Rooting out the evil gangs who
ROW BETWEEN 15-YEAR-OLD HEROIN DEALERS ENDS IN KNIFE KILLING
TWO 15-year-old heroin dealers who took over a flat to sell drugs ended up in a knife fight in which one died, a court heard yesterday.
Koy Bentley was stabbed twice in the chest last June while two young women were taking drugs in the next room. His alleged killer fled with one of the women and a 21-year-old man. The boys and man had met online, said William Harbage, prosecuting.
The youth, from north London, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murdering Bentley at the flat in Watford, Hertfordshire. He and the 21-year-old admit conspiracy to supply Class-A drugs and the man also admits perverting the course of justice.
Mr Harbage told St Albans Crown Court the boys were supplying drugs, helped by the 21-year-old, who told them he knew of a flat containing 30 wraps of crack cocaine. “The evidence suggests a disagreement arose between them and the accused stabbed Koy Bentley,” the prosecutor said.
The trial continues. SOCIAL media companies will be forced to remove images and films that whip up tension between gangs.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd is due to announce the measure as part of a broad strategy to combat serious violence.
The plans were drawn up before the fatal shooting of Tanesha Melbourne on Monday – but it is understood there was online goading between rival groups in the run-up to the tragedy.
Detectives are investigating a fight at an American-style diner in central London on Easter Sunday which was filmed on a mobile phone.
The video, which was later posted online, shows three males punching and kicking a young man in a stairwell at Tinseltown in Farringdon.
During the violence, a young woman throws herself on the victim in a bid to protect him.
The footage was posted on Twitter and the social media platform Snapchat.
It is understood detectives have examined the film as well as CCTV taken from Tinseltown. Youth worker Tanesha, 17, died in her mother’s arms after she was shot in Tottenham, north London, on Monday night. She was chatting with friends when her killer opened fire from a moving car.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick recently accused social media companies of “inciting violence” between gangs. She said: “Online images and films intended to insult rivals can move a dispute from slight to fight in minutes.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “As the Met Commissioner has said, gangs often post videos online that seek to glamorise criminality to influence young people.
“The instant nature of social media also means that plans develop rapidly and disputes can escalate quickly.
“The Government, voluntary sector and other partners are working with social media companies to ensure measures deliver real results and raise the level of online safety for users. We are clear that internet companies must go further and faster to tackle illegal content online.
“It is already an offence to incite, assist or encourage violence online and we will continue to support proactive operational police action to tackle offences perpetrated online.
“Our new Serious Violence Strategy, which will published soon, will also put a stronger focus on steering young people away from violence while continuing to ensure the strongest possible law enforcement response.
“It will examine how social media can drive violent crime and focus on building on the relationships made with social media providers and the police to identify where we can take further, preventative action to tackle serious violence.”
Just 30 minutes after Tanesha was killed, 16-year-old Amaan Shakoor was blasted in the face in a separate shooting about four miles away.
A 15-year-old boy who was with him outside the Walthamstow Leisure Centre was stabbed. Amaan died in hospital on Tuesday – the 48th victim of murder in London this year. Yesterday, his distraught father Mohammed paid tribute to his “wonderful son”.
Mr Shakoor said: “We need time to come to terms with this. We are obviously devastated.”
Friends of Amaan said they believe his murder was a case of “mistaken identity”. One said: “This was nothing to do with drugs or anything. He was just chilling in the wrong place.
“It was a postcode thing. There is a postcode war out there.”
Police set up temporary stop-andsearch initiatives in Tottenham and Walthamstow after the murders in a bid to prevent tit-for-tat violence.
There have been calls for these to be carried out long-term to deter gang members from carrying weapons. But police chiefs are reluctant to order such operations as Prime Minister Theresa May believes too many innocent black men are targeted.