Five men who stabbed teenager 20 times for living on the wrong side of the street are convicted of 'brutal' killing

 
Killed: 16-year-old Abou El Kheir died after he was chased by a 10-strong gang armed with an arsenal of weapons
Paul Cheston31 January 2014
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Five thugs who stabbed a schoolboy 20 times because he lived on wrong side of the street are facing years behind bars.

Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir, 16, died after he was chased by a 10-strong gang armed with an arsenal of weapons, the Old Bailey heard.

He was cut down in “brutal and merciless” style near his home in Pimlico last January close to some of London’s most expensive properties.

Hani was struck with swords, a meat cleaver, knives and shot with a Taser stun gun as he was forced to the ground, stabbed through the heart and left for dead.

Arber Barbatovci, 20, Craig Boyce, 26, Ahmed Mikhaimar, 20, Tarquai Joseph, 19, and a fifth man who cannot be named, were all found guilty of murdering Hani.

They will be sentenced on Friday by Judge Charles Wide QC.

The murder was the result of a bitter rivalry between two local street gangs.

The killers had set off in force from the Pimlico estate wearing hats to scarves and balaclavas and armed with “a formidable array of concealed weapons,” said prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC.

“They were heading towards the Churchill Gardens Estate which represented to them a rival faction in a turf war.

“An agenda of murderous proportion was at play that evening by way of simply which side of a street they lived on.”

Hani was walking through the estate with his girlfriend and another young man when he was seen by the gang.

When he was spotted he ran through the estate and into the fully lit main road of Lupus Street.

“It afforded him no protection and his assailants gave him no quarter - he was caught in that main road and overwhelmed by the number of assailants,” said Mr Jafferjee.

“As he lay on the ground completely defenceless he was brutally and mercilessly attacked. Such was the frenzy that even two of the attackers ended up cut as they rained down on the victim.

“His murder was the produce of brazen lawlessness on the streets of central London on a Sunday evening.”

The group fled leaving Hani to die on the ground in Lupus Street.

Barbatovci, of Pimlico, Boyce, of the Paddington area, Mikhaimar, of Pimlico, Joseph, of Maida Vale and the fifth defendant had all denied murder but were convicted in unanimous verdicts.

A sixth man, Yassine Sidi-Ammi, 20, was cleared by the jury of perverting the course of justice, while the court heard another man, Dilwar Hussein, has fled to Bangladesh since the attack.

The seventh defendant, Donjeta Gashi, 20, of Kentish Town, was cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice and the jury are still deliberating on a second similar count against him.

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