Bragging killer faces life sentence for hammer murder of this teenager
A teenager who clubbed a schoolboy to death with a hammer and then acted out the killing as he bragged to his friends is facing a life sentence.
Ignas Stauryla, 18, murdered 16-year-old Shanur Ahmed in a revenge attack outside Gallions Reach DLR station in east London on 2 March last year.
The killing came after three separate ‘tit for tat’ incidents involving two gangs, the Old Bailey heard.
John Price, prosecuting, said: ‘The evidence would show that Ignas Stauryla may well have struck Shanur Ahmed on the head more than once.
‘Indeed, only a minute or so later, he is seen boastfully to demonstrate two overhead blows to his friends. He used a weapon to do so.
‘When making that gesture, he must have known he had just left his victim lying unconscious or worse, on the ground.’
‘The pursuit of the other group by these defendants was obviously hostile, aggressive, wholly unnecessary, and so unlawful; there is no conceivable lawful justification for what the CCTV cameras show they did.’
Stauryla was among a group of youths who ambushed one of Shanur’s friends at a bus stop outside Newham College in Prince Regents Lane earlier that day, stealing his phone.
The victim of that assault was rushed to hospital in an ambulance where he was visited by Shanur and five other friends, the court heard.
Shanur and the others left the hospital in a cab around 19:20 heading to the home of Sadiq Abubakar, 18, in pursuit of their friend’s phone, it was said.
Mr Price said: ‘They say they were just there to ask for the return of the telephone, whereas its occupants speak of a threatening incident.
‘Whatever happened it was brief. Having been dropped off by the cab at 19.32, four minutes later, Shanur Ahmed and his friends are already well on their way.’
The court heard both groups converged at Basin Approach, before Shanur and his friends were chased through streets towards Gallions Reach.
Mr Price said: ‘By then, they have become aware of what has recently happened at the nearby home of Sadiq Abubakar, because his mother has told him on the phone.
‘The chase which ensues was not, it is submitted, even remotely an exercise in self-defence.
‘It was revenge, pure and simple; the carrying on of some no doubt petty grudge.
‘It had first shown itself earlier that afternoon outside of the college, continued in Shackleton Way, and which, within only a few minutes of the start of this last part of the ‘tit for tat’, was to cost the life of a sixteen-year-old boy.’
Bus driver Hassan. Ahmed who was parked up on Atlantis Avenue, saw Stauryla brandishing a blunt object gripped as he encouraged fellow gang members to join him, jurors heard.
Mr Price said: ‘The youth whom Mr Ahmed saw with the hammer in one hand, another weapon in the other, and whom he heard aggressively urging on the others in their pursuit of the first group is identified by a combination of evidence as Ignas Stauryla.’
Stauryla was convicted of murder and having an offensive weapon by an Old Bailey jury today
Two other men, Sadiq Abubakar, 18, and Ibrahim Khamis, 19, earlier admitted charges including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray.
Dressed in a navy suit and with his hair in a ponytail, the killer closed his eyes and threw his head back in despair as Judge Anthony Leonard, QC, told him: ‘You have been convicted by this jury.
‘I will have to sentence you. As you know, the only sentence I can pass is one of life imprisonment, but the period you must serve before you could be released I will need to consider, having read the report, having heard from your counsel and having considered other matters of law.’
Stauryla, of Shackleton Way, Beckton, denied but was convicted of murder and having an offensive weapon.
Khamis, of Plymouth Road, Beckton, admitted one count each of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of affray
Abubakar, also of Shackleton Way, admitted one count of affray.
They all face sentence at the Old Bailey at a date to be fixed by the end of this month.
