RILEY: TRIO CLEARED OF KILLING YOUNG FOOTBALLER
Three young men were today (FRI) cleared of stabbing a promising teenage footballer to death in an unprovoked street attack.
Godwin Lawson, 17, was killed when he tried to protect a childhood friend from a group of youths in Hackney, northeast London.
His family had moved away from the area for fear of knife violence and he was only in London for a weekend home visit from the Oxford United FC academy.
CCTV cameras captured him staggering across the road with a fatal wound to the heart before collapsing on the pavement.
The vicious attack had lasted just 20 seconds. Godwin’s two friends, who were also stabbed, tried to stem the flow of blood but he died minutes later.
Killer Moise Avorgah, 21, who had a previous conviction for carrying a knife in public two years earlier, went out to a nightclub with his friends after fleeing the scene.
He was convicted of murder at a trial in February and was jailed for life with a minimum terms of 19 years.
His friends Daniel Riley, 22, Koffi Osimeh, 20, and Matthew Lanihun, 21, were accused of the murder of Godwin Lawson on the basis of joint enterprise.
The first jury was unable to reach verdicts but all three were cleared of murder and the lesser alternative of manslaughter after a second trial.
They were also cleared of two charges of wounding with intent and the lesser alternative of unlawful wounding.
Following the verdicts it emerged Riley and Osimeh are both serving 42-month sentences for possession of cocaine with intent to supply.
They were on bail for the offence at the time of Godwin’s death.
Once the jury had been released Lanihan was jailed for eight months for possession of a knife.
He had walked in to Holloway police station to answer bail with the folding lock knife hidden in his pants.
He claimed he had needed it for protection because of threats made by associates of the Borja brothers, who were with Godwin when he died.
Lanihan will be released immediately having already served 416 days on remand.
Judge Warwick McKinnon QC said: ‘Knives are a complete menace when carried in public because of the risk they pose.’
Godwin had grown up in the Stamford Hill area of north London before joining the Oxford United Football Club academy.
His mother Yvonne Lawson, a 39 year-old teacher, said he aimed to be a professional star with Manchester United. Following his murder the United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to the family to express his condolences.
Godwin returned to London most weekends to see his family and on the night of his death had arranged to meet up with brothers Julian and Daniel Borja.
CCTV cameras revealed the three friends walking down Amhurst Park towards the Stamford Hill train station at 1.30am March 27, 2010.
Minutes later at the junction of Durley Way they were confronted by Avorgah and his group.
Julian Borja, 21, told the police one of them was wearing a balaclava over his face and brandishing a knife.
During a struggle he was stabbed once in the stomach.
His brother Daniel, 19, and Godwin were also stabbed as they tried to intervene.
Daniel told the court he heard one of the gang voice shouting ‘Wet him!’
He added: ‘I realised I was getting stabbed and I was trying to get away.
‘I felt I was getting stabbed. Godwin was next to me in the road.
‘I ran towards the train station then looked back for Godwin, checking if he was all right.
‘He was moving dizzy, didn’t reply back. He came to the pavement and collapsed.
‘I ran up to him trying to help him up. He was whispering something but I didn’t hear him.
‘I was pushing down on his chest but his eyes started rolling back and he started twitching.’
The court has heard Daniel suffered two stab wounds to the back, one to the buttock and one to his arm.
His brother Julian was left with his intestines protruding after being knifed in the stomach.
CCTV footage taken by a camera at Stamford Hill train station captured part of the fight in the distance.
It shows Godwin staggering across the road into a parked car before collapsing on the pavement.
Less than half an hour after the killing, Avorgah was treated for a cut to his right index finger at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.
He said he had cut himself on a tin can but his blood was found at the scene and in a blue Ford Focus hire car he drove that night.
Two days later Avorgah checked into a Southwark hotel using a false name and stolen credit cards details.
Osimeh and Riley were arrested in Folkestone, Kent, and Lanihun was arrested at Holloway police station.
No motive for the attack was put forward by the prosecution, who described the attack as ‘sudden and without warning.’
It is believed Avorgah’s group may have deliberately targeted the Borja brothers, who they claimed were part of the Manor House gang known as ‘Murder House.’
Avorgah insisted he knew Godwin as a ‘cousin’ and had stopped to talk to him after spotting him in the street.
He claimed he was then attacked by both Borja brothers and only stabbed them in self defence.
Osimeh said he thought Godwin was stabbed accidentally by Daniel Borja.
‘Borja is swinging towards Moise. All of a sudden Godwin has just walked off and bent over.
‘I didn’t see the actual knife go into Godwin but….’
All four claimed they had only travelled to Durley Road to pick up Lanihun from his girlfriend’s house before going to a club in Muswell Hill.
Avorgah, of St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, north London; was convicted of murder and two counts of wounding with intent.
Riley, of (room 6) (489) Caledonian Road, Holloway, north London; Lanihun, of (14) Megan Court, Holloway; and Osimeh, of (89) Heron Drive, Finsbury Park, were acquitted of murder and two counts of wounding with intent.
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