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‘Camden Boyz’ seen on CCTV travelling to Green Lanes on the N29 |
The ‘bad blood’ which led to murder
Thirteen young men convicted of an attack on rival Tottenham gang member which sparked a deadly retaliation
THIRTEEN young men were jailed on Monday for a violent attack that left a 21-year-old man with brain damage – and sparked the retaliation that led to a horrific murder in Camden Town.
Wood Green Crown Court heard on Monday how a gang from Camden launched a spree of violence against their Tottenham “rivals” that left Mohammed Nur permanently disabled and the car park of a Haringey McDonald’s strewn with bloodied bats, concrete slabs and knives.
Less than a month later, 40 Tottenham youths came to Camden Town seeking revenge – and killed 18-year-old Mahir Osman in Camden High Street.
Prosecuting barrister Gideon Cammerman said the Camden gang had argued with the Tottenham group at Eros nightclub in Enfield the night before the attack on December 19, 2005.
He said: “The groups had a fight and bad blood emerged. The Camden group travelled up to Tottenham to find members of the Tottenham group in order to fight because of that bad blood.
“Mr Nur was chased down and attacked by between ten and 17 people – he remembered them shouting ‘Let’s show these Tottenham pussholes.’”
Their victim barely alive and the car park – in Mr Cammerman’s words – “strewn with pieces of slab and brick that had clearly been used in the attack on Mohammed Nur,” the gang caught the night-bus back to Camden.
The 13 young men sentenced this week for the attack on Mr Nur come from West Hampstead, Kentish Town, Queen’s Crescent, Camden Town, Clerkenwell and King’s Cross, and were known, at least to their enemies, as the Camden Boyz.
Eight pleaded guilty to violent disorder, and five were found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. They were jailed for a total of 62 years.
Their hunt for Haringey gang-members began in Burgoyne Road and ended in a McDonald’s in Green Lanes, where the whole group rushed off a bus to attack Mr Nur and his brother.
The Tottenham friends of the victim launched the revenge attack which targeted Mahir Osman in January 2006.
Judge Peter Ader told the convicted men on Monday: “There was gang violence, and it is clear from the incident [which took place] a month later that it was very serious – somebody lost their life.
“That is part of the background of this case – someone was killed as a result of it.”
He added: “Mr Nur was certainly in no position to have any kind of a fair fight. He could easily have died – but he will never be the same as he was before because he has brain damage.
“I take the view that you were acting as a gang, and the conspiracy for which you have all been convicted was to seek out and confront and fight with the rival gang from Tottenham.”
• Mohammed Ahmed, 23, of Camden Street; Hassan Meragan, 22, of Frederick street; Abdirahman Osman, 23, of Plender Street; Mahad Adan, 21, of Hanley Road, Holloway; Mahdi Mahdi, 20, of Burnt Oak, Broadway; were found guilty of conspiracy to commit GBH, and were sentenced to between seven and eight years imprisonment.
• Abdi Abdirahman, 21, of Vicars Road; Abdirisah Muhidinz, 19, of Bartholomew Road; Arun Omary, 21, of Queen’s Crescent; Salim Muse, 22, of Malden Road; Saaid Muse, 22, of Rowntree Close; Abdi Aden, 21, of Baldwin Gardens; Ali Ali, 21, of Lady Somerset Road; Yahyh Salah, 21, of York Way, all pleaded guilty to violent disorder, and received between 30 and 40 months in prison or a young offenders institution. A charge of conspiracy to commit GBH will stay on file.
Young lives lost to the madness of gangs
DRUG-dealing gangsters with free bus passes; students who settled teenage spats with machetes and concrete slabs – the trial this week of 13 men – 11 of them from Camden – for a violent spree in Tottenham laid bare the adolescent gang culture of north London.
Although the shadow of Mahir Osman’s 2006 murder hung over the trial – his mother was among those in Wood Green Crown Court’s public gallery– this case was not ancient history.
The feud also involved many of the faces familiar to those tackling Camden’s drug-dealing “Frontline” – which has been the focus of police efforts for the last three years – and the trial had a heavy police guard.
Although two of the “Camden Boyz”, Arun Omary, 21, and Mohammed Ahmed, 23, had clean records, the remainder of the group had over 25 cannabis-related convictions between them.
Members of the group had also served time for robbery, theft, assaulting a police officer, and numerous public order offences.
Ali Ali, 21, admitted supplying cocaine to undercover police only weeks before the trial.
The group were also a testimony to the effectiveness, or lack of it, of anti-social behaviour orders.
Abdi Abdirahman, 21, twice breached Asbos banning him from Camden Town; as did Yahyh Salah, 21 Abdirisah Muhidinz, 19 and Saaid Muse, 22.
Although the Asbos had been gained by police to keep the “Camden Boyz” – and their related gang, the “African Nations Crew” (ANC) – out of Camden, none had been imprisoned for these breaches until Monday.
But the trial was also a tale of young men’s lives wasted. The oldest of the convicted men was 20 years old at the time of the attack; the youngest was 16.
In the three years the case was delayed, two had completed university degrees. One, Ahmed, will now have to turn down an offer of a Masters course while he serves his seven-year
sentence. Another, Arun Omary, had never been in trouble with the police before or after the attack, and had recently married.
Between them, the 13 were sentenced to 62 years in prison or young offenders’ institutions.
Another, Yahyh Salah, despite convictions for handling stolen goods and numerous breaches of Asbos and court orders, had worked so hard as a youth worker that he prompted Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn to turn up at court and give a character reference under oath.
“I don’t defend the activities of gangs,” Mr Corbyn said. “I deplore it, because my community suffers from the activities of gangs.
“The events of that time were appalling and have to be condemned. But [Salah] has managed to significantly change around his life. He has realised that the only way [to change] is to not engage in this pointless gang culture.” |
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