Latest news with #Ledward
The Independent
01-04-2025
- The Independent
Prisoner told fellow inmate he was involved in killing of teenager, court hears
A prisoner confessed to a fellow inmate about the murder of a teenage girl who was shot dead during a gang 'ride-out', a court has heard. Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was standing with friends on Chalgrove Road in Tottenham, north London, on the evening of Easter Monday in 2018 when a car pulled up and an occupant opened fire, jurors were told. Two years after the shooting, police made a breakthrough in the case when a prisoner at HMP Pentonville, north London, came forward to report an alleged confession made by Marcus La Croix, 37. La Croix had been 'boasting' and 'showing off' to fellow inmates in 2020, the Old Bailey heard. The inmate told police La Croix admitted the killing after the two men spent time together and became close. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said: 'Some time in 2020, Mr La Croix told this other prisoner he had been involved in the murder of a 16 or 17-year-old girl. 'Whatever that witness's reasons for making that disclosure – what he did report was both credible and, insofar as he was able to provide detail, reliable. 'So far as Mr La Croix is concerned – it starts really where I ended – he told somebody he was in prison with precisely what happened. 'If you work backwards, there is nothing inconsistent that makes what he told that prisoner impossible. 'There are details he provided that he could not have got anywhere else. 'When you come to hear that evidence, you may seek to consider: how could he have known?' Jurors were also shown CCTV of an attack on La Croix the day before the shooting by members of a rival gang. Referring to the incident, Ms Ledward said: 'There is the motive for the Tinseltown attack – a very personal slight on him – which the prosecution say he would not have been prepared to let lie.' The prosecution alleges La Croix and co-defendant Michael Clarke, 35, were among a group of men who travelled from Wood Green into rival territory that night before fatal shots were fired. Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the silver Vauxhall Meriva that the shots were fired from. The vehicle was later traced to a man who had bought it for £500 in cash under a false name. It was allegedly acquired with the intention of avoiding identification, the court heard. The court also heard how the Vauxhall was set alight days later outside a housing estate in Barnet, north London. Ms Ledward said it was 'plainly a deliberate fire designed to destroy either the vehicle or any traces of the offences'. Forensic evidence later confirmed the bullets were fired from the same self-loading pistol – a Czech-made CZ Model 50. La Croix and Clarke deny murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The trial continues.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Yahoo
Prisoner told fellow inmate he was involved in killing of teenager, court hears
A prisoner confessed to a fellow inmate about the murder of a teenage girl who was shot dead during a gang 'ride-out', a court has heard. Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was standing with friends on Chalgrove Road in Tottenham, north London, on the evening of Easter Monday in 2018 when a car pulled up and an occupant opened fire, jurors were told. Two years after the shooting, police made a breakthrough in the case when a prisoner at HMP Pentonville, north London, came forward to report an alleged confession made by Marcus La Croix, 37. La Croix had been 'boasting' and 'showing off' to fellow inmates in 2020, the Old Bailey heard. The inmate told police La Croix admitted the killing after the two men spent time together and became close. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said: 'Some time in 2020, Mr La Croix told this other prisoner he had been involved in the murder of a 16 or 17-year-old girl. 'Whatever that witness's reasons for making that disclosure – what he did report was both credible and, insofar as he was able to provide detail, reliable. 'So far as Mr La Croix is concerned – it starts really where I ended – he told somebody he was in prison with precisely what happened. 'If you work backwards, there is nothing inconsistent that makes what he told that prisoner impossible. 'There are details he provided that he could not have got anywhere else. 'When you come to hear that evidence, you may seek to consider: how could he have known?' Jurors were also shown CCTV of an attack on La Croix the day before the shooting by members of a rival gang. Referring to the incident, Ms Ledward said: 'There is the motive for the Tinseltown attack – a very personal slight on him – which the prosecution say he would not have been prepared to let lie.' The prosecution alleges La Croix and co-defendant Michael Clarke, 35, were among a group of men who travelled from Wood Green into rival territory that night before fatal shots were fired. Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the silver Vauxhall Meriva that the shots were fired from. The vehicle was later traced to a man who had bought it for £500 in cash under a false name. It was allegedly acquired with the intention of avoiding identification, the court heard. The court also heard how the Vauxhall was set alight days later outside a housing estate in Barnet, north London. Ms Ledward said it was 'plainly a deliberate fire designed to destroy either the vehicle or any traces of the offences'. Forensic evidence later confirmed the bullets were fired from the same self-loading pistol – a Czech-made CZ Model 50. La Croix and Clarke deny murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The trial continues.
