Pair guilty of murder dumped hire car in city
THEY USED A TRACKER DEVICE TO AMBUSH THEIR VICTIM
TWO men who used a tracker device to ambush a motorist and stab him to death inside his Mercedes car have been found guilty of murder.
Donald Owusu, 25, Harvey Macfoy, 26, and an unidentified man attacked Albert Amofa after he arrived home in south Croydon, south London, with a girlfriend on the evening of December 15, 2019, the Old Bailey was told.
Mr Amofa, 33, was stabbed repeatedly as the attackers, two wearing balaclavas, demanded his car keys in an alleged bid to steal £5,000 of cannabis they mistakenly thought was in the vehicle. Prosecutor John Price QC said the plan appeared to have been to abduct the occupants and take them from Drake Road in Croydon in the victim’s black Mercedes.
But they were thwarted when they were unable to force Mr Amofa to hand over the keys. The court heard that the killing had followed a carefully organised plan to abduct the victim, having bought and fitted a tracker device to his car.
Macfoy and a third defendant, Theo Brown, were accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by disposing of the hire car used by the attackers.
Brown, who alone denied the charge, was said to have been involved in taking the Peugeot to Nottingham, where it was left in a residential street.
A post-mortem examination found that Mr Amofa had five wounds to his back and thigh, one of which had penetrated the femoral vein and resulted in substantial blood loss. Investigators trawled through CCTV footage to track down the attackers, who had arrived in a Peugeot car.
It had been hired through an app which used GPS tracking, enabling police to recreate the defendants’ movements to and from the scene. The prosecution suggested the attackers believed their targets had a large consignment of cannabis in the Mercedes after the drugs were advertised on social media.
As a result, bus driver Mr Amofa was ambushed within moments of parking outside his home. The court heard that Owusu’s DNA was found on the tracker fitted to the Mercedes.
DNA under the victim’s fingernails was linked to Macfoy, jurors were told. Owusu, the alleged knifeman, and Macfoy had denied being involved in the killing.
In his evidence, Owusu claimed he had been asked to fit the tracker by a contact known only as “Big S” as part of a business exposing cheating wives.
The jury deliberated for 21 hours to convict Owusu and Macfoy, from south London, of murder on Monday.
Macfoy had admitted perverting the course of justice and Brown, also of south London, was convicted of the same offence. Judge Alexia Durran adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed in June.
A violent scuffle broke out in the dock as Owusu and Mcfoy were remanded into custody. Mr Amofa’s family said: “We as a family are very pleased with the outcome of the trial.
“Albert’s death was senseless and cruel. He suffered for 48 hours in intensive care before passing away. That will always stay with us. For two and a half years, we have had to put our lives on hold waiting for this trial, which has prolonged our suffering. “Albert is not a statistic in black-on-black crime, he was a father, son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend and a good man, who is loved and we miss him
dearly. We are glad that the men who committed this crime have been found guilty, but the cycle of violence needs to end.”
Albert’s death was senseless and cruel. He suffered for 48 hours before passing away. Statement by Albert Amofa’s family