A teenager has been found guilty of the ‘cowardly and shocking’ gang murder of a 14-year-old boy who was knocked off a moped and stabbed to death.
Drug dealer Ayoub Majdouline, 19, was one of five youths linked to the Mali Boys who drove around East London in a stolen Mercedes looking for members of the Beaumont Crew gang to attack.
When they came across Jaden Moodie, who was out dealing drugs on a scooter for the Beaumont Crew, they crashed into him and ‘butchered’ him as he lay seriously hurt and defenceless on the ground.
Jaden Moodie, 14, was murdered in East London on January 8 by Ayoub Majdouline (right), 19
CCTV footage was played in court of Jaden being catapulted over the car’s bonnet then subjected to a frenzied attack on the evening of January 8.
Jaden suffered nine stab wounds and bled to death in the road as the attackers ran back to the car and sped off, the court heard.
His family said ‘yes’ and appeared emotional in court as Majdouline was found guilty of murder and possession of a blade by a majority of 11 to one.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said: ’14 seconds was all it took – Jaden did not stand a chance.’
He told jurors the ‘cowardly’ attack was part of a ‘shocking wave of gang crime’ across London that attracted ever younger people.
Majdouline at a Travelodge hotel before he stabbed Jaden in Leyton, East London, on January 8
Police officers investigate in East London following the murder nearly a year ago on January 8
He said: ‘It is hard to believe that anyone, least of all teenagers who have only just become adults, could attack another human being in the way that this defendant and his accomplices set upon Jaden.
‘No-one who watched the CCTV of Jaden’s attackers driving into him and then butchering him with their knives could fail to be disgusted by the injuries inflicted upon him.’
Jurors heard how the attackers had gone to great lengths to disguise themselves, covering their heads and hands.
As they calmly walked off, they threw away a knife and a pair of yellow rubber gloves which were recovered from a drain the next day, the court heard.
Jaden’s blood and the defendant’s DNA were found on both the knife and one of the gloves, jurors were told.
The day before, Majdouline was caught on CCTV at a Travelodge hotel in Walthamstow, with distinctive Nike Air Max trainers he was wearing during the knife attack on Jaden, the court has heard.
Burnt clothes, including Nike trainers, matching those of the attackers were later found in a churchyard, jurors heard.
Majdouline, from Wembley, north-west London, admitted dealing drugs for the Mali Boys but denied being present during the fatal attack.
After a troubled up-bringing, the defendant, who had an Irish mother and Moroccan father, turned to county lines dealing ‘to survive’, he said.
He had been caught with drugs and carrying knives, but despite serving time behind bars, went straight back to dealing.
The court was told he was identified by the National Crime Agency in 2018 as a victim of ‘modern slavery’, amid concerns of exploitation by older youths.
His father had died in 2015, having become the victim of an arson murder in north London, it can now be reported.
Jurors also learned that Jaden had been in trouble with police since he was a 13-year-old.
He was handed a youth conditional caution in March last year after police seized an air-powered pistol, Rambo knife and cannabis during an altercation in Nottingham.
In November last year, he admitted appearing in a Snapchat video with an imitation firearm.
The previous month, Jaden was found with crack cocaine at an address in Bournemouth, jurors were told
A jury deliberated for nine hours and 22 minutes for find Majdouline guilty of Jaden’s murder and possession of a knife.
The court heard efforts are continuing to identify the other attackers by their DNA.
Jaden was the youngest victim of a spate of gang violence linked to drug dealing in east London and across county lines.
It can now be reported that the trial coincided with another case at the Old Bailey involving the Mali Boys, which had been involved in long-running tit-for-tat violence.
A pair of yellow rubber gloves Majdouline was wearing when he stabbed Jaden on January 8
Jaden was knocked off his moped (pictured) during the attack in East London in January
Hamza Ul Haq, 21, Loic Nengese, 19, and a 16-year-old were found guilty of shooting dead Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, in March last year in Walthamstow, after mistaking him for a member of the Priory Court or Higham Hill gang.
Jaden’s mother Jada Bailey, pictured outside the Old Bailey last month during the trial
Their trial had heard how Mali gang violence had escalated after one of their own, Elijah Dornelly, 17, was stabbed to death in Walthamstow High Street in May 2017.
The trials were briefly halted after a fight broke out in the Old Bailey cells between Majdouline and Ul Haq, leading to one dock officer being injured as he broke them up.
Olcay Sapanoglu, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘This was a ferocious attack on a 14-year-old schoolboy who was singled out as a target.
‘Armed with a deadly weapon and intent on violence, Ayoub Majdouline stabbed Jaden as he lay seriously injured and defenceless on the ground. This shocking display of violence on a London street was caught on CCTV. It is truly harrowing.
‘The prosecution case included the CCTV footage of the murder and DNA evidence linking Majdouline to the crime.
‘Throughout his trial Majdouline claimed somebody else had worn his clothes and Nike trainers and gone on to murder Jaden – the jury rejected these baseless claims.
‘Nothing will bring Jaden back but I hope this conviction goes some way in providing comfort to the family of Jaden Moodie. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.’
Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing of Majdouline until next Wednesday.
How Ayoub Majdouline carried a knife ‘for safety’ as he roamed the streets with £2,000-worth of drugs
Ayoub Majdouline spent his childhood between the homes of his divorced parents
The son of a Moroccan chauffeur and an Irish housewife, Ayoub Majdouline spent his childhood between the homes of his divorced parents in London until his father died in 2015.
The loss triggered a spiral of abuse which saw the teenager placed in an ‘unhappy’ foster home after being physically and emotionally hounded first by his stepfather then his aunt.
After getting excluded from school he was sent to a pupil referral unit where he claimed a classmate introduced him to the world of drug-dealing.
He began selling a small stash cannabis before meeting ‘olders’ from the notorious Mali Boys gang who groomed him into selling class As for their far-reaching county drug lines.
‘I just had bad influences from my exclusion unit that I got sent to after I got excluded from school when my dad died and I don’t think I was thinking properly,’ Majdouline said. ‘I didn’t know much about dealing drugs but someone in my class told me about it.
‘At this time I was not getting on with my foster placement, I wasn’t really staying there because I was unhappy there and I was staying at a lot of different places and they (the drug-dealers) sorted a place for me to sleep and somewhere that will pay for my food and stuff like that.’
The teenager was taught to how to weigh and bag heroin and crack cocaine in a shadowy safe house in Leyton, East London, before burying them in the flower pots outside to blindside police.
He used the ‘distinctive Marigold-type’ rubber gloves worn by Jaden Moodie’s killer to handle the drugs, so potent were they that he risked getting high simply by touching them.
Majdouline carried a knife ‘for his own safety’ as he roamed the streets of London carrying up to £2,000 worth of stock at a time.
Majdouline was physically and emotionally hounded first by his stepfather then his aunt
He said he was told to arm himself by his recruiters in order to protect their supply from robbery.
The drug dealer was first caught red-handed in October 2016, then 16, when he was seen loitering on a bike in a churchyard with a blade in his pocket.
He pointed to a black lip and cuts to his face while he told police he had been recently attacked and only carried the knife out of fear.
But his conviction on November 18 marked the first of many drugs and knife offences.
He was arrested less than a month later at an Islington Sports Direct hiding a knife in his backpack and twice again the next summer in Basingstoke for carrying heroin and a blade.
By this time Majdouline had been sent out to the shires and ports as part of the county lines network to sell drugs in areas less soaked in ‘competition’.
After a six-month spell in Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution he was spotted in both Basingstoke and Southampton in the company of well-known Mali Boys gang members.
Majdouline was recorded as a victim of modern slavery by the National Crime Authority (NCA) when he went missing from his foster home for over a month later in 2017.
He claimed he sunk back into drug-dealing after facing complications applying for Jobseeker’s Allowance while staying in a hostel when he turned 18.
The 19-year-old said he briefly worked for a charity soup kitchen but struggled to make ends meet and frittered what money he had left away on a weed habit.
‘I asked the youth offending team and social services for help but I didn’t really feel like I received support to be honest,’ he said.
‘The hostel I was in was just an empty room with no furniture and I just felt like I was on my own. I didn’t really know how to budget my money.
‘I got £50 a week from my social worker and I didn’t really know how to budget that between topping up my oyster card, getting food, buying furniture and smoking weed.
‘The Job Centre application was just confusing I didn’t know how to do it. I told them I didn’t understand and the staff there, no one helped me,’ Majdouline said.
Catherine Obourne, prosecuting, had detailed the killer’s troubled upbringing and his previous convictions to the jury in a set of agreed facts.
She said: ‘He had been removed from the care of his mother due to abuse against him and his siblings by his step-father and taken into the care of his aunt where he was again physically and emotionally abused.
‘On 31 October 2016 Majdouline was then 16 and was seen loitering next to a pushbike in a churchyard.
‘Police searched Majdouline and recovered a kitchen knife and in his left hand small bag of cannabis – he was arrested when interviewed stated he had recently been attacked and was fearful of his safety.
‘He pointed out bruising and a cut lip on face and he was charged. On April 21, 2017 a member of the public in Basingstoke saw him and suspected he was dealing drugs.
‘He was found in possession of large quantity of wraps and a knife and pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and drugs.
‘On June 30, 2017 police attended a Basingstoke address where Majdouline was found at the address with a known Mali Boy gang member aged 19.
‘On November 22, 2018 there was a failure to comply with an exclusion direction. He had been loitering outside on the High Road in Leyton where residents complained of drug taking and drug dealing.
‘He was stopped and searched and in possession of large amount of cash and a key. He provided false details and later pleaded guilty.
‘There are drug-related text messages [from Majdouline]. On April 30, 2018 his phone was seized.
‘He sent messages sending update messages to a peer higher up him in the hierarchy about what stock had been sold and what debts were owed.
‘He went missing for over a month and a half and had been seen in Southampton with a known drug dealer in an area which he had no connections.
‘Mali Boys and other criminal gangs are involved in child exploitation and there is active grooming of young children who are sent to other areas of the country to sell drugs on their behalf, commonly referred to as County Lines.’