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The families who fought back against teen killers
David Cohen, Evening Standard30.05.08
Earlier this month at the Old Bailey, half- a- dozen teenagers showed immense courage by giving evidence in court that put away a gang of vicious young killers. Without these brave teenagers overcoming their fears and coming forward to report what they had witnessed on Good Friday 2007, there would have been no case to bring, say the police, and instead of being behind bars, the gang known as the Cathall Boys would still be free, roaming the streets of Leytonstone.
It was at around 4pm on 6 April that the Cathall Boys tooled up and headed out to the nearby fair on Wanstead Flats. They were wearing hoodies and zip-up balaclavas and under their quilted jackets they hid knives and chains, while some also carried baseball bats in JD sports bags.
Their number included gang leader, Paul Benfield, 15, and his young acolytes, Jordan Conn, 14, and Kevin Adu-Marcet, just 13 but who already slept with a knife under his pillow and smoked cannabis. Soon they were joined by Nathan Desnoes, 15, his mate Scott Taylor, 17, who had previous convictions for assault and robbery, and Theo Diah, 18, whose bedroom was packed with weaponry: he had two knives and five metal poles under his mattress, as well as a baseball bat.
After an altercation with another boy in which they took a knife off him, the gang headed to the KFC takeaway on the corner of Victoria Road and Leytonstone High Road. That was when they saw 14-year-old Paul Erhahon and his 15-year-old friend chatting and walking towards them.
Although Paul Erhahon had heard of the Cathall Boys, his was a world away from their mindless thuggery. He was articulate and bright, the London-born son of successful parents of Nigerian descent, Paul (senior), an IT consultant, and Rita, a social worker, and the brother of two sisters aged 12 and nine, and they were well known in Buttermere Close, where they lived, as a decent, religious, hard-working family.
On this particular afternoon, after a family lunch, Paul had tackled the homework set by his private tutor. Scheduled to see his tutor the next day, he was diligent about his studies and proud of his progress. His tutor had told his parents he was "talented in maths and destined for university" and Paul harboured ambitions to become a stockbroker.
In the early evening, Paul emerged to play football with his friends in the cul de sac outside their three-bedroom terrace house, and then, at about seven, they headed through the alley to the outdoor basketball court at the Nexus Centre just 50 yards away. Paul was tall for his age - over six foot - and adept at shooting hoops, and so for the next half-hour, shouts of "pass to Junior" (as friends called him) echoed round the court.
The game broke up at 7.40pm and Paul, with his best friend, walked alongside the high-rise Thatched House Estate towards the shops to buy a cold drink. That was when they ran into the Cathall Boys.
Benfield spotted Paul and said menacingly: "Come here." When Paul, who was unarmed, stood his ground, Benfield threatened him and made a call on his mobile phone to the other members of the gang who were still inside KFC.
The group, which had swelled to 10 male teenagers, now rounded on Paul to punish him for his "disrespect". They pushed him back towards the foyer of the eight-storey block of flats, Gean Court, and began to attack him with chains and baseball bats.
Benfield spurred on the junior members, repeatedly shouting "Go on youngers", encouraging them to "earn their spurs". From under his jacket, Adu-Marcet unsheathed a black knife with a seven-inch blade. Paul saw it and yelled: "You can't be shanking [ stabbing] me. "He tried to escape but the marauding gang pushed him back and Adu-Marcet, a strapping six-foot boy whose size belied his 13 years, plunged the knife into Paul's heart.
Now the gang turned on Paul's friend. In a frenzied attack with household knives, Benfield, Taylor and Adu-Marcet stabbed him five times - in the lung, back, stomach and twice in the leg. Desnoes waded in with a baseball bat and Diah smashed him over the head with his motorcycle chain.
Paul staggered with superhuman effort towards his house, but just yards from his front door, blood spurting from his chest, he collapsed, crying out to neighbours: "I'm dying."
Suddenly the call went up: "Junior has been stabbed!" His father and mother came running. A year earlier their son had been stabbed in the leg by bullies at the local Tom Hood School, and they had moved him to Kingsford Community School for a fresh start. Now they held their son in their arms as a single tear fell from the corner of his eye and begged him to live, but he lost consciousness.
The ambulance arrived at 7.55pm and took Paul to Whipps Cross Hospital. At 8.25pm, he was pronounced dead, the ninth of 27 teenagers to be murdered in London last year (18 of whom were stabbed), a threefold rise on the previous year. The Metropolitan Police called it "an unprecedented year of violence involving teenagers in London - the worst in memory". This year is set to be even worse: in five months, 15 teenagers have been murdered, 10 by stabbing.
Paul's friend was also rushed to Whipps Cross, driven by his older brother, and as he lay in intensive care struggling for his life with a punctured lung - against the odds he would survive and spend the next two months in hospital - the Cathall Boys retreated to nearby Langthorne Park and brazenly talked and joked about what they had done.
The following night Scott Taylor recorded the Sky newscast of the murder of Paul Erhahon on his mobile phone and was heard to laugh in delight and repeat "bang-bang".
In trying to catch the killers, the police, however, had little to go on apart from the direct evidence of Paul's friend. There was no murder weapon at the scene, no forensic evidence to tie in any of the assailants and no CCTV footage of the attack itself. What the police did have, however, was a number of shocked teenagers who had witnessed the attack. If they would agree to talk, there was a chance that the killers could be brought to justice.
Arrangements were set in place to give eye-witnesses pseudonyms and to promise them anonymity. Within days, they came forward and their testimony led to the arrest of 10 members of the Cathall Boys. All the accused pleaded "not guilty" to the charges: the murder of Paul Erhahon and the attempted murder of his friend.
In a three-month trial at the Old Bailey earlier this year, the witnesses duly gave evidence by video link, their voices distorted, their images pixelated. Their evidence was compelling and because of it, the prosecution secured six convictions.
Paul Benfield, Kevin Adu-Marcet were sentenced to life for murder and attempted murder andwill each serve a minimum of 13 years. Jordan Conn was found guilty of murder and will serve a minimum of 11 years. Theo Diah, a student at Epping College, was found guilty of manslaughter and attempted murder of Paul's friend and will serve a minimum of seven years. Scott Taylor will serve six-and-a-half years for attempted murder and Nathan Desnoes will serve at least four years for manslaughter.
Paul Benfield, the instigator of the attack on Paul, had been arrested in the past but only Scott Taylor, whose parents had split up and whose blonde mother regularly walks her pit-bull on the nearby green, had done time, in his case for assault and robbery.
Most of the assailants lived in singleparent families, though Theo Diah's parents, Barry and Susan, both in their 40s and in employment, were still together and insisted that their son came from a good family and that he had no previous criminal record and was doing well at college, where he got 95 per cent for his exams in sports technology and computers.
The garden of their terrace home is well tended, with hanging baskets, roses and red geraniums, and a Range Rover parked outside but they were less aware of what had gone on inside their son's bedroom, where he kept an on arsenal of deadly weapons. The rest of the killers were all still in school and covered their school books in Cathall Boys graffiti and tags.
Detective Inspector Mick Foote, who led the investigation, said the case sends out a clear message: "If you go out with your friends looking for a fight, looking to rob or seriously hurt someone then you are as guilty as your mate who inflicts the fatal blow. Is it worth years in prison, away from your family, your friends, spending nights in a cell instead of enjoying your freedom?"
Today the family of Paul Erhahon - and that of his friend - have been moved for their own protection to another part of London. But Taylor's mother and her boyfriend appear angry and unrepentant, telling anyone who asks about the case to "f*** off or you'll be next".
The message given out by the police at their sons' trial - that they should take responsibility to ensure their children "are brought up as honest and decent human beings" - appears to have fallen on deaf ears. But their comfort zone has been shattered - they now know that they live in a community that has named and shamed their children.
For Paul's parents there is just a raw pain that refuses to budge. "People who have been nurtured to live outside the realms of a decent and law-abiding society murdered my son," says his father. "How does one begin to explain the depth of pain they have unleashed on my family and me? My life ended the day Junior was murdered: all I feel is despair and emptiness."
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Michael said, "I thought countries that banned guns had no murders? At least this is what the psycho-left has told us here in America. Thank God for the 2nd Amendment, where I can still be able to defend myself from rampaging criminals, rather than relying on a 911 call for either a fat, out-of-shape police officer, or worse, a female officer, to come rescue me, which by then will be too late." The only problem with this is that Paul was only 14 and the 2nd Amendment to the contrary I don't think we're willing to grant the right to carry to 14-year olds.
- Rocky Mountain, Glenwood Springs, Colorado
United States Constitution amendment# 2" the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Or in the words of President Theodore Roosevelt "Speak softly, and carry a big stick!"
The more I see this type of socio-pathic violence become commonplace, the more I lean towards obtaining a conceal/carry weapons permit and a sidearm with a lot of knock-down power. Although our house is armed to the teeth with shotguns, a .303 carbine, and a rat terrier, I'm not so concerned about the likelyhood of a home invasion as I am with the random street violence that claimed the life of this upright young man.
The more our peaceful streets today, be they in LA or London, begin to resemble those of Dodge City in the 1880's, the more I think that it's time to mete out the same justice that tamed the wild west.
- J.Roth, Port Orchard USA
Banning guns over there sure did the trick, eh?
- Claspur, Michigan City, Ind. USA
