Guilty, ‘pathetic’ drug dealers who knifed Jodie to death in park
Her father punches the air in court as pair who mistook girl scout for gang member are convicted
THE FAMILY of a teenager stabbed to death in a park hailed ‘justice for Jodie’ yesterday as two county lines drug dealers were convicted of her murder.
Jodie Chesney, 17, was listening to music with friends when she was knifed in the back amid a ‘pathetic’ turf war between rival gangs, the Old Bailey heard
The girl scout’s murder – a case of mistaken identity – shocked the nation and led to renewed calls to tackle Britain’s knife crime epidemic.
Yesterday the A- level student’s grieving father Peter, 39, punched the air and shouted ‘yes’ as Svenson Onga-Kwie, 19, and his 17-year-old accomplice were unanimously found guilty of murder.
Knifeman Ong-a-Kwie had wanted to ‘ bang out’ a rival in revenge for stabbing him weeks earlier. But in the gloom of the park in Harold Hill, east London, he lunged at Jodie and the blade went ‘ almost right through her’.
Ong-a-Kwie and the 17-yearold, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then fled in a Vauxhall Corsa driven by Manuel Petrovic, 20, on March 1 this year. Petrovic and a 16year- old passenger, who also cannot be named, were cleared of murder and manslaughter.
Mr Chesney was celebrating his 39th birthday in central London when officers told him of his daughter’s death.
The killers were drug pushers, specialising in cannabis and cocaine, who sent hundreds of text messages advertising their wares every day. ‘County lines’ refers to the mobile phones used in their – and similar – daily dealings.
The court was told that a local teenager called Tashinga, blamed for stabbing Ong-aKwie months earlier, was the likely target and Jodie had been mistaken for him in the low light.
Police said they had been unable to trace him. But the Daily Mail tracked down Tashily]. inga, 19, who admitted he probably was the intended victim. He said the killers ‘were just young kids who think carrying knives is cool but it’s not... and now it’s cost them’.
The teenager added: ‘I feel very sorry for them [Jodie’s fam
No innocent girl has to die like that, it’s just upsetting.’
Outside court, Mr Chesney held back tears as he and Jodie’s relatives cried: ‘Justice for Jodie.’
He said: ‘The two people that were in the park are to be sentenced for murder, which I am over the moon about.
He added: ‘We got two out of four and I am happy with the verdicts. Justice for Jodie!’
Mr Chesney had said in an impact statement: ‘The murder of my beloved daughter has destroyed my life and the full extent as to how this has affected my family and me cannot possibly be explained.
‘I have no idea how I am going to continue with my life or even come to terms with the
‘Now it has cost them’
loss.’ Jodie’s sister Lucy said: ‘I am only 20 and already I am dreading my life rather than looking forward to it.
‘Jodie was not only my sister she was my best friend. Losing her is like losing half of myself. We went through everything together and she was always there for me. She gave me a type of love I will never feel again.’
She added: ‘If someone as good and pure as Jodie could be murdered, it could happen to anyone and I spend everywhere I go looking over my shoulder because of it.’
Judge Wendy Joseph QC had earlier told the 12 jurors of their duty: ‘Your job is not to mourn her, your job is to do justice and to find who is responsible for her death.’
Although Judge Joseph demanded silence for the verdicts, Jodie’s family were overcome and shouted ‘yes’ as the convictions were announced.
Ong-a-Kwie and the 17-yearold blamed each other for striking the fatal blow. But prosecutors proved the older dealer was planning to stab a
rival after being knifed in the leg two months earlier.
A breakthrough came when Croatian-born Petrovic was covertly recorded talking to a visitor while on remand at HMP Belmarsh in south-east London on August 3. Using London slang, he revealed how the planned revenge attack had gone horribly wrong.
‘You know what actually happened?’ Petrovic asked his visitor. ‘They went to bang out [take out] on their ops [rivals] and banged out the wrong people.’ Asked how he knew, Petrovic said: ‘It was to do with Svenson’s op [rival] – they cheffed [stabbed] him up … a couple of months before.
‘ Someone gave him [ Ong- aKwie] the drop [tip- off]. He … thought it was them because they chill in the area. That’s why she got it from behind.’
Ong-a-Kwie also confessed to a friend that he had ‘ done something really bad’ but refused to go into detail when asked about motive. CCTV captured Ong-aKwie and the 17-year-old striding purposefully towards the park, a glint of light apparently coming off the killer’s knife.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC earlier said: ‘The drug- dealing world is one of turf wars, rivalries and pathetic claims for “respect”.’
Jodie’s neighbourhood was decked in purple ribbons after the killing – a nod to her favourite colour and a protest against the senseless killing. The stabbing left
Jodie, who was a few weeks away from completing her Duke of Edinburgh gold award, bleeding heavily as her traumatised boyfriend Eddie Coyle, 18, clutched her.
She was pronounced dead just an hour later.
Mr Coyle wept as he demonstrated to jurors how Ong-a-Kwie swung the knife. ‘I thought he was going to punch her,’ he said. ‘The taller one stabbed her in the back. She was in shock at first.
‘She started screaming continuously, screaming two minute straight. After she stopped she began to faint.’
Investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams said: ‘Jodie was not in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was simply living her life as a teenager should – carefree and with her friends.’
Ong-a-Kwie, of Romford, East London, and the 17-year-old boy will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on November 18.