Four gang members are guilty of murdering schoolboy, 15, by stabbing him 43 times in ‘targeted, well-planned’ attack after day of city centre running battles
- Keelan Wilson suffered fatal knife wounds yards from his Wolverhampton home
- Brian Sasa, Tyrique King, Zenay Pennant-Phillips and Nehemie Tampwo, guilty
- Keelan was stabbed with a variety of weapons in the back of a taxi in 2018
Four gang members have been convicted of murdering a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed more than 40 times in a ‘targeted, well-planned’ attack.
Keelan Wilson suffered fatal knife wounds just yards from his Wolverhampton home on May 29, 2018.
After a 13-week trial at the city’s Crown Court all four suspects, Brian Sasa, 20, Tyrique King, Zenay Pennant-Phillips and Nehemie Tampwo, all 19, were found guilty.
Jurors heard that Keelan was stabbed with a variety of weapons in the back of a taxi in Langley Road, in the Merry Hill area of Wolverhampton.
Keelan Wilson (pictured with his mother, Kelly) suffered fatal knife wounds just yards from his Wolverhampton home on May 29, 2018
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Duck QC said: ‘It is a matter of real sadness that people of such ages have the willingness to take the life of another person.
‘It is not just the fact they were prepared to take that life but the manner in which they chose to do it.
‘This was not in any way a spontaneous act of violence.
‘This was a well-planned, targeted group attack by a number of youths armed with knives, and that was with the plan to execute another young man.’
After a 13-week trial at the city’s Crown Court all four suspects, Brian Sasa (right), 20, Tyrique King (left), Zenay Pennant-Phillips and Nehemie Tampwo, all 19, were found guilty
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Duck QC said: ‘It is a matter of real sadness that people of such ages have the willingness to take the life of another person’
Mr Duck said there was evidence to suggest the victim had ‘become embroiled in gang culture’ despite his age.
The court heard that Keelan’s death had followed two ‘significant’ altercations between groups of youths earlier that day, described as a ‘culmination of increasing acts of violence of gangs in the Wolverhampton area’.
Sasa, of Long Ley, Heath Town; King, of Chelwood Gardens, Wolverhampton; Tampwo, of Fern Grove in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire; and Pennant-Phillips, whose address cannot be published for legal reasons, will be sentenced in March.
All four denied murder.
CCTV footage of the altercations earlier on the day of Keelan’s murder
CCTV footage of Keelan around the Legge Street area before shots were fired
Verdicts in the case were returned around two hours after Judge Michael Chambers QC discharged a jury member who had tested positive for coronavirus last week.
Praising the jurors for their patience and good will during what he had earlier described as ‘endless’ Covid-related adjournments, Judge Chambers said: ‘It’s customary at the conclusion of every trial for the trial judge to thank the jury for their service.
‘In a case like this you deserve particular praise.
‘It’s essential that the rule of law, particular in cases such as this, should continue.’
The judge said of Keelan’s death: ‘It is an utter tragedy that a 15-year-old child lost his life at the hands of others who are barely older then he.’
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