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'Honey trap' killers facing jail

The killers of a teenage boy including the girl who lured him to his death in a savage knife attack in south London, are to be sentenced later.

Shakilus Townsend, 16, was besotted with Samantha Joseph who lured him to the gang made up of her ex-boyfriend Danny McLean and five others.

The prosecution at the Old Bailey said a knife was raked across the victim's liver in the "honey trap" attack.

Shakilus called out for his mother as he lay dying, the court was told.

The teenager, from Deptford, south-east London, was attacked in a cul-de-sac in Thornton Heath in July 2008.

Residents tried to stem the loss of blood with bath towels but he died several hours later in hospital.

The court was told Joseph lured their victim to the gang which was made up of McLean, 18, brothers Tyrell Ellis, 19, and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, all from Thornton Heath; Andrew Johnson-Haynes, 18, from Croydon, south London; Andre Thompson and Michael Akinfenwa, both 17 and both of Norwood, south London.

Shakilus was attacked with a baseball bat and stabbed several times.

As he lay bleeding he called out for his mother, crying: "I don't want to die."

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said Joseph, now 17, "set up the hapless Shakilus Townsend in a honey trap with a lethal and tragic twist".

"She was more than equal to the task. She played her part to perfection, duping Shakilus who could see no wrong in her, the others in hot pursuit of him."

His mother, Nicola Dyer, wept as her son's killers were found guilty at the Old Bailey trial in July.

"I can't understand how she could have callously set him up and lured him to his death," she said.