Teenager jailed for life for killing youth worker

A teenager was given a life sentence today for shooting dead a young youth worker he blamed for his gold chain being taken.

Innocent Nathan Foster, 18, collapsed in a hail of bullets in a cold-blooded act of revenge, the Old Bailey was told.

He had been shot by 17-year-old Junior Glasgow as he sat on a low wall with friends on a hot night in August last year.

Glasgow, of Brixton, south London, was found guilty of murder last month. He was told he would have to serve a minimum of 21 years.

There were cheers and claps from the public gallery as Glasgow was sentenced by Judge Peter Rook.

He told Glasgow: "At your young age, you have become part of the gun culture which is a blight on some of our big cities."

Glasgow did not have the "emotional maturity" to deal with being robbed of his prized £800 chain and "reacted wholly out of proportion", said the judge.

He added: "You carried out this terrible revenge on someone you mistakenly thought was responsible.

"You carried out a cold-blooded, premeditated execution in a public place."

The court was told Glasgow went into the cul-de-sac where they all lived in Marcus Garvey Way, Brixton, on his motor-scooter and started firing with an automatic gun.

Mr Foster, who worked with inner-city children using horses, was hit by six bullets including one through the heart.

The court was told that six hours earlier a chain was taken from Glasgow's neck by another youth.

Mr Foster's older sister Shannel told the judge: "Nathan was killed by a coward.

"He was my best friend and my favourite brother."

She also read an impact statement from his girlfriend Rochelle Martin, the mother of his baby son Raheem.

She said it was for the "little boy" who killed her childhood sweetheart.

She said: "You aim at an individual but did not see anyone else standing behind. You have broken so many lives and hearts."