Two young men and two teenage boys have been convicted of murdering a pair of 17-year-olds in a ‘ferocious’ ambush at a birthday party.
Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-Rice were stabbed to death at a house in the Emerson Valley area of Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, on October 19 last year. Two other people were stabbed and left with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Charlie Chandler, 22, Clayton Barker, 20, a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old denied both murders and two counts of wounding with intent. However, jurors at Luton Crown Court convicted the four defendants today.
The four males will be joined at sentencing by a fifth defendant, 23-year-old Earl Bevans, who admitted two counts of murder and both counts of wounding at the start of the trial.
The gang had been armed with weapons, including a 2ft-long machete or ‘Rambo’ style knife, and donned masks before scaling the back garden fence of the house late at night and bursting in through the conservatory.
Charlie Chandler (left), 22, and Clayton Barker (right), 20, are among four people who have been convicted of murdering a pair of 17-year-olds in a ‘ferocious’ ambush at a birthday party
Before the verdicts were delivered today, Mr Justice Spencer reminded those in the court to maintain the dignity of the proceedings.
He said: ‘It is very important that, when the jury returns its verdicts, those are met with silence. There must be no emotional displays.’
Earl Bevans, 23, previously admitted murder
The two juvenile defendants, who were in a separate court from the adult defendants, were not seen to react as the verdicts were delivered after more than nine hours of deliberation.
During the six-week trial, jurors heard that the defendants were either members or associated with members of the B3 gang in West Bletchley, named after the MK3 postcode, and had planned the attack after receiving a tip-off that members of the rival M4 gang were at the party.
Prosecutor Charlotte Newell QC said the group stormed into the rear of the house in Archford Croft shortly after midnight, armed and with their faces covered.
She said: ‘The male party-goers were targeted and the attack upon them was immediate and ferocious.
‘They had little or no time to react and little or no chance of protecting themselves.
Dom Ansah (left) and Ben Gillham-Rice (right), both 17, were stabbed to death in October 2019
‘Within seconds of the arrival of the defendants’ group, one young man was dead, two had been sliced with a knife or knives, causing serious, but mercifully not fatal, injuries, and a fourth was running for his life.’
Ben was stabbed six times in the living room of the three-bedroom house, and Dom was subjected to a ‘frenzied’ attack after he ran from the property, the prosecutor said.
Jurors were shown pictures of the living room where Ben had been stabbed and declared dead, described as a ‘bloodbath’ and a ‘scene of carnage’.
A post-mortem examination showed Ben had suffered injuries including a 7.9in (20cm) deep wound damaging his heart.
The murders happened at a house in the Emerson Valley area of Milton Keynes last October
Dom was chased down and ‘hacked’, jurors were told, suffering 47 injuries and dying in hospital three hours later.
Miss Newell said: ‘He appeared to have been a particular focus of the defendants’ attention and he did not get away.
‘Having run from the house, he circled back into the street pursued by two of the defendants, where he slipped, thereby allowing the attackers to gain ground upon him.
‘He was repeatedly sliced and stabbed as he lay on the ground.’
Blood was seen smeared on the door of the house where the two teenagers were stabbed
Dashcam footage shown to the jury showed the defendants outside the property and later chasing Dom, including a man said to be Barker holding a machete.
Jurors were also shown mock-ups of the Emerson Valley house and how the defendants would have entered the property through the conservatory.
They were later shown map footage of where a knife, said to have been used in the murders, was found in a drain in the Furzton area some distance away after a witness reported two males acting suspiciously.
On top of the animosity between the two gangs, Miss Newell suggested an incident in which the 17-year-old defendant was assaulted, stripped and taunted in woodland at the age of 14 may have been a ‘catalyst’ for the attack.
The teenager later named Dom as one of the perpetrators, the court heard, in an incident that was recorded and widely shared on social media.
An artist’s sketch of Chandler appearing at Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court in October 2019
Bevans, of no fixed address, Chandler and Barker, both of Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and the two unnamed teenagers will return to Luton Crown Court for sentencing on January 5 and 6.
Speaking outside court, senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Bosley said: ‘I’m pleased that the jury have seen fit and were persuaded by the weight of the evidence to convict these four young men of the murders of Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-Rice.
‘I thank them for their deliberation and thoughtful consideration of the case.
‘Over the last 14 months I’ve got to know the families of Dom and Ben well and have been shocked and saddened by the devastating impact this crime has understandably had on them.
Forensic teams were also pictured outside the property in Milton Keynes in October last year
‘My thoughts and my sympathy both personally and from the wider investigation team go to those families today.
‘They’ve sat there every day … listening to harrowing evidence about the last moments of their young 17-year-old children and have done so with remarkable grace and dignity, and they should be proud of that.’
He added: ‘This was not a random attack, this was a premeditated, calculated attack in which the offenders drove several miles across Milton Keynes, armed with an array of weapons, face coverings and sought to use the element of surprise and numbers in order to gain the advantage over the young, unsuspecting partygoers.
‘They will understandably have a long time in prison to reflect on their actions.’