Teenagers convicted of young lawyer's murder

Two teenage muggers were facing life sentences today after being convicted of murdering a high-flying City lawyer.

Donnel Carty, 19, and Delano Brown, 18, were found guilty of stabbing Tom ap Rhys Pryce, 31, during a robbery.

The former friends, who thought of themselves as cousins, had blamed each other for the killing in January.

Mr ap Rhys Pryce was targeted soon after leaving Kensal Green underground station in north west London.

He was accosted and chased to within feet of his home in Bathurst Gardens and left to die in the gutter after being stabbed twice in the chest.

Mr ap Rhys Pryce, who was over 6ft tall, was too proud to allow himself to be mugged and ran off after refusing to hand over his possessions.

But his resistance sealed his fate, with the knife thrust into his face and arm as well as his chest.

After a struggle in which he was also punched and kicked, the solicitor handed over the last of his things, telling his attackers: "You've got everything."

As they ran off, he slumped dying to the ground as his fiancee, fellow solicitor Adele Eastman, waited for him at their flat nearby.

Their wedding plans - which Mr ap Rhys Pryce had been clutching - were covered in blood and scattered along the street.

The scene told its own story of the violent confrontation between the mild-mannered lawyer and the two thugs.

Mr ap Rhys Pryce's book and gloves were lying outside No 56, a silver Audi car was smeared with blood outside No 82 and a list of wedding venues outside 84.

Mr ap Rhys Pryce was found collapsed in the gutter outside No 90.

The meagre haul from the robbery was a travelcard, a mobile phone and some bank cards.

The callous youths ran off and were soon ringing girlfriends from Mr ap Rhys Pryce's phone and a phone belonging to an earlier mugging victim.

Half an hour before, the pair had robbed chef Kurshid Ali on a platform at the station, taking his mobile, travelcard and £60.

Middle-aged Mr Ali said: "I was very afraid, maybe he has got a knife." He said he decided "not to do anything".

Three weeks earlier, they had been part of a gang which robbed two travellers on Underground trains, stabbing them in the leg each time.

Richard Horwell QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "The motive was greed. He was being targeted as the victim of a robbery.

"They were armed and, of course, he was not.

"It did not matter to them that this man had worked hard for his position in life, that he had a promising career in the legal system ahead of him. It did not matter that he was to marry in September.

"All that was best in life was ahead of him but to them he was no more than a means to an end and they treated him accordingly.

"Tom ap Rhys Pryce was a proud man and there is a real prospect that he did not submit to the demands of the robbers.

"He may well have taken them on and if he did, the robbers rose to the challenge and they proceeded in their attack on him."

Neighbour Anique Bazil said she saw Mr ap Rhys Pryce running away from two men wearing hoodies and then attempted to defend himself when they caught up with him.

She said: "There was a struggle. It was not a fight. The man was trying to defend himself. He was trying to block them, to try to keep them away from him.

"I think I remember him just giving up and handing something over. They grabbed whatever it was and they walked away.

"The man walked... he was staggering and fell. He got up and walked a few paces and fell behind a van. I did not see him again."

Carty, who months earlier had made a CD rap featuring stabbing and death, denied being with Brown.

Brown said he was with Carty but did not realise there was a knife and that the lawyer had been stabbed.

Giving his version of events, he said: "Carty fly-kicked him in his back. He just dropped to the floor. He tried to get back up and Carty kicked him to the face.

"They were fighting. He was trying to get away and Donnel tried to stop him. He was trying to fight with Donnel.

"I saw that he was bleeding. The man was holding his chest and trying to pull his arm away.

"Donnel shouted at the man 'What else have you got?' The man said 'Nothing. You have got everything."'