You are dead meat, gang rape ‘snitch’ told before being killed 11 years later
Victim’s mother begged police not to make her son testify and says he lived in fear of retribution
A PERSONAL trainer who was shot 11 years after he stopped a gang rape was bombarded with messages telling him “you’re a snitch” before his death, his mother has told an inquest.
Abraham Badru was 14 when he was handed a bravery award for rescuing a woman in 2007 as she was being seriously sexually assaulted.
He later gave evidence against the suspects, whom he had known while growing up in east London, and nine people were convicted, one of whom was jailed for life.
But he spent the rest of his life living in fear of retribution from those he helped to convict, choosing to stay indoors, cover his face when outside and change his name. Eleven years after stepping in to stop the assault, the 26-year-old was shot dead outside his mother’s house in Ferncliff Road, Hackney, on March 25 2018.
His murder remains unsolved and police said that the gang rape suspects all had alibis for the night he was killed.
Ronke Ali Badru, Mr Badru’s mother, said the threatening messages began days after the rape suspects were arrested, telling St Pancras Coroner’s Court yesterday: “Abraham was receiving messages saying ‘You’re dead meat’, ‘You’re a snitch’.
“He was so scared, he stopped going out.”
His car was also vandalised years later, she said, which further worried her son.
Mrs Badru said she begged police not to make her son give evidence against the rapists at the time, but she was told she would be charged with perverting the course of justice if she intervened, the inquest heard.
After the rape incident, which took place on the Frampton Park Estate, where he lived, Badru moved to Bristol in 2009 aged 16 to study for his A levels and later a Btec and masters degree.
He returned to London for work after completing his masters degree in 2016, and then went by the name “Prince”.
Upon his return to London, he was shocked when he bumped into one of the attackers, now released from prison, in a nightclub and had to flee.
His car was vandalised with the mirrors and windscreen smashed, and the tyres removed.
The court heard he was desperate to leave the Hackney area and had been saving for his own home when he was killed.
The night he died, Badru was on the phone to a woman when he was shot as he unloaded items from the boot of his car, shortly after 11pm.
Det Segt Matthew Bennett told the inquest: “We still haven’t, to this day, identified any links to the murder or any motive.”
The inquest continues.