Caught on CCTV: the 'happy slapping' killers | UK news

Publish date: 2021-03-16

Metropolitan Police CCTV footage of the attack on Wayne Miller by the same gang who later killed David Morley. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

An Old Bailey judge yesterday released CCTV film to highlight the "depressing and alarming" teenage cult of happy slapping as he named a 14-year-old girl who was in the gang that beat a man to death.

Chelsea O'Mahoney used her mobile phone to film the attack on Wayne Miller, a homeless man, who survived. Earlier that night the same gang kicked to death another man, David Morley, 37, as he sat by the Thames.

Jailing O'Mahoney, now 16, Reece Sargeant, 21, Darren Case, 18, and David Blenman, 17, the judge said the filming was done to enhance the status of the gang among their peers.

Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, told the four: "You call it happy slapping - no victim on the receiving end would dignify it with such a deceptive description."

Sargeant, Case and Blenman were each given 12-year sentences and O'Mahoney was sentenced to eight years in prison for the manslaughter of Mr Morley and grievous bodily harm.

The four had gone out to attack innocent passersby on the South Bank in London early on October 30 2004. In a 56 minute "orgy" of violence that mirrored a scene from the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, they assaulted eight people in five separate attacks, leaving Mr Morley with 44 separate injuries. He bled to death in hospital later that day.

As he sentenced the gang, the judge lifted an order protecting the identities of O'Mahoney and Blenman as juveniles because of the exceptional nature of the case. Reports presented to him revealed the backgrounds of the gang, who graduated from playing truant to running together on the streets of south London wearing hoods to cover their faces and using the latest video mobile phones to record acts of violence in order to replay them to friends.

O'Mahoney was born in south London to parents addicted to heroin. At a young age she would sit and watch her mother inject heroin in the flat where they lived, the court heard. From the age of three, O'Mahoney was left to wander the streets of London unsupervised until she was taken in by her aunt, who attempted to offer her a better life. But the experiment of living with her aunt did not work out and O'Mahoney was taken into the care of the local authority.

It was from her foster home that each Friday night she would venture out with Sargeant's gang and film the attacks on her NEC mobile phone. The gang had done the same thing for six months, gaining strength and confidence from each other with each attack and filming the most serious assaults. Mr Morley's death brought their rampage to an end, the court heard.

When police raided O'Mahoney's home in South Norwood, south-east London, they found a diary which mentioned "all nighters" - the phrase the gang used for robbery sprees - and "ramping", slang for robbery. In an entry for Sunday October 3 2004, a few weeks before the attack on Mr Morley, she wrote: "Them lot bang up some old homeless man which I fink is bad even doe I woz laughen after doe."

Held at Oakhill secure unit before her trial, O'Mahoney was involved in several incidents of violence, including hurling a television against the wall. Mr Barker said it was rare for a girl of her age to appear in court to be sentenced on such "grave crimes."

"You have had a particularly chaotic and fragmented life, which has contributed to your poor emotional development. Your peer group was your priority. Your life has lacked stability, consistency and effective boundaries and emotional care," he said. Although she had no previous convictions, he said O'Mahoney had been out on earlier expeditions with the older boys and was a "willing part" of the plan to attack Mr Morley.

Blenman was on remand in custody until shortly before the attacks. He had several previous convictions for street crime and had been placed on the special educational needs register at a young age. The judge said he was considered an "ongoing risk to the public". Case suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a "wretched" upbringing with no parental support. Sargeant suffered from learning difficulties and a speech impediment. But faced with a catalogue of poor school attendance, previous convictions, aggressive and difficult behaviour, the judge said the gang's youth and their difficult background did not mitigate against what they had done.

"You are all old enough to understand the realities and the consequences of your actions," he said. "You sought enjoyment from humiliation and pleasure from the infliction of pain." Mr Morley's family said afterwards they hoped the long prison sentences would serve as a deterrent.

Police had to protect Mr Morley's parents as they left court yesterday after relatives of the defendants hurled abuse at them. One man drew a finger across his throat as a threat before police moved in to break up the group.

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