Five gang members who glorified stabbing and shooting rivals will be sentenced today.
The men armed themselves with machetes and baseball bats as their Notting Hill gang from West London geared up to take on a rival group.
Their Drill music videos describe stabbing victims in the lungs as the capital faces a wave of violent crime. Lyrics celebrate men leaping from mopeds to ‘shank’ victims.
This music video – titled ‘No Hook’ – shows the gang glorify plunging a knife into the lungs of a rival gang member
Today’s sentencing includes two youths aged 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons. They admitting conspiracy to commit violent disorder as Micah Bedeau, 18, Yonas Girma, 21, and Isaac Marshall, 18, also pleaded guilty to the charge at Kingston Crown Court in relation to the November 2017 incident.
Gang members also face the possibility of three to five-year bans on making music that references violence.
This morning’s sentencing comes after:
- A report yesterday said London now has 250 gangs who use revenge porn to entrap teenage girls to be drug mules
- Gang on moped stormed a jewellery store in Regent Street only for brave bystanders to intervene, performing a citizen’s arrest on one
- Moped-riding thugs stole comedian Michael McIntyre’s £15,000 Rolex while he was with his young son in the north of the city on Monday
- The capital faces 60 moped attacks every day
- Feuds between gangs including Woodgrange E7 and the Beckton E6 crew turn London into a battleground
- Met Police chief Cressida Dick announced taskforce of 120 officers to tackle gangs
Officers in the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham as well as Kensington and Chelsea gathered evidence of the gang promoting violence through music and social media in a two-year investigation.
Micah Bedeau, left, and Yonas Girma, right, face jail today after police arrested them while they prepared to attack another gang
Isaac Marshal, right, was also part of the gang, which made Drill videos (pictured, left, Girma in the video for ‘Next Up’)
One of their songs – ‘No Hook’ – included sounds of gunshots as well as the lyrics: ‘Clock me an opp (opposing gang member), wind down the window, back (get) out the spinner (revolver) and burst (shoot) him.
‘I put bullets in numerous guys like how come the opps ain’t learning?
‘OT trip (out of town or county line) trying to get some funds (money). We get bread (money) and invest in guns. Dem boy run when we tapped **** Ching (stab) Splash (stab) aim for his lungs.
‘Man lurky (creeping around with intent) that’s standard. That’s gang that’s gang. Four men on two peds (mopeds) jump off with my shank (knife) leave an opp (rival gang member) boy splattered (covered in blood).’
Police stopped the defendants in west London on November 9 2017 to find them armed with four large machetes and baseball bats. They also had masks, balaclavas and gloves.
Officers saw a youth get out of a black Nissan Juke, with his face covered and holding something metallic to his right side.
A large machete was found hidden down his trouser leg after he ran away when he saw police. Girma, Marshall and another youth inside were discovered inside the car.
Police found a large machete-style knife on Marshall and another on the back seat. A baseball bat was in the front passenger footwell and a second was stored in the the boot.
After Bedeau was found and detained in the hallway of a black of flats, officers found a large machete, a small knife and a balaclava.
Micah Bedeau covers his face in the ‘No Hook’ video – in which the gang celebrate stabbing and shooting rivals
These machetes were recovered by police after they apprehended the thugs preparing to attack another gang
Today the court will be asked to consider Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO) prohibiting the gang members from making music that references violence.
The CBOs would ban the defendants from certain areas, associating with other gang members, displaying gang-related ‘hand gestures’ and wearing face coverings public.
They had been about to launch an attack on rivals from Shepherd’s Bush, possibly in retaliation for an incident involving the grandmother of two of their members, before they were arrested and charged.
A rival gang was seen threatening and abusing the grandmother because she was in their postcode area in a YouTube video of a Snapchat message.
The video concluded with the captions ‘Lucky I don’t rock her face’ as well as ‘Horrid1ComeGetYourNan’.
Horrid1 was the street name for Micah Bedeau, the court hear, with the video designed to goad the defendants into action.
But the Notting Hill gang told police their weapons were props for a music video they were about to shoot before they were apprehended.
The car contained weapons and it is believed that they were preparing to retaliate over threats made to a grandmother
Bedeau fled to a block of flats and was detained in a communal hallway before police found these knives
Detective Superintendent Adam Lowe, from the proactive team at the Trident and Area Crime Command, said: ‘Seven music videos were shown in court as evidence of the aggressive and violent nature of the suspects.
‘The lyrics referenced several real and often violent events. Their aim was purely to glorify gangs and violence.
‘At Trident and across the Met we are very clear we will take decisive action to get videos of this nature removed from the internet; despite what the gangs may claim, there is a clear link, as in this case, to violence.
‘And we will bring those videos before the courts to demonstrate the intention of those who make and take part in them to cause violence and disorder.
‘It is just one of the tactics we use as part of our continued work to tackle violence on London’s streets.
‘There is no doubt the five defendants that day were in the process of setting out to cause some very serious harm to their rivals.
‘They equipped themselves with huge knives and I am sure there would have been some life-changing injuries inflicted or worse had the police not intervened.
As well as machetes and knives, the thugs carried baseball bats in preparation for their attack
DS Lowe added: ‘Trident’s proactive team is committed to tackling gang and knife crime and the events of 9 November show just how important our work is.
‘The evidence was overwhelming – they were literally caught red-handed – and they had no option but to plead guilty.’
Paul Vickers, Senior Crown Prosecutor at CPS London South, said: ‘These defendants claimed they were on their way to make a drill music video and that the weapons in their possession were simply to be used as props – but the prosecution proved otherwise. These criminals were embroiled in bitter gang violence.
‘The sheer array of weapons, including machetes and baseball bats, with which these young people armed themselves, showed that they were out to commit violence. They will now spend a significant amount of time behind bars.
‘We will continue to work with the Metropolitan Police Service to root out gang crime by prosecuting those responsible for the devastating consequences of gang culture on the capital’s streets.’