Teenager who dismembered jazz musician named for first time

A teenager who stabbed a man to death days after dismembering a talented jazz musician days later is facing a life sentence today (tues).

Trumpeter William Algar, 53, who played with punk legends The Damned, was killed in his flat home before being chopped up by 19-year-old drug dealer Emeka Dawuda-Wodu.

The teenager, and his accomplice Simon Emmons, 40, had considered dissolving the body in acid after watching it being attempted in the cult TV show ‘Breaking Bad.’

But the victim was hacked apart in his own bathtub and his arms and legs were buried in a shallow grave on a nature reserve.

The night after the body was dumped, Dawuda-Wodu, Emmons and Zimele Dube, 33, killed Ebrima Cham, 35, in front of his girlfriend at the victim’s Hounslow flat on December 19, 2019.

Dawuda-Wodu, and three others, carried out a third attack two weeks later on 3 January 2020, when another victim was left with knife threatening injuries.

He was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent following a separate trial at Kingston Crown Court last month and can now be named.

Dawuda-Wodu was convicted by an Old Bailey jury in May of murdering Mr Cham but cleared of Mr Algar’s murder. He earlier admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of Mr Algar’s body.

Emmons was convicted of helping him dispose of the body of Mr Algar and the murder of Mr Cham.

Dube was convicted of murdering Mr Cham.

Jayano Lucima, 19, was convicted of helping to cover up the murder of Mr Algar by buying bleach and J-cloths and running errands.

Judge Wendy Joseph, QC, is due to sentence the gang later today (mon).

The judge added that she would adjourn shortly before 11am to allow a one-minute silence to be held for the five victims of Plymouth mass shooting on Friday (13).

Mr Algar was a brilliant trumpeter after taking up the instrument at the age of seven.

He studied at the London School of Music and was asked to join The Damned after playing in a number of rock bands.

Mr Algar, who was known as ‘Willy’ in the music world, played on the band’s hit single ‘Grimly Fiendish’ in 1985, but was in the line-up for less than a year.

As his chances of a successful career faded, he began using drugs and became mired in the shadowy world of heroin and cocaine supply and was know as ‘Blaise.’

He allowed other dealers to use his tiny cluttered flat in Nowell Road, Barnes, as a den for their trade or ‘trap house’ and was treated ‘like a slave.’

Mr Algar, who was described by his family as a ‘gentle man’ had taken in a stray cat called ‘Felix’ and was besotted by the animal, the court heard.

When he owed money for drugs Dawuda-Wodu threatened to harm Felix, who later disappeared.

Mr Algar was so worried about the cat that he called the police in the days before he died and told of the threats being made against the pet.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett told the court that according to key prosecution witness Philip Ross, Mr Algar had spoken ‘disrespectfully’ to Dawuda-Wodu.

‘He had told Blaise, “I’m not your bitch” or something…If you keep talking to me this way, if this keeps carrying on, I will kill your cat”.

‘Mr Ross is under the impression that the argument had continued and he believes that he said that he had killed the cat.’

Mr Algar was stabbed to death in early December, but he was not reported missing until January 2 when he failed to visit his 93-year-old mother at Christmas.

When police searched the flat they found his head and torso wrapped in bin bags, old clothes, towels and knotted sheets in the blood spattered living room.

His head and arms were later recovered from Hounslow Heath by police dogs after Emmonds and the teenager had taken a cab there with the limbs in a bulging suitcase.

Parts of his body, including the genitals and anus have never been recovered.

A pathologist found Mr Algar had no defensive injuries and he may have been killed when he was asleep face down, or ‘incapacitated.’

Traces of drugs including cocaine and morphine were found in his bloodstream.

By the time Dawuda-Wodu was arrested he had been involved in the murder of Mr Cham on December 19, 2019.

Mr Cham, known as ‘Brim’ was also drug dealer who had a fearsome reputation of robbing others in the trade.

He was known as ‘a maniac who carried a gun’ and he had stolen Dube’s drugs four times.

The three killers stormed his flat in Grove Road, Hounslow, with a pirate dagger pretending to be buyers and stabbed him with ‘severe force’ in the kitchen of his home.

Some of the 11 injuries were inflicted when he was already dead.

Dawuda-Wodu also stabbed another victim, who thought he was going to die in the attack, the court was told.

He was warned by prison authorities that his phone calls would be taped – but he was recorded telling his mother to move a zombie knife from the top of his wardrobe.

He was also recorded as he considered pretending to be mad as a defence and calling his mother the ‘devil.’

‘I got so mad at something and I do something,’ he said.

‘It was like something was saying: ”Just do it, just do it.”

Dawuda-Wodu, Emmons, Lucima and Dube each denied the extent of their involvement throughout a seven-week trial at the Old Bailey.

Giving evidence, Dawuda-Wodu said that he had no idea Mr Algar was dead until Emmons told him and asked him to help get rid of the body.

‘I thought he was joking,’ the teenager said.

He said he only agreed to help after he his mother was threatened and claimed the sight of Emmons dismembering the victim left him physically sick.

‘He was cutting him with a knife, a Rambo knife. Blaise was lying on the floor of the bathroom.

‘I was in and out of the bathroom seeing what he was doing.

‘Simon was severing his legs. I have never seen anything like that before.

‘I was vomited a couple of times on the hall floor and cleaned that up.’

In a ‘cut throat’ defence Emmons claimed he had nothing to do with dismembering Mr Algar’s body or murdering Mr Cham.

He said when he got in a taxi with the teenager and 44-year-old Marc Harding, he had no idea the suitcase they were carrying was stuffed with Mr Algar’s limbs.

Emmons said he ‘couldn’t remember’ why he was in the taxi that transported them to the shallow grave on Hounslow Heath.

Dube and Dawuda-Wodu blamed Emmons for the murder of Mr Cham and claimed they were at the flat but did not see the fatal struggle.

Dawuda-Wodu claimed Emmons said afterwards: ‘It was me or him.’

Dawuda-Wodu, of no fixed address, denied but was convicted of Mr Cham’s murder.

He was cleared of Mr Algar’s murder.

He admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of Mr Algar’s body.

Emmons, of no fixed address, denied but was convicted of perverting the course of justice and murdering Mr Cham.

Dube, of Palace Arts Way, Wembley, also denied and was convicted of murdering Mr Cham.

Lucima, of The Drive, Isleworth, denied and was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Marc Harding, 45, admitted perverting the course of justice by digging the holes to bury Mr Algar’s limbs on Hounslow Heath.
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