Teenager cleared of murder of machete attacker Maliki Sharma in Feltham gang brawl

A teenager who planned the ambush of a trainee electrician who was stabbed to death in the street is facing years behind bars.

Three hooded youths were caught on CCTV stabbing 18-year-old Maliki Sharma outside a charity shop in west London on the evening of 12 January this year.

The teenagers, all aged 16, prowled Feltham High Street vowing to ‘kill anyone’ from the rival gang that ‘humiliated’ them in an earlier attack that was posted online, the Old Bailey heard.

But they were taken by surprise when Maliki and his friend sprang a machete attack on them, jurors heard.

In the struggle that followed Mr Sharma was stabbed near his left armpit, causing ‘immediate and profuse blood loss’, after which he collapsed and died in hospital.

The teenager who wielded the knife had earlier vowed to a friend: ‘Someone’s getting shanked,’ the court heard.

But lawyers for the three teenagers, who cannot be named, claimed they had all acted in self-defence.

The 16-year-old denied but was convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm by the jury.

The teenager who had the knife in his hand was cleared of murder, conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and violent disorder.

A third teenager was cleared of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and violent disorder.

The jury deliberated for 19 hours 57 minutes and two members of the panel smiled at eachother and looked towards friends and relatives of the victim in the public gallery as they returned verdicts.

Earlier in the trial, CCTV footage played to court showed Mr Sharma and another youth riding an e-bike approaching the first teenager outside a British Heart Foundation shop.

He draws the machete and swings it at the defendants before he was stabbed to death.

Just days earlier one of the defendants and his younger brother were attacked by the rival gang who hit him in the head with a bike seat and ‘some sort of street sign’.

The teenager charged with murder later vowed to his friends that he will ‘kill anyone I see from Feltham’ and that ‘Someone’s getting shanked… idc who [sic]’.

Others in the group chat commented: ‘Karma is coming for them soon anyways,’ while another, a co-defendant in this case, responded: ‘Soon, soon.’

The 16-year-old convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.