Four teenager have been jailed for the murder of Lewis Blackman in February 2017 after a confrontation at a 16th birthday party in Kensington spiralled into a fatal street brawl.
Reporting restrictions were lifted today at court. Those jailed are:
Lawrence Nkunku, 17of Ward Lane, E9 was sentenced to life for murder with a minimum term of 18 years.
Thierry Edusei, 16 of Cannon Road, N17 was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 11 years.
Paul Glasgow, 17 of Warwick Grove, E5 was sentenced to life for murder with a minimum term of 18 years.
Demario Williams, 17, of Bath Road, Enfield N9 was sentenced to life for murder with a minimum term of 20 years.
Nkunku, Edusei, and Glasgow were convicted in October 2018. Their sentencings were timed to coincide with the sentencing of Williams.
Two other 18-year-old males [B] and [H] were found not guilty of murder.
The court heard that 19-year-old Lewis, of York Way in Camden, was fatally injured after he and a number of his associates attempted to gain access to a party that they had not been invited to in Kensington.
In the ensuing chaos Lewis, who was known to his friends as ‘Dotty’, was fatally stabbed when he was chased down in the street by a mob armed with weapons.
At around 03:20hrs on Sunday, 18 February two Met officers on patrol were responding to reports of a large number of vehicles in Logan Place, W8, following a nearby party, when they discovered a male suffering from stab injuries laying in the street.
The officers immediately administered first aid to Lewis prior to the arrival of the London Ambulance Service (LAS).
Despite the extensive efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 03:46hrs.
A post-mortem examination held on Monday, 19 February discovered that Lewis had suffered 13 stab wounds from various knives. Cause of death was recorded as stab wounds to the chest.
Detectives from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command immediately began an investigation.
It was established that on the evening prior to Lewis’ death, a girl had rented out a property in Earls Court Road as the venue for her 16th birthday party.
She had drawn up a guest list of around 50 people, careful to invite people she knew from the Hackney area as she was aware of tensions between some of those invited and other males from Camden. The invite however was posted on social media.
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The teenager and the majority of her guests were at the party from around 00:40hrs, at which point there were no issues.
Between 02:00hrs and 03:00hrs however, a group of uninvited men, including Lewis, arrived at the property and began trying to get in.
They were refused entry and the front door was closed; one of the guests was heard to say ‘there’s boys outside causing trouble’, at which point the door was forced open and Lewis’ group gained access.
A panic ensued in which many attendees fled the apartment via front door and bedroom in a bid to escape an altercation between Lewis’ group and a number of attendees which then spilled outside onto the street.
Witnesses described seeing a group of around 10 men being chased by a larger group of around 20; members of both parties were reported to have been wearing hooded clothing and to have been armed with weapons, including poles and knives.
Lewis was one of the 111 young people fatally shot or stabbed to death in London in 2018
MetPolice Newsdesk
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