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ITN
Monday, 20 April 2009
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'Honey trap girl lured teen to his death'
© ITN 2009
A schoolgirl lured her 16-year-old boyfriend to his death in a "honey trap", a court has heard.
Shakilus Townsend was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed in the chest in July last year, after being surrounded by a gang of youths in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac.
The teenager had arrived in the south London street with his 15-year-old girlfriend, who handed him over to the killers as part of a murder plot executed with "consumate skill and cunning", the Old Bailey was told.
Shakilus had confided in his mother that he was "smitten" with the girl, and said she was his "future wife". She boasted to friends that Shakilus "would do anything for her" but said she was "never really bothered" about him.
She had also been seeing 18-year-old gang member Danny McLean and when he found out about her month-long fling with Shakilus, she agreed to help him take revenge, the jury heard.
McLean, of Thornton Heath, denies murder, along with the girl, who is now 16 but cannot be named for legal reasons; Tyrell Ellis, 19, also of Thornton Heath; Andre Johnson-Haynes, of Croydon, and three 17-year-olds, who cannot be named.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the court McLean, a member of the SMN or Shine My Nine gang, had been violent to the girl but she appeared to be "obsessed" with him.
Mr Altman said: "Despite her age her role in this killing was central and pivotal. Her role was deliberately to lure Shakilus to Thornton Heath to be ambushed and attacked by the other defendants.
"Shakilus had been seeing her for a matter of weeks, but in doing so she was playing a dangerous game, because she was cheating on Danny McLean, who was also her boyfriend.
"It is clear that he had come to learn of her deception and by way of recompense she agreed to set up the hapless Shakilus Townsend in a honey trap with a lethal and tragic twist."
The court heard Shakilus, from Deptford, southeast London, told his mother the girl was beautiful and said he was in love with her.
"Little was he or indeed his mother to know that the girl he had thought so highly of would eventually participate in an audacious plan that would cost him his life", said the prosecutor.
In the early afternoon of July 3 Shakilus was brought to Beulah Crescent on a bus by the girl, where he was met by a group of hooded, masked and armed attackers.
Three attackers, at least two of whom were armed, set upon the teenager while other gang members acted as look-outs, it is said.
"The three intentionally lashed out at him with a baseball bat, their shod feet, fists and ultimately fatally with a knife or possibly even knives", said Mr Altman.