Four 19-year-olds serving eight years in prison for sending text messages as part of a violent conspiracy in Manchester are to appeal against their convictions and sentences, the Guardian has learned.
Among them is Ademola Adedeji, a rugby player who had met MPs in parliament because of his community work.
His solicitor, Abigail Henry, said his legal team was in the process of drafting his appeal, which will claim the judge misdirected the jury in the eight-week trial.
The appeal will also argue that the conspiracy law, which came into force before smartphones and social media, is being too widely applied in the modern world.
It will say there should be a defence of “withdrawal”, where a conspirator retreats from a plot long before it is actually carried out. A Law Commission report in 2009 explored whether such a defence should be introduced but it has never been incorporated into statute.
Adedeji was one of 10 young black men from Moston in north Manchester who was found guilty of plotting a violent conspiracy to avenge the death of their friend, John Soyoye, who was murdered in a machete attack on 5 November 2020.
The convictions have caused huge controversy in Manchester, with race justice campaigners saying the teenagers were found “guilty by association”.
Four of Adedeji’s co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced last week to 20 or 21 years in jail. A jury heard the four had carried out violent attacks and boasted about doing so in lyrics for drill rap tracks.
Adedeji and five others were found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm and handed eight-year sentences.
He and three of his school friends – Raymond Savi, Omolade Okoya and Azim Okunola – were convicted purely on the basis of text messages on the Telegram app that the prosecution said showed them helping to identify and locate targets for attack. None of the targets named in the chat were ever hurt.
All four will appeal against either their sentences or convictions, or both, the Guardian has learned.
Okoya, a talented American football player who was studying public services at college, has already submitted his appeal against conviction and will soon also appeal against his sentence, his legal team said.
Adedeji was the only one of the defendants to answer questions when arrested. He said he had been devastated by Soyoye’s murder and admitted taking part in the incriminating Telegram chat, in which he forwarded the postcode of one of Soyoye’s killers.
In a letter to the judge, Mr Justice Goose, Adedeji accepted responsibility for the texts.
He wrote: “I got myself into this situation due to the fact that emotions got the better of me. This was because someone I regarded as a younger brother had just been ruthlessly taken away. John was someone I shared hopes and dreams with, someone who I grew up with from the age of seven years old. I would train with him, play Fifa, and do what normal kids would do. Although he took a different path to me, I was devastated that they took his life. I was heartbroken when I found out about his death, I was on antidepressants to help me sleep. I felt as if a part of me had been taken away.
“This is not an excuse for the text messages I sent, I was talking out of emotions, and I absolutely did not mean a word that I said. I have apologised numerous times, and did not mean those messages I sent, and I didn’t want anything to happen.”
