A teenager who participated as a gang chased and killed a 17-year-old disabled boy has been jailed for more than six years.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was part of a group that included Nicola Leighton, who drove her son Tyreese Ulysses and his friends to find Levi Ernest-Morrison in Sydenham last year.
The defendant, 14 at the time, chased Levi's friends down an alleyway while armed with a large knife, although he and Ulysses did not use their weapons and later fled the scene to run back to Leighton’s car after they heard Levi scream.
During a trial at the Old Bailey last December, the teenager was convicted of possession of an offensive weapon but the jury were unable to make a decision on a murder or manslaughter charge.
He later offered a guilty plea to the latter and was today sentenced to six years and three months for his involvement in the attack.
The court had heard that on the evening of April 10, 2021, Leighton had become “furious” after Levi and his friends kept knocking on her door looking for her son, who had recently moved to Catford. She contacted the police and threatened to “batter them” if the boys returned to her home, but rather than waiting for the police to arrive, she phoned her 19-year-old son Ulysses.
He had then “rallied” the other three youths by telling them that the victim was “bothering” his mum, before Leighton drove them to the murder location in her red Suzuki 4x4 jeep. Leighton later admitted driving them but said that she was unaware that they were armed with machetes.
In an attack that lasted just 30 seconds, Levi was chased by two members of the group before he fell to the ground and was stabbed in the groin by 17-year-old Alex Sprules. The group then sprinted back to Leighton’s car before they sped away and were later arrested following an investigation by the Met Police.
Emergency services were called but despite their best efforts, Levi died at the scene. In a victim impact statement read in January, his mum Bonnie said that he had suffered from autism and was disabled from a car accident, meaning he struggled to run from his attackers.
She had described her son as a “loyal and kind person who loved helping others”, and that he had been “greatly loved” by his family and friends. It was noted by the prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones that had he survived, he would have been celebrating his 19th birthday today (September 23).
Following a trial in which the jury deliberated for over 40 hours, Leighton was convicted of murder and was jailed for 23 years. Two other teenagers, a 16-year-old who had swung a machete and Sprules who had struck the fatal blow, were also convicted and jailed for 16 and 20 years respectively.
Meanwhile her son Ulysses, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was found guilty of manslaughter and was jailed for 13 years. Appearing today after pleading guilty to manslaughter, the court heard that the conflict had emerged from “petty” gang rivalry between groups in Catford and Sydenham.
At the time of the incident the teenager was just 14 years old, with his defence lawyer arguing that he had been a “peripheral” gang member and that his lack of education and stable childhood had influenced his decision-making.
Sentencing him to jail, Judge Peter Rooks KC said: “These offences, including yours of manslaughter, are truly grave offences. They are, as I said in the earlier sentencing, a further example of knife crime that has become the scourge of some of our cities. The group attack was a brutal overreaction to a small problem, a petty rivalry between teenagers.
“From videos downloaded from mobile handsets and YouTube, it is clear that this grave offence was committed in the context of gang rivalry. Two videos showed that you were present in the making of Block 6 video in Catford Towers on the 7th of April as well as a further video recorded on your phone the same day.
“I accept there was no evidence you participated in the videos, you’re there in the background and it shows at least some association with those involved in gang culture.” He added: “However petty the rivalry was between the groups of teenagers, it was characterised by the use of lethal weapons.”
He said that while the teenager had not been “an instigator” and that he had been “recruited at a late stage to make up numbers when there was a call to arms”, he noted that he had armed himself with a weapon. This knife has never been recovered and the teenager also attempted to dispose of his clothing in the aftermath of the attack.
He was jailed for six years and three months and will serve an additional five years on licence.
