind of remorse. Nor do you in any way acknowledge responsibility for the killing.' A further three teenagers, Adonis Akra, 18, Samuel Roberts, 19, and Femi Oderinwale, 18, were convicted of manslaughter and given 12 years detention each. It acted as the ‘direct catalyst’ for the pre-arranged meeting which led to Sofyen’s death.

Tyrone Richards, 17, and Enoch Amoah, 19, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm and were each sentenced to seven years in a young offenders institution.

Four youths were earlier sentenced to two years detention after admitting violent disorder. Victoria Osoteku, 19, the only girl in the gang, will be sentenced next week after being found guilty of manslaughter.

The murder in March 2010 was sparked by 'simmering tensions' between pupils at the sixth-form college in Ladbroke Grove and Henry Compton school in Fulham, who each regarded Victoria station as 'home territory'. Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said: 'Sofyen Belamouadden was pushed down and killed in broad daylight.

Attack: Victoria Osoteku, left, was seen on CCTV kicking Sofyen Belamouadden, right, in the head as he lay dying on the ground. She will be sentenced next week



'So brazen and confident were his killers, they openly carried the various weapons they used with them as they ran towards him and hunted him down.'

The catalyst for the attack was a fight over a girl a day earlier in the station, which left one youth with a bloody nose. That night the Ladbroke Grove pupils plotted their revenge on Facebook, with Oderinwale, then 16, acting as an 'armourer'.

Accomplices (from left to right): Adonis Akra, 18, Samuel Roberts, 19, and Femi Oderinwale, 18, were found guilty of manslaughter and given 12 years detention each Jailed: Tyrone Richards, 17, (left) and Enoch Amoah, 19 (right) were found guilty of conspiracy to commit GBH and were sentenced to seven years detention He asked online contacts for a 'flick-up ting' and told an older friend to 'buy some nanks from Argos', referring to a box of kitchen knives. He told his friends there was a 'beef' with other youths in west London and someone could get 'slumped' (stabbed).

Horrific: Judge Christopher Moss told the court that the 'ferocious and merciless attack' took place in front of horrified commuters at Victoria station

Proud: Abdeslam Belamouadden, the father of Sofyen, said his son 'was a star in the making'

Other defendants, who also communicated by texts, talked about the 'madness' that was going to take place. When the two groups met the next day at Victoria, the pupils from Henry Compton were hopelessly outnumbered.

Odegbune, then 16, led the running charge with the Samurai sword, shouting: 'I'm going to **** you up' as he ran into the station.

Roberts, 17, booted the victim's head three times as if he 'were kicking a rugby football'.

Following the attack, 12 of the 20 youths boarded a bus and one was overheard saying: 'Didn't you see me run in to the station and shank him?' Police officers stopped the bus and found a selection of knives as well as blade-sharpening steels which were covered in the victim's blood.

In a statement read to the court, Naima Ghailan, the murdered boy's mother, said: 'No amount of words can describe the amount of pain and grief I live with day in, day out.

'I had a happy life with my four children at home – then, on March 25, 2010, my life was shattered into a million pieces as I was robbed of my son.

'I lost the will to live that day and it is only through my faith that I continue to go on.'



