TWO teenagers were given life sentences with minimum terms of 15 years each 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 ambus
hed by about a dozen youngsters, including two girls, who armed themselves with knives and bats. As horrified passers-by tried to help, the gang, some of them in their school uniforms, ran away laughing.
The 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, Kurtis Yemoh, 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.
Kodjo's mother said her son's killers would always have "blood on their hands".
Ladjua Lesele said in a statement: "These cold-blooded children tormented and stabbed my wonderful and innocent son while they screamed 'kill him, kill him' during his calculated murder that was premeditated and planned.
"I only have one thing to say to those who murdered Kodjo – as you spilled and touched his blood, no matter how many times you wash your hands, his blood will stay on them for as long as you live."
She added: "I stand before you as a broken mother whose prayers, dreams and hopes for the bright future of her beloved son were cruelly and needlessly crushed when he was brutally murdered."
The full article contains 304 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
