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Girl led boy to 'merciless' gang murder
4 Sep 2009A teenage girl who acted as a "honeytrap" to lure a smitten 16-year-old to his death at the hands of a love rival will be sentenced today.
Samantha Joseph led lovestruck Shakilus Townsend into an ambush in a quiet cul-de-sac where he was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times.
The teenager bled to death after the "relentless and merciless attack" by a masked and hooded gang in Thornton Heath, south London, in July last year.
Joseph, who was just 15 at the time, laughed as they caught up with him, walking away as they began their brutal assault.
Her older boyfriend Danny McLean plunged a knife into Shakilus's chest, raking it across his liver before twisting the blade.
As he lay bleeding to death Shakilus, from Deptford, called out for his mother and cried: "I don't want to die."
Joseph, now 17, from Brockley, south London, and McLean, 18, from Thornton Heath, were found guilty of murder alongside five other youths.
Shakilus was besotted with the girl and told his mother he wanted to marry her but she told friends she was just using him and treated him like "s***".
While Joseph was happy for him to shower her with gifts, she was still obsessed with McLean.
He had dumped her when he found out about her relationship with Shakilus but she was prepared to do anything to get him back.
McLean told her: "If you still love me, will you set up Shak?" Joseph agreed.
CCTV footage from the day of the murder showed her wearing a see-through floral dress as she met Shakilus and took a bus with him.
He thought they were on their way to meet her cousin but in fact she was leading him into the teeth of an ambush in a quiet cul-de-sac, secretly keeping in touch with McLean by mobile phone all the while.
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said: "She agreed to set up the hapless Shakilus Townsend in a honey trap with a lethal and tragic twist.
"She was more than equal to the task. She played her part to perfection, duping Shakilus who could see no wrong in her, the others in hot pursuit of him."
After the murder Joseph was seen walking off with McLean, carrying his hoodie and a cream-coloured handbag stained with his blood from an injury sustained during the murderous melee.
She later tried to "rub out" all traces of her relationship with Shakilus, deleting his online Bebo account and telling friends to erase his number from their phones.
Shakilus's mother Nicola Dyer, 34, wept as the killers were found guilty.
She said: "I can't understand how she could have callously set him up and lured him to his death."
Detective Inspector Barney Ratcliffe said: "Knife crime will only end up in this sort of tragedy when a young lad is killed because he loves a girl - the wrong girl in this case."
Former public schoolboy and London Irish rugby player Andre Johnson-Haynes, 18, from Croydon, was one of the other youths found guilty of murder.
Also facing life sentences are brothers Tyrell Ellis, 19, and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, of Thornton Heath, together with Michael Akinfenwa, 18, and Andre Thompson, 17, both from Norwood.
Reader views (4)
Alestare and Barbara.
Why let this group rot in jail at a cost of what to the taxpayer?
A lot of thought put inot, and not a shred of remorse shown, the taking of a human life.
Not too far in the future there will be a swelling of public feeling and the death penalty shall return. Why? Overcrowded prisons and a sense of frustration at the antics of a generation that has no fear of punishment as it consists of a slap on the wrist.
They do not deserve rehabilitation.
"An eye for an eye" and all that.
- Dk, London, 04/09/2009 13:36
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what has happened to maorals and values when a girl can do this to a boy? I am very depressed by this. Her parents should also face investigation by social services
- Mr Opinion, london, 04/09/2009 12:37
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Hey Alestare I agree wholeheartedly with you. Callous act - I hope they all rot in jail. That poor boy's only fault was to fall in love with this callous cow.
- Barbara, sydney Australia, 04/09/2009 11:34
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i hope they all rot in jail!
- Alestare, London, 04/09/2009 10:40
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