Police and prison staff attacked as five gang members sentenced for murder of 19-year-old

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Violence broke out in the dock and the public gallery as five gang members were jailed for life over the murder of a 19-year-old man in north London last year.

Police officers and prison staff at the Old Bailey were attacked as the five defendants were sentenced on Monday for murdering Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck in Wood Green in February 2019.

Tyrell Graham, 18, Sheareem Cookhorn, 21, and Jayden O’Neil-Crichlow, Shane Lyons and Ojay Hamilton, all 17, all face individual lengthy jail terms for the killing.

City of London police said that no injuries to police or prison staff had been reported. A police spokesperson confirmed that a number of people were ejected from court following the incident.

The jury heard that the five defendants and two other men, whose identities are unknown, set off in the early evening of Friday 22 February to track down members of a rival gang, armed with at least five knives, a handgun and a shotgun.

After spotting a group including Gabbidon-Lynck, a shot was fired before the defendants gave chase “like a pack of animals”, DCI Simon Stancombe said. “So desperate were the defendants to continue their petty postcode rivalry, the gang launched their gun and knife attack outside a busy cinema and several restaurants packed with people and children enjoying their Friday night.”

Jason Fraser, a 20-year-old associate of Gabbidon-Lynck, was surrounded, stabbed and shot. He survived the attack, but was left with life-changing injuries.

Gabbidon-Lynck escaped the assailants and returned to his car, before attempting to drive into the rival group to halt the attack. As the defendants turned to attack the car, Gabbidon-Lynck tried to reverse before being blocked by a row of parked cars.

After running into a nearby hairdresser’s, he was caught and stabbed five times, severing an artery, in scenes that prosecutor Oliver Glasgow described as “reminiscent of a Hollywood film”.

The group, thought to be members of Tottenham’s NPK gang, fled the scene, changing their clothes and abandoning their car at Broadwater Farm Estate.

Stancombe described the attack as one of “petty postcode rivalry”, carried out “with a ferocity I have rarely seen”.

In a statement, he said: “In truth, there are no winners, no bragging rights or anything to be proud of. One man is dead, another has life-changing injuries, a family is utterly bereft and five young men will spend the best days of their lives behind bars.”

He praised the family of Gabbidon-Lynck, and said they had “maintained their dignity in very difficult circumstances” throughout the trial.

The defendants, who will serve a minimum of between 21 and 28 years in jail, denied the charges.