Unmasked by judge, the youngest gun murderer in Britain
As he’s jailed for life over ‘heartless’ killing...
BRITAIN’S youngest gun killer was jailed for life yesterday for the murder of another teenager.
Yussuf Mustapha, 14, shot Keon Lincoln twice while three accomplices hacked at the 15-year-old with knives.
Keon’s mother Sharmaine ran into the street after hearing the gunshots to find her dying son’s ‘ice-cold body’. As she held him she screamed: ‘He’s only 15.’ Keon was taken to hospital but died two hours later from a gunshot wound to the stomach.
His four killers, aged 14 to 18, were jailed for his murder yesterday. Italian-born Mustapha, who was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years, can now be named after the judge lifted a court order protecting his identity.
He is understood to be the youngest person in Britain to be convicted of shooting someone dead. Tahjgeem Breakenridge, 18, and Michael Ugochukwu, 18, were both sentenced to life for murder with a minimum term of 19 years.
The fourth killer, a 16-year-old from Walsall who cannot be named, will serve at least 17 years behind bars. Kieron Donaldson, 19, who supplied the gang’s weapons, was sentenced to 12 years for manchildren slaughter. They will have to serve a combined 83 years before they can apply for parole.
All were convicted after a five-week trial at which they pleaded not guilty. In a heart-breaking statement read out in Birmingham Crown Court, Keon’s mother labelled the killers ‘heartless, evil monsters’.
‘Gunshots ring in my ears knowing one of them ultimately ended my son’s life,’ she said.
‘I miss my boy so much that it physically hurts. I’m still unable to come to terms with the fact you’re gone for good.
‘I can only hope there will come a day when the senseless murder of will come to an end. I am in a nightmare I cannot wake up from. A piece of my soul has been taken from me. I hear the words his heart has stopped. Then I hear the words, “I’m sorry, we tried everything we could”.
‘I feel the chill through my veins as I held my boy’s ice-cold body. I saw my beautiful boy’s body being lowered into the ground.’
Keon was ambushed yards from his front door in Handsworth, Birmingham, at around 3.35pm on January 21. CCTV footage of the brutal crime shows the gang with their hoods raised to conceal their faces. Keon also suffered eight stab injuries and a severed artery in the 30-second assault.
Judge William Davis said: ‘When a 15-year-old boy is killed in that way, the first question anybody asks is “why?” That question has never been answered. That doesn’t mean the murder was motiveless, it simply means neither I nor the jury have any notion as to why.’
‘A piece of my soul has been taken’