Five teenagers who 'tortured' a 15-year-old boy to death in an alleyway behind his home can be named for the first time after they were handed life sentences today. Kai Fisher-Dixon, Shuayb Mahomud, Tremayne Gray, Omarion Stephens and Abdulqaliq Mohamed stabbed Jacob Abraham to death on December 7 last year.
Hours before the fatal attack on Hurst Drive in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, Jacob had been helping his mum make sandwiches for homeless people. He was found dying from multiple stab wounds by his brother Isaac, who had gone out to look for him when he had not returned.
Jacob was knifed eight times in the legs and once in the arm. He died at about 10pm of a wound to the right thigh which caused massive bleeding. His five attackers, three of whom were just 14 years old at the time, were captured by CCTV cameras running away from the scene. The boys, who are all from Enfield in north London, all denied murder but were found guilty by a jury after a five-week trial at St Albans Crown Court on June 25. On Friday, they were handed life sentences by Mr Justice Edis.
He said Gray and Stephens must serve at least 14 years, Mohamed 13 years and Fisher-Dixon and Mahomud 12 years. They can be named for the first time after the judge lifted anonymity orders preventing the publication of their names. The knife attack on Jacob, who was a student at Capel Manor College in Enfield, was carried out in a service area behind his family's home.
St Albans Crown Court previously heard how Jacob helped his mother prepare sandwiches for homeless people a few hours before his brutal killing.
Mr Justice Edis, sentencing the boys, said: 'I am sure that nobody who was involved in this attack intended to kill Jacob Abraham... but I should add to that that it seems to me what was intended was something that can properly be described as torture.
'By torture I don't mean a formal process of inquisition, I mean serious bodily harm which is inflicted to cause pain for a purpose.
'I think the intention was to leave him alive but grievously injured, in pain and humiliated.'
Before the jury was sent out, prosecutor Jane Bickerstaff QC said: 'Jacob lived at home in Hurst Drive, Waltham Cross with his mother Sheba Abraham, his older brother Isaac and his younger sister.
'On the day of his death, he had attended college as normal and returned home at his usual time.'
At 4.39pm that evening CCTV showed Jacob in the Iceland store in Waltham Cross buying bread for his mother.
Ms Bickerstaff continued: 'A receipt for the bread, later found in his bedroom, confirms the time.
'He went home and helped his mother make sandwiches for the homeless. The family delivered those at 6.15pm to a local church.
'Jacob then had a physio appointment at 7.39pm for 15 minutes. His mother drove him and brought him back home.'
Ms Bickerstaff said that in the evening Jacob received a call on his mobile phone and left the house at about 8.15pm. He never returned.
Ms Bickerstaff said: 'He had gone to an alleyway behind the houses on Hurst Drive.
'He was stabbed eight times in the legs and once through the arm. He tried to run back home, but never made it. He died in the alleyway at about 10pm.
'The prosecution case is that all five of these defendants were in that alleyway with Jacob at the time of the stabbing.
'There were at least two knives used. The evidence suggests that a different knife was used to attack him from the front as from behind.
'Although potentially only two of the five wielded a knife, all five are jointly responsible having lured Jacob there and sharing the joint intention that he should suffer at least really serious harm.'
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