Four guilty of killing teens in birthday party attack

TWO young men and two teenage boys have been convicted of murdering a pair of 17-yearolds in a “ferocious” ambush at a birthday party.

Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-rice were stabbed at a house in Milton Keynes on October 19 last year.

Two other people were attacked and left with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Charlie Chandler (22), Clayton Barker (20), a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old denied both murders and two counts of wounding with intent.

However, j urors at Luton Crown Court convicted the four defendants yesterday.

The four males will be joined at sentencing by a fifth defendant, 23-year-old Earl Bevans, who admitted two counts of murder and both counts of wounding at the start of the trial.

Before the verdicts were delivered, Mr Justice Spencer reminded those in the court to maintain the dignity of the proceedings.

The two juvenile defendants, who were in a separate court from the adult defendants, were not seen to react as the verdicts were delivered after more than nine hours of deliberation.

During the six-week trial, jurors heard that the defendants were either members or associated with members of the B3 gang in West Bletchley, named after the MK3 postcode, and had planned the attack after receiving a tip-off that members of the rival M4 gang were at the party.

Prosecutor Charlotte Newell QC told the court that the group stormed into the rear of the house in Archford Croft shortly after midnight, armed and with their faces covered.

She said: “The male partygoers were targeted and the attack upon them was immediate and ferocious.

“They had little or no time to react and little or no chance of protecting themselves.

“Within seconds of the arrival of the defendants’ group, one young man was dead, two had been sliced with a knife or knives, causing serious but, mercifully, not fatal injuries, and a fourth was running for his life.”

Ben was stabbed six times in the living room of the three-bedroom house, and Dom was subjected to a “frenzied” attack after he ran from the property, the prosecutor explained.

Jurors were shown pictures of the living room where Ben had been stabbed and declared dead, described as a “bloodbath” and a “scene of carnage”.

Bevans, of no fixed address, Chandler and Barker, both of Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and the two unnamed teenagers will return to Luton Crown Court for sentencing on January 5 and 6.