Fighting in the dock as Rolex murderer is convicted

A moped-riding mugger fought with security guards as he was convicted of stabbing a man to death for his £7,000 Rolex in front of the victim’s girlfriend.

Jordan Bailey-Mascoll, 25, was one of two men who attacked murdered Danny Pearce, 31, as he left Oliver’s jazz club in Greenwich, south London.

Bailey-Mascoll and an accomplice he refused to name, known as ‘Ghost’ drove around on a moped, targeting people with expensive watches, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

One of the balaclava-clad killers was armed with a long ‘particularly gruesome’ hunting knife and the other with a gun.

When Mr Pearce refused to hand over his Rolex he was shot at, chased down the street, then cornered and knifed to death.

Mr Pearce suffered multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest after the attack at 12.15am on 15 July last year and died at the scene.

Bailey-Mascoll, who has an appalling criminal record dating back to his teens, was convicted of murder, possessing a firearm, possessing an imitation firearm and robbery.

He was jailed for 18 months for firearm offences in 2011 after he accidentally shot himself in the leg while storing a gun for an associate.

When the guilty verdict for murder was returned, Bailey-Mascoll began struggling violently with the dock officers who battled to restrain him.

Members of both families gasped as he jumped on to the bench and tore away from officers towards the cell door.

His mother shouted: ‘Don’t Jordan! Please don’t!’

Judge Christopher Kinch, QC, said: ‘If the defendant wants to go down he can go down.’

Tearful jurors were handed tissues as the remaining verdicts were read out in his absence.

Mr Pearce and his girlfriend Stephanie Holland were returning to his car on King William Walk after a night out with another couple in Greenwich.

Ms Holland wept as she told the court how she tossed her boyfriend’s Rolex at the muggers but they killed him anyway.

She said:’I was in front of Danny. We were walking down the street and then two men both wearing balaclavas and motorcycle helmets come in front of us.

‘The person on the right had a firearm and the one on the left had a knife. They were of average height but larger than me.’

Ms Holland said the knife was about a foot long.

‘They were asking to hand over the watch. I thought they were joking.

‘I thought it was a joke at first but then when the gun was shot I just ran. The gun was shot several times.

‘I went half way down the street and then I turned back and saw that Danny was not there, so I ran back to where we were.

‘He was in-between two cars. He was bleeding from his forehead. One of the guys followed him up the steps. I did not see the other guy.

‘I went away a little bit. I was scared. I saw the guy repeatedly stabbing Danny a lot of times. He just would not stop.

‘I just shouted at him, “I’ll give you the watch”.’

‘Danny was on the floor and I took the watch off and just threw it at them. They left on their mopeds. I cannot remember if they said anything to me, it was all very fast.’

Louis Mably, QC, prosecuting, said: ‘Jordan Bailey-Mascoll was one of the two men on the moped who brutally murdered Danny Pearce, a total stranger, on the streets of Greenwich.

‘They had weapons so if anyone stood up to them, they had the means necessary to get a wristwatch from someone’s body.

‘One of them had a hunting knife, a particularly gruesome weapon to be carrying on the streets.’

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the moped passing Mr Pearce and Bailey-Mascoll signaling after spotting his glinting Rolex.

The pair on the scooter turn around at the top of King William Walk and follow the couple down the street.

Mr Pearce is then seen sprinting past the camera chased by armed Bailey-Mascoll while he is closely ‘stalked’ by the moped.

Bailey-Mascoll and Mr Pearce are seen struggling over a car bonnet before he is cornered and stabbed by both attackers.

The killers ‘swapped roles’ leaving Bailey-Mascoll to take control of the moped and ride off with his accomplice on the back.

Bailey-Mascoll was eventually identified after police linked him to a blue Adidas tracksuit worn by one of the men with the moped at a petrol station 10 minutes earlier.

Fortunately, a quick-thinking passer-by had noted down part of the moped’s licence plate and it was linked to a string of similar robberies in the area.

Four days before the murder Jolyon Atkinson was robbed of his Lars & Jensen timepiece by a pillion passenger on a moped wielding a large knife on Plough Way, Surrey Quays.

Bailey-Mascoll’s DNA was later found on the moped and he owned a set of spare keys.

Police tried to arrest him in Catford on 23 August but he got away after threatening officers with a large knife.

He was finally arrested on 18 September after trying to escape out of a window.

After arresting Bailey-Mascoll at a flat in The Brent, Dartford, Kent, police recovered two mobile phones containing a search history of hunting knives, expensive watches and images of him wearing a Rolex watch.

The young father claimed ‘Ghost’ called the shots and sold on the luxury timepieces.

He insisted he only ever wielded the hunting knife to terrify victims into handing over their valuables and he did not intend to seriously harm Mr Pearce.

Bailey-Mascoll grew up in Sydenham, southeast London, living with his mother until he was 15.

A minor conviction saw him expelled from school two years earlier.

He was in and out of court for a number of other offences including burglary, possessing cannabis, theft from a motor vehicle and shoplifting whilst still a juvenile.

When he was 18 he was jailed for possessing a loaded firearm after accidentally shooting himself.

Further convictions for shoplifting and a snatch robbery followed in 2012 and 2014.

Bailey-Mascoll, of no fixed address, denied but was found guilty of murder, possession of a firearm, possession of an imitation firearm and robbery.

He had admitted manslaughter.

A further hearing in the week starting 9 July will determine a sentencing date for the killer.