Teenage gang detained for stabbing boy, 16, to death

Two teenagers were given life sentences yesterday for the murder of a schoolboy.

They had been part of a gang which chased 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga shouting "kill him, kill him".

Kodjo was left dying in his girlfriend's arms after being stabbed in the heart in Hammersmith, west London, in March, last year.

He had been ambushed by about a dozen youngsters, including two girls, who armed themselves with knives, bats and even a bull terrier.

As horrified passers-by tried to help, the gang, some of them in their school uniforms, ran away laughing.

Judge Christopher Moss ordered that Tirrell Davis, 17, and Brandon Richmond, 14, should be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure.

He told the Old Bailey they should serve a minimum term of 15 years.

Three other youths, Yemoh Kurtis, 17, Jamel Bridgeman and Michel Williams, both 15, were given ten years' detention with five years on extended licence after their release.

The five, who had denied killing Kodjo, were all from Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush, west London.