UK NEWS

GUILTY OF MURDER – THE SCHOOLGIRL WHO LURED LOVER TO KNIFE AMBUSH

Samantha Joseph lured victim to his 'honey trap' death

Thursday July 9,2009

By John Twomey

A PRETTY schoolgirl used as a “honey trap” to lure a boy of 16 to his death was branded “cold and callous” yesterday as she faced life in jail.

Samantha Joseph was just 15 when she tricked love-struck Shakilus Townsend to go into a cul-de-sac where he was stabbed to death by a masked gang.

Joseph went out with the teenager after street gang member Danny McLean, 18, broke up with her.

But McLean was jealous and she agreed to set up the attack.

After Joseph took Shakilus to the quiet street in Thornton Heath, south London, he was beaten with a baseball bat before being punched, kicked and knifed as he lay on the ground. McLean, his face masked by an orange bandana, stabbed him in the stomach leaving a “gaping hole”.

Shakilus uttered his last words, “Mummy! Mummy! I don’t want to die”, as the killers fled.

Witnesses spotted Joseph, who wore a distinctive floral dress, fleeing the scene.

McLean, Joseph and five other teenagers denied the murder. But yesterday, they were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury and all face life in jail when they are sentenced at a later date.

Outside court, Detective Inspector Barney Ratcliffe said: Joseph “had very calculatingly brought Shakilus to the scene, knowing he was going to get beaten up”. He added: “Ever since, she has been cold and callous about the whole incident and has showed no sign of emotion since that day.

“She was very much an integral part of what happened. If she hadn’t been involved it would not have happened.”

Joseph, now 16, of Brockley, south London, was linked to a violent street gang run by McLean’s friend Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, and his brother Tyrell, 19, who were also convicted.

The younger brother was on police bail and due to attend an ID parade when he took part in the murder. He and other gang members were suspected of attacking another group of youths for “invading” their territory. The jury was told how the killing, in July last year, was carried out with “consummate skill and cunning” by McLean, Joseph and the others.

After the killing, McLean and Joseph tampered with Shakilus’s page on a networking website in a bid to wipe out any link between Joseph and him.

But the victim’s friends logged on to condemn her part in his death. One wrote: “Remember, U set up Skak, you bitch.”

The other youths convicted yesterday were Michael Akinfenwa, 17, of Upper Norwood, south London, Andre Thompson, 17, of South Norwood, and Andre Johnson-Haynes, 18, of Croydon, south London.