12 Apr 2011

Two jailed for life over London takeaway shooting

Two gang members have been jailed for life for the murder of a 16-year-old girl at a takeaway shop in east London.

Sixteen year-old Agnes Sina-Inakoju was gunned down at a takeaway shop in Hoxton.

Agnes Sina-Inakoju was shot in the neck as she went to buy pizza at the Hoxton Chicken and Pizza Shop in April last year.

Leon Dunkley, a senior member of the London Fields gang, indiscriminately fired a submachine gun through the window in a “callous and cold-blooded” attack.

Shocking CCTV footage captured the shooting, which was an apparent revenge hit gone wrong.

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“He didn’t even stop his bicycle. He didn’t pause to see who was in the shop or to aim at anyone in particular. The two young men cycled off as casually as they had arrived,” Prosecutor Simon Denison QC said.

Gun violence with loaded weapons that imperils innocent people on the streets of London has to be stopped. Judge Peter Beaumont

Dunkley, 22, and fellow gang member Mohammed Smoured, 21, were convicted of murder by a 10-1 majority at the Old Bailey. They must now serve at least 32 years behind bars.

The court heard that Agnes was a “popular and successful” schoolgirl who hoped to study at Oxford University.

Judge Peter Beaumont said he hoped the sentence would curb violent gang battles.

“Gun violence with loaded weapons that imperils innocent people on the streets of London has to be stopped,” he said.

It was not the first time members of the gang had been responsible for the death of an innocent teenager.

Six of them were jailed for life in 2009 for the murder of 14-year-old schoolboy Shaquille Smith, who was stabbed on a park bench.

Campaigners have called for more to be done to tackle gang-related violence after a five-year-old girl and a shopkeeper were shot at Stockwell Food and Wine shop in south London in March.