https://www.myjoyonline.com/keelan-wilson-4-guilty-of-wolverhampton-boy-murder/-------https://www.myjoyonline.com/keelan-wilson-4-guilty-of-wolverhampton-boy-murder/
International

Keelan Wilson: 4 guilty of Wolverhampton boy murder

Four men have been found guilty of murdering a boy stabbed more than 40 times in a "planned and co-ordinated" attack.

Keelan Wilson, 15, was fatally injured on Langley Road in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton, on 29 May, 2018.

The four murderers acted "like a pack of animals" amid rising gang violence in the city, police said.

Sentencing is set to take place at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 19 March.

Keelan's mother Kelly Ellitts said the convictions meant justice for her son, but added "nothing would bring Keelan back".

The trial heard how Brian Sasa and Nehemie Tampwo, each aged 20, along with Tyrique King and Zenay Pennant-Phillips, both 19, had planned to "execute" the teenager.

Clockwise from top left: Zenay Pennant-Phillips, Brian Sasa, Tyrique King and Nehemie Tampwo

There had been increasing acts of violence between opposing gangs leading up to the murder, including disorder earlier that day, said the West Midlands force.

That included weapons being brandished in Wolverhampton city centre, and in another incident, Keelan and two others being shot at by a group of youngsters on bikes.

Shortly afterwards, the court heard, the group of four killers ran towards Keelan as he sat in a taxi close to his home, then pulled open the rear door and "set about him with weapons", inflicting more than 40 knife wounds.

Det Sgt Nick Barnes from West Midlands Police said it was the "single worst set of injuries" he had seen on a victim in more than six years investigating homicide.

"Keelan was a child who had his whole life ahead of him," he said.

The convictions, Det Sgt Barnes added, had come after a "very difficult and long investigation," with more than 2,000 lines of inquiry having to be examined.

Some lines of investigation had been met with a "wall of silence" he said.

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