The Independent
01-04-2025
- The Independent
Girl, 17, killed in drive-by shooting day after rapper suffered social media humiliation in gang feud, jury told
A 17-year-old girl was killed in drive-by shooting the day after a rapper was beaten and humiliated on social media following a series of violent 'tit for tat' attacks between rival North London gangs, a court has heard. Jurors were told Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, who had been outside playing a 'penny up' game with friends, may not have been the intended target when she was gunned down in Tottenham seven years ago. Marcus La-Croix, 37, who raps under the name 'Bobby Slater', and Michael Clarke, known as 'Da Gaffa', both deny murdering the teenager in a 'ride-out' after La-Croix was attacked by rivals at a diner the night before. The Old Bailey heard how the teenager, who had been dancing and socialising with her friends, was walking up Chalgrove Road, Tottenham, shortly after 9pm on 2 April 2018 when she was shot with a weapon aimed from the rear window of a passing Vauxhall Meriva. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said she 'selflessly' shouted for her friend to duck before turning to him and saying: 'Jace, I've been shot'. She asked for him to call her mother as she collapsed on the floor, but quickly became pale and stopped breathing, the court heard. By the time police and ambulance crews arrived, a large crowd had gathered. Ms Melbourne-Blake was pronounced dead at 10.43pm after a single bullet wound to her right breast caused 'severe and uncontrollable bleeding', Ms Ledward told the jury, adding that the nature of her injuries suggest she was ducking or leaning forwards when she was hit. Members of the teenager's family left the courtroom as details of her final moments were read out. Witnesses described seeing three bright sparks like 'fireworks' and hearing the 'pap, pap, pap' of three bullets being fired from the vehicle, the court heard. 'There was nothing out of the ordinary about this particular evening, and none of the group knew of any reason why anyone would wish to harm Tanesha or any of them,' Ms Ledward told the jury. The court heard shooting happened amid 'longstanding enmity' and 'extreme levels of violence' between rivals the Northumberland Park Killers (NPK), also known as the 'Sin Squad', and the Wood Green Mob (WGM). In February that year 22-year-old Kwabena Nelson was murdered in Tottenham, in so-called NPK territory, by a killer from Wood Green called Neron Quartey. Just over a month later, Kelvin Odunuyi was shot dead in the Vue Cinema in Wood Green. Nobody has been charged with his murder. Later that same day, a young man from Wood Green stabbed a student multiple times outside Haringey Sixth Form college in Tottenham. 'These incidents give some idea of the extreme levels of violence which characterised the disputes between NPK and WGM in the early part of 2018,' Ms Ledward said. 'But the murder of Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was not merely a continuation of that catalogue of violence - it had its own particular catalyst.' CCTV footage played to the court showed Mr La-Croix, who has links to Wood Green, being subjected to a 'violent, entirely gratuitous, sustained and targeted physical assault with kicks and punches' by four men from Northumberland Park as his girlfriend tried to defend him the day before the shooting. The assault at the Tinsel Town diner in Farringdon in the early hours of 1 April 2018 was filmed and widely circulated on social media in a series of posts 'mocking' Mr La-Croix, including his own account after the attackers stole his mobile phone. 'Some of those posts were recovered by the police, and they give a flavour of the way in which this unprovoked and seemingly unexpected violent attack was turned into a very public humiliation,' Ms Ledward told the court. The prosecution allege that Mr La-Croix and Mr Clarke were both in the car when the fatal shot was fired. Both deny murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The Old Bailey trial continues.
