Crime reporter(wp/es):
A teenager who stabbed a schoolboy to death at a girl’s 16th birthday party after the victim stepped into an argument as a peacemaker has been jailed for 13 years.
Walker Sesay, 19, knifed 17-year-old Che Labastide-Wellington in the chest in the clash outside the house party in Kenton last November.
Che had gone outside as a peacemaker when gatecrashers were denied entry to the party, which had been advertised on
Instagram.
But he and a friend were set upon by a “small army” of young men who had been summoned when trouble started to brew.
Sesay was cleared by a jury of murder but convicted of manslaughter, and was sentenced today at the
Old Bailey to 13 years in prison.
Judge Stephen Kramer QC, sentencing, heard Sesay had gone on a knife-awareness course while in prison, and was described as coming from a "good family" and as an "intelligent young man who had aspirations to go to university".
But the judge said the stabbing has deprived a family of a "much loved" son, grandson and brother.
It also emerged during the trial that Che's mother, Carlene Wellington, had given birth to another son less than 24 hours before the stabbing.
Che was due to
visit his mother and new brother the following day, but had been stabbed to death before he could make the trip.
Calvin Tudor, 22, Marlon Tudor, 23 and Rimmel Williams, 18, were also part of the mob who arrived at the party, and were found guilty of chasing and attacking Che’s 16-year-old friend.
He tried to get away from the group but was cornered in a nearby house and stabbed repeatedly in the arms and legs.
“The attack was sustained, although it did not take long, and he was lucky not to be more serious injured or killed”, said the judge, as he jailed the Tudor brothers and Williams for nine years each.
Omar Afrah, 22, and Ola Onafowokan, 23, who were both convicted of conspiracy to commit violent disorder were jailed for two years each.
The court heard the teenage girl’s mother had allowed the party to celebrate her 16th birthday on strict conditions that cigarettes, drugs and alcohol were banned, and invited guests were searched on entry.
However, trouble flared up regardless when the party was advertised on social media and gatecrashers turned up but were denied entry.
Che, who had been invited, went outside to speak to those who could not get in, unaware that another group – containing the Tudor brothers, Sesay, Williams, Afrah, and Onafowokan - had been summoned by one of the partygoers from Wembley as “back-up”.
When the group of around 17 young men arrived, they surrounded Che and his friend. Che made a bid to escape but was stabbed by Sesay in the ensuing melee.
Paramedics performed open-heart surgery on the college student from Kensal Green as he lay on the pavement, but he died at the scene less than an hour after being stabbed.
Sesay, of Rawlings Crescent, Wembley, Calvin Tudor, of Kelly Close, Neasden, Williams, of Churchill Road, Willesden Green, Marlon Tudor, of no fixed address, Afrah, of Walton Avenue, Wembley, and Onafowokan, of Page Avenue on the Chalk Hill Estate in Wembley, were all cleared of murder.
Only Sesay was found guilty of manslaughter, while Calvin Tudor, Marlon Tudor and Williams were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Afrah and Onafowokan were found guilty of conspiracy to commit violent disorder.
Sesay were acquitted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, the 15-year-old, Afrah, Onafowokan and Mansatray were cleared of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.
