Gang killers of boy, 14, convicted

Five teenage gang members who stabbed a schoolboy to death in a "postcode war" are facing jail.

Paul Erhahon, 14, was beaten and knifed through the heart by the Cathall Boys gang because they were from the E11 area of Leytonstone in east London and the victim was from neighbouring E10.

Rival groups challenged each other with threatening raps posted on YouTube and MySpace before clashing on Good Friday last year.

Paul had survived a knife attack a year before his death and spoke about his fear of being killed.

The teenager was murdered after a senior member of the Cathall Boys, also known as the E11 gang, demanded younger members prove themselves in an initiation ritual, the Old Bailey heard.

Paul had stood up the 15-year-old, but the boy called for more Cathall Boys to back him up and urged them on, shouting: "Go on youngers."

The attacker recruited with two boys aged just 13, armed with a samurai sword and a knife, along with a 14-year-old who also had a blade.

The Cathall Boys had spotted Paul and a group of friends chatting outside Gean Court, a block of flats on the Thatched House estate in Leyton, on April 6, 2007, and immediately started a confrontation.

As the hoodie-wearing attackers rained down blows Paul cried out: "You can't be shanking (stabbing) me."

He lay helpless in the road, screaming: "I'm dying, I'm dying" and later died of his wounds after trying to crawl back to his family home in nearby Buttermere Close.

A 15-year-old friend who was stabbed five times in the legs and body escaped with his life after receiving emergency hospital treatment.

Three teenagers aged 14, 15, 16 were convicted of murder and two more, aged 15 and 19, were convicted of manslaughter.

Four were also convicted of attempted murder and another was convicted of wounding with intent.

A seventh boy, aged 14, was cleared of all charges and was discharged.

The judge, Mr Justice Keith, said he would sentence the thugs on May 9 and warned the murderers they will inevitably face a life sentence.

Prosecutor Jonathan Turner QC said the Cathall Boys were "obsessed with violence and excited by the cult of violence".

He said the Paul and his friend were attacked in "senseless acts of gratuitous violence in pursuit of no real grievance and for no credible cause".

"Neither Paul nor his friend was armed. Neither did anything to provoke the attack. Neither tried to fight back nor to defend themselves when they were attacked," said the barrister."

"Their assailants, after inflicting the fatal injuries, went calmly to a local park where they discussed what they had just done amidst joking and laughter."

Paul, originally from Nigeria, attended Kingsford Community School in Beckton, east London - the same school as 15-year-old Adam Regis, who was stabbed to death in March last year. His killers remain at large.

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