Five men found guilty of murdering Thomas Cudjoe at Ilford petrol station
Thomas Cudjoe - Credit: Archant
Five men accused of murdering Thomas Cudjoe in Ilford last year have been found guilty.
The jury at the Old Bailey returned guilty verdicts for Asher Johnson, 25 and his brother Lewis, 22, both of Bellamy Close, Isle of Dogs, this afternoon.
The reached a 10-2 majority decision.
This morning they had returned unanimous guilty verdicts for Jerome Green, 23, of Ashgrove Road, Seven Kings; Reece Garwood, 21, of Overton Drive, Chadwell Heath and Courtney Mitchell, 23, of Clandon Road, Seven Kings.
They will be sentenced on September 13.
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Thomas Cudjoe, 29, died on the forecourt of the Shell petrol station, in Ley Street, Ilford, after he received 14 stab and slash wounds on November 3.
The jury had been deliberating for a week.
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Summing up the case last week, judge Richard Mark told the jury they had to decide whether it was a drug deal gone wrong or a revenge killing.
Judge Mark said: “The prosecution said this was a deliberate revenge attack for the shooting of their friend Reice Okosi, all be it Thomas Cudjoe was cleared by the courts of having any involvement in the attack.”
Mr Okosi was shot twice in August 2010 while in Dagenham, leaving him paralysed.
On the night that Mr Cudjoe died he had earlier picked up two female and a male friend and was driving a blue Ford Focus.
“You have heard that he was unwilling to go into The Bell that night as it was too hot, or dangerous, for him,” Judge Mark continued during his summing up.
“The prosecution said that he knew there may well be friends of Reice Okosi there who would be dangerous to him and so, the prosecution said, it proved to be.”
In CCTV footage played to the jury, Mr Cudjoe could be seen pulling into the petrol station before being approached by three men.
The five men all denied murder.
