Somali killer tried to get deported to avoid prison
He defied bid to expel him for years. But after stabbing handyman...
‘Acted like a pack of wild animals’
A SOMALI illegal immigrant stabbed a defenceless man to death then tried to escape justice by getting himself deported.
Mohamed Abdillahi, 25, led a gang who pounced on handyman Augustus Fenton in the middle of the road like a ‘pack of wild animals’.
The five men knifed him seven times and battered him with a baseball bat ‘for no obvious reason’.
Within hours of the attack – which happened in broad daylight as pupils at a nearby school finished for the day – Abdillahi contacted immigration officers hoping they would fly him back home so he could avoid arrest.
The killer, a convicted heroin dealer who had been illegally in Britain for several years, was first ordered to leave in 2013. But he went on the run and only reappeared to ask the Home Office for his deportation papers to be activated ‘ as soon as possible’.
Instead he was arrested for the killing, which took place in Southall, west London.
Now he will serve years behind bars after being convicted of
Attack: Mohamed Abdillahi manslaughter at the Old Bailey this week.
Abdillahi was captured by police a week after being caught on CCTV running towards the unarmed 27-year-old victim with a knife down his trousers, which he used to stab Mr Fenton seven times as he lay defenceless on the ground. The victim called his brother Elijah Fenton, 31, in a panic, begging for help as he was being chased by the gang of men armed with knives and a baseball bat at 3.30pm on March 28.
But his brother was unable to save him and was lucky to survive himself after he was also stabbed in the onslaught and left with lifechanging injuries. Oliver Glasgow QC, prosecuting, said: ‘Help was not to reach him in time. Augustus Fenton was spotted by the group of young men. During the course of that attack he was stabbed several times and struck with a baseball bat.
‘ For no obvious reason the defendant and his friends acted like wild animals that afternoon.
‘Their pack mentality saw them chase their victim, attack him with weapons and then turn upon his brother. It was only good for adding: tune that his brother Elijah did not suffer the same fate.
‘The day after Augustus Fenton was stabbed and his brother Elijah was also stabbed this defendant contacted the authorities seeking voluntary repatriation.
‘He contacted the immigration authorities and tried to arrange to be repatriated to Somalia, his country of birth.’
Mr Fenton died of his injuries in hospital a day after the attack.
His mother Karen Benjamin said the family had been struck with ‘paralysing grief’ after his death, ‘ As a family we are at a loss completely, our lives will never be the same. In the last six months of his life he was inspired to set up his own business as a handyman.
‘Everything was going well. He was doing something he enjoyed and was passionate about.’
The victim’s fiancée Toni Rogers said in an impact statement: ‘We were excited knowing that one day we would move in together, have kids and get married. I have not only lost the love of my life, I have lost my best friend.’
Abdillahi denied he was responsible and claimed the fatal attack was carried out by three men who have never been traced.
He admitted running towards the fight with his hands down his trousers but said that he was holding them up because he didn’t have a belt on. He denied having any weapon.
The jury were unable to agree on a charge of murder but convicted Abdillahi of manslaughter and the wounding with intent of Elijah Fenton. In 2012, he was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution for supplying drugs.
Abdillahi is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey today.