Kingsley Iyasara

Kingsley Iyasara was attacked by 16 youths who beat him with sticks and bats and was then shot in the left leg.

Kingsley Iyasara was targetted after he was said to have stabbed one of the youths who was later involved in the revenge attack against him during an argument over stolen money. The youth that Kingsley Iyasara was said to have stabbed had required hospital treatment.

It was said that after Kingsley Iyasara had stabbed the youth the group determined to track him down and exact revenge. They were said to have armed themselves with sticks and baseball bats and to have then cornered him on the Carlton Lodge Estate.

It was said then that the gang had become 'hell bent on revenge'.

The judge said, 'It was lynch law of the kind that will not be tolerated on the streets of our cities'.

It was heard that after the gang cornered Kingsley Iyasara on the Carlton Lodge Estate he had run up onto the roof of some flats and then back down onto a landing where he was beaten and shot. Kingsley Iyasara was then said to have collapsed outside the front door of one of the flats.

Kingsley Iyasara was shot in the leg at close range. The gun was never found.

He was taken to Whittington Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4am.

Six people were convicted of lesser offences such as conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent but because it was not possible to determine who fired the shot no one was charged with his murder. Other than the person who fired the shot, it was not possible to determine that any of them knew that a gun was to be used in the assault.

A charge of murder against all six of the youths was ordered to lie on the court file after the pre-trial legal argument concluded that it was not possible to prove that any of them had knowledge that a gun was to be used. Similar charges against a seventh youth were dropped.

Two of the people convicted in relation to his murder were also themselves later murdered. They were Menelik Robinson who was shot in 2000 and Corey Wright who was shot in 2001. Both of their murders are also unsolved. They had been convicted of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to Kingsley Iyasara's death.

At the trial it was heard that one of the youths had also just been convicted for robbery and was at the time of the trial serving a five year sentence in a Young Offender's Institute after being part of a group of 11 youths who robbed a travel agent in Hackney and during which they had held staff captive before getting away with £1,000 and that he had been the only person convicted out of the 11 for that crime.

Kingsley Iyasara's nickname was Popcorn.