Double killer handcuffed in the dock after telling judge to ‘suck your mum’

A gang member facing a life sentence for murdering two people as they filmed a rap video told an Old Bailey judge to ‘suck your mum’ today (thurs).

Leonardo Reid, 15, and Klevi Shekaj, 23, died after they were stabbed after a mass brawl involving up to 40 people broke out at the video shoot in Elthorne Road, Islington.

Kosovan Lorik Lupqi, 22, is now representing himself after sacking his barrister, and he was asked by Judge Anuja Dhir, KC, if he had anything to say before he is sentenced.

He told her: ‘No, just suck your mum’.

Lupqi then told the judge to ‘shut up’ as she said she would send him out of court if he made any further comments of that nature.

He was handcuffed to a dock officer after security said there was a ‘high risk of a violent outburst’ due to his violence towards his co-defendants and staff.

During the four month trial Lupqi had left the dock covered in blood after he attacked one of the other men.

Lupqi and Portuguese national Jason Furtado, 28, were both on tags at the time of the killings.

Furtado, born to Angolan parents, was an illegal immigrant with an appalling criminal record and the Home Office had first tried to deport him nine years ago.

He launched at least two appeals against the decision and carried on committing serious offences in the lead up to the murders.

Lupqi fled to Kosovo after the attacks and was extradited back to the UK last November.

His brother Dior Lupqi was only 15 when he and his gang associates stabbed Nashon Esbrand, 27 to death in Mitchison Road, Islington, in August 2017.

Dior who landed the fatal blow was later jailed for a minimum of 12 years for murder.

Furtado and Loriq Lupqi were earlier convicted of two charges of murder by an Old Bailey jury alongside Abel Chunda, 29, who has 97 previous convictions including robbery, assault and possession of offensive weapons.

Eden Clark, 31, and Xavier Poponne, 22, were also convicted of two counts of murder.

The five killers were also convicted of attempting to murder Abdulla Abdullahi, 28, who was also stabbed in the attack on 29 June 2023.

Reading her victim impact statement in court today Leonardo’s mother Valentina Locci said: ‘Leo was a beautiful, charming, intelligent boy.

‘For the fact another human being can treat another human being so poorly no number of years will justify your callous murder of a poor innocent 15-year-old with his whole life ahead of him.

‘You will all have the chance to walk the streets one day again but you robbed my son of that.

‘There is no such thing as absolute closure but I am thankful some form of justice has been served for my son and he will rest in peace knowing the people who murdered him are now in prison.

‘The trauma, the scars and the sense of horror will never go away.

‘My past, present and future has been taken taken from me and for what, an adrenaline rush, an ego boost, a selfish gratification at the cost of others?

‘Some part of me will always be lonely broken mother.’

Mr Shekaj’s mother Valbona Shekaj sobbed in court as her victim impact statement was read by the prosecutor.

She said: ’I lost my only child, my beloved son, taken from this world, a victim of violence that has altered the cause of my life.

‘On day of his passing we shared a meal together for Eid and revelled in dreams of the future.

‘In the early hours of the morning I opened the door to police officers and words no mother should ever have to hear. In the brief hours that passed my world was shattered.

‘Klevi had simply gone out with friends. He was respectful, modest, he would buy food for stray animals as he unable to walk past suffering without trying to ease it.

‘He was a bright light filled with humour and his distinctive laugh would fill any room.

‘We were not just mother and son but two people who faced life’s challenges together.

‘The promise of who he was becoming, all the potential snuffed out in an act of senseless violence.

‘Klevi’s final words to me were a promise he would be home in five minutes, instead I was met with officers at my door delivering news which would effect me for the rest of my life.

‘What worsened our suffering was the behaviour of these men throughout the trial.

‘Instead of showing remorse or asking for forgiveness they smirked at us from the defendant’s box and argued with their lawyers.

‘They played with our pain and treated the entire trial as a game.

‘I looked at them for signs of humility or humanity from them but instead it deepened our suffering.’

Furtado’s parents were born in Angola but claimed asylum in the UK on 30 September 1996, less than three months before Jason was born.

From the age of 16 he began to amass an appalling criminal record and in December 2014 he took part in a £74,000 designer handbag smash-and-grab robbery at Loewe in Mayfair.

Furtado was later jailed for 19 months and the Home Office first tried to deport him in February 2016.

He appealed and a tribunal found Furtado was entitled to the highest ‘imperative’ level of protection from deportation as he had been resident in the UK for 10 years.

In 2017 Furtado was jailed for four years after he crashed a stolen car into a group of drinkers outside the Old Queen’s Head in Islington, three days after the Westminster terror attack.

He ploughed into three people and a woman suffered life threatening injuries.

The Home Office tried to deport Furtado to Portugal again but he successfully appealed against the decision in 2020.

Furtado then went onto commit further offences including possessing a large kitchen knife and the Home Office launched its own appeal, resulting in the deportation order being ‘remade’.

He was on immigration bail on condition he wear an electronic tag at the time of the stabbings.

Evidence from the tracker shows Furtado was on the street with the masked knifemen when got into the taxi before travelling to the attack.

Leonardo was found with stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene just after midnight.

Mr Slevi was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Lupqi, who lived just off Boothby Road, had arranged the attacks along with Furtado.

After the killings Poponne wrote lyrics on his phone saying the two victims ‘died on the block tryna act’, the court heard.

Jacob Hallam, KC, prosecuting, said these amounted to ‘significant admissions’ from Poponne.

One rap refers to ‘billing up Leo, first time dat I glide yh I got me a trio’ in a
reference to the victims.

A ‘glide’ is a phrase used to describe a ‘ride-out’, jurors heard.

Poponne also referenced Lionel Messi, the Hobbit, and the Matrix.

Jacob Hallam, KC, prosecuing, said: ‘Telephones belonging to Poponne were found to contain some writings which, the prosecution suggest contained significant admissions and comments.

‘He spoke of Elthorne youths running quickly and that L (Leonardo) and K (Shekaj) died on the block.

‘Glorifying the fact that people from Elthorne ran and that two of them died.’

Poponne was caught with a large Rambo-style knife and a lock knife when he was arrested.

In one piece he wrote: ‘Youth is screaming he’s not involved when the 15-inch done and took his soul

‘Next youth screaming f–k I’m dead, but he would have said nothing if we let of this lead

‘Done, put the whole thing in a mans back, and all (even) now they still haven’t come back….’

After the attacks Lupqi fled to Kosovo illegally, and was extradited back the UK on 12 November last year.

Furtado, of Halton Road, Islington, Chunda of Highgate Hill, Archway, Clark, of Huddleston Road, Tufnell Park, Poponne, of Halton Road, Islington, and Lupqi, of no fixed address, all denied two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

The hearing continues with Judge Dhir expected to pass sentence tomorrow (fri).