Jaden Moodie death: Teenager guilty of murder after boy, 14, was stabbed in road

A teenager has been found guilty of murder after a 14-year-old boy was knocked off his moped by a car before being stabbed to death in the road.

Ayoub Majdouline, 19, was accused of being one of five young men who had driven around looking for a rival gang member to attack when Jaden Moodie was killed.

Jaden was out drug dealing for the Beaumont gang when he was killed on the evening of 8 January, the Old Bailey heard.

The attack in Bickley Road, Leyton, east London, was captured on CCTV.

Footage played in court showed Jaden being knocked off his moped by a stolen Mercedes before he is seen lying defenceless in the road.

He was then stabbed by a group of people before the Mercedes drove off.

Jaden suffered nine stab wounds and bled to death in the road as the car sped away, the court heard.

His mother, Jada Bailey, has condemned his killers as "cowards".

In an interview with ITV News London, she said: "When they were killing him they could see he was a child. So I've got no sympathy and no words. They were cowards. He [Majdouline] killed a child. He's a child killer."

Majdouline, from Wembley, north London, had denied murder and possession of a knife.

He was seen on CCTV at a Travelodge hotel in Walthamstow on the day before the attack, the court heard.

The teenager was wearing yellow rubber gloves, one of which was later found to have traces of the victim's blood and the defendant's DNA, the jury was told.

Majdouline had a troubled upbringing in Leyton and had turned to drug dealing for older boys to make money.

His Irish mother and Moroccan father split up when he was aged seven, the jury was told.

Majdouline's father died in 2015, so the teenager went to live with an aunt and later went into foster care, his trial heard.