Samantha Joseph lured the boy into brutal attack
A teenage girl who lured a ‘smitten’ 16-year-old to his death so she could get back with her ex-boyfriend was convicted of his murder yesterday. An Old Bailey jury found Samantha Joseph guilty of murdering Shakilus Townsend after she acted as a ‘honey trap’ to win back gang member Danny McLean, 18. Joseph, who was 15 at the time of the murder last July, can now be named after Judge Richard Hawkins lifted an order banning her identification. Desperate to rekindle her relationship with McLean after two-timing him with Townsend, Joseph had agreed to deliver her boyfriend to a quiet cul-de-sac in Thornton Heath, south London.
There McLean and his masked gang launched a ‘relentless and merciless attack’ on the besotted teenager, beating him with baseball bats and stabbing him six times. McLean delivered the fatal blow, plunging a knife into his chest and twisting the blade.
The couple had met earlier that day, she wearing a see-through floral dress and telling him they were going to visit her cousin. But all the time she was keeping in touch with McLean on her mobile phone.
Jurors rejected Joseph's explanation that she did not know Shakilus would be seriously hurt and convicted her and McLean, 18, of Thornton Heath, of murder. The victim's mother Nicola Dyer, 34, said afterwards: ‘He said he was really in love with this girl, that she was to be his future wife and that she was going to have his kids – he was really smitten with her.’
Brothers Tyrell Ellis, 19, and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, from Thornton Heath, were also convicted of murder, together with Andrew Johnson-Haynes, a 19-year-old former public schoolboy from Croydon who played rugby for London Irish.
Two other youths, Andre Thompson and Michael Akinfenwa, both 17, were also found guilty of murder. The defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
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