Budding engineer, 15, killed by sword gang

A BOY of 15 was stabbed to death by a balaclava-clad gang wielding a samurai sword.

Jermaine Goupall, who had ambitions of becoming an engineer, had visited the cinema with friends on Tuesday.

But as he walked home that evening, the teenager was chased by a gang of thugs and stabbed to death less than half a mile from his family’s £600,000 home in south London.

His death is the latest in a spate of stabbings, with Jermaine becoming the 15th teenager to be killed in a knife attack in the capital this year – and the second in less than 24 hours.

His heartbroken family told how the teenager had simply been in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ and pleaded to the public to help find his killers.

Paying tribute, his father said his sportsmad son, who was a talented mathematician, had been ‘loved by everyone’.

The killing comes as police have been forced to revive stop and search procedures following an explosion in youth violence, with 20 crimes a day being reported in the capital alone.

The Metropolitan Police have launched a murder investigation into Jermaine’s death but have yet to make any arrests.

Jermaine had spent the day catching up with friends at the cinema. But as he walked home at 11pm in Croydon, it is believed he and a friend were chased by a gang armed with a samurai sword.

Jermaine’s friend is said to have managed to hide under a nearby 4x4, but Jermaine was stabbed several times.

Locals told how they heard him screaming ‘help, help’, and found him covered in blood from a stab wound in the side.

Paramedics tried to help him at the scene but he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.