Life sentences for seven who murdered teenager
GANG LAUNCHED ‘APPALLING’ KNIFE AND MACHETE ATTACK
SEVEN more young men have been handed life sentences over the murder of a teenager in Moss Side.
A gang based in Longsight and Ardwick, including a boy of 15, travelled to launch a brutal knife and machete attack on student Sait Mboob, 18, on August 8 last year.
A knife pierced a major artery in his leg and he bled to death.
Yesterday, seven defendants were jailed for their part in the attack after the victim’s mother described the pain of watching her ‘best friend’ die in hospital.
They were all convicted of murder and three other counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent following a trial.
An eighth person, Emil Bell, 17, was given a life sentence following a separate trial earlier this year.
Now Laif Morgan, 23, Lequornne Morgan, Requan Brown, Ryan Isaacs and Husam Ghazanfar, all 19, have also been handed life terms.
Two others who were sentenced can also be named for first time after the M.E.N. successfully applied for reporting restrictions to be lifted. Kiahus Baddoo, 17 now but 16 at the time of Sait’s death, and Shayne Stewart, who was 15 but is now 16, were also given the youth equivalent of life sentences.
All eight were handed minimum terms ranging from 14 to 19 years.
Prosecutors admitted they could not prove who dealt the fatal blow, but said all eight were part of the group that attacked Sait.
All bar Isaacs were said to be members of 7M, an Ardwick and Longsight-based gang.
In the first trial, when Bell was in the dock, jurors were shown videos posted on YouTube by 7M, boasting of how they would take over Moss Side. The videos – with tracks named ‘Supplying’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ – glorified crime and spoke of ‘Gunchester,’ the court heard.
On August 8, members of 7M were hanging around outside the Golden Gate chippy on Stockport Road near the Manchester Apollo when drug dealer Bell, who was in Moss Side as part of a recce, called the attack.
At around the same time, Sait got off the 103 bus he had taken from Manchester city centre, having been into town to do some shopping ahead of the Moss Side Caribbean Carnival. After getting off the bus, friends quickly warned him there were ‘opponents’ in the area.
A stolen Fiat 500 then arrived containing members of 7M.
The vehicle deliberately mounted the pavement and hit Sait and another member of his group.
Sait and his friends fled towards Moss Side’s Millennium Park, where bollards prevented cars from entering. After the attackers caught up, a mass brawl followed, in which Sait was fatally stabbed as attackers shouted ‘dip him.’ Three others were also knifed. Bell went to hospital after cutting his hand. He claimed to have sustained the injury innocently.
A knife with his blood on it was later recovered.
Some members of 7M returned back to home territory and headed for the Power League five-a-side football complex in Ardwick, where they celebrated what they had done.
Lequornne Morgan ‘re-enacted’ the stabbings when they arrived.
What prompted the attack has not been established.
In March last year, members of 7M went looking for Sait at Connell Sixth Form College, in Openshaw, where he was studying business. A member of staff was punched in the face.
In June, Sait went to Forest Bank prison to visit a friend, and a brawl broke out between 7M, Sait and two of his friends.
Jailing the seven, Mr Justice King said: “The attack was a sustained and brutal one involving the indiscriminate use of violence.
“It involved the use of weapons in the form of knives, claw-hammers and machetes and the like. You were each convicted on the basis of joint enterprise to commit this offence.”
It was ‘an appalling offence of gratuitous violence,’ the judge added at Manchester Crown Court.
He handed Laif Morgan, of Paddock Street, Ardwick, a minimum term of 19 years.
Lequornne Morgan, of St Gregorys Road, Ardwick; Ghazanfar, of Delahays Range in Gorton; and Isaacs, of Woodlands Road, Crumpsall were all told they must serve at least 18 years.
Baddoo and Stewart were handed lesser minimum terms of 14 years by virtue of their ages.
Addressing reporting restrictions on the two, Mr Justice King said he had ‘no doubt’ the bar should be lifted, although he stipulated a prohibition on their addresses being published should remain after hearing submissions from their barristers about fears for the safety of their families.
Bell must serve a minimum 17 years in custody.