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Selorn Gbesemete

Age: 21

Sex: male

Date: 15 Dec 2002

Place: Tudor Rose Nightclub, Southall, Middlesex

Mohamed Korneh and Selorn Gbesemete were shot at the Tudor Rose Nightclub in Southall on the night of 15 December 2002 at about 2.10am.

It was thought that they had been shot by two men with handguns.

A man from Bristol was later tried for their murders in 2007 but acquitted.

They had been attending an anti-gun party at the time which was described as being aimed at persuading young black men not to carry guns. The prosecution described the circumstances as a 'tragic irony'.

The club night had been called Unarmed Part 2 and had featured a Dizzee Rascal concert and had been attended by about 300 people.

Selorn Gbesemete had been shot in the neck in an alley near the club and died at the scene.

Mohamed Korneh had been shot in the head. He was taken to New Ealing Hospital but later died from his injuries on Sunday morning.

During the investigation the police came up against a wall of silence when all the witnesses at the club, over 200 of them, refused to give evidence.

The descriptions of the men were:

First man:

  • Black.
  • Aged about 20.
  • 5ft 8in tall.
  • Wearing a thick black leather jacket.

Second man:

  • Black.

It was thought that both of the men had fled the club with a group of black men in their 20s in a rush after the incident.

However, the case was reopened when a new witness approached the police in 2007 and gave them the details of two men. However, one of the names that he gave was of a man that had been shot dead in a barbershop in Acton Lane, Harlesden earlier in April 2007. It was said that his murder was payback for the Tudor Rose shootings.

The other man was the man from Bristol, a 28-year-old, and he was tried for their murders in May 2009 but found not guilty. It was said that he was cleared after the jury rejected the testimony of the new witness. At the trial the man said, 'I am not a gunman, I am none of that. I might smoke a little drug, I make music. I am not running up and down with a gun trying to kill'.

The new witness had been a former drug dealer and in return for his evidence had his sentence reduced. When the prosecution addressed the jury they said that on the one hand their witness 'had a history of a life of crime' but that the alternative was that 'murderers may go free'.

Selorn Gbesemete had been from Stonebridge Park, Wembley in northwest London.

Mohamed Korneh was from Croydon in southeast London.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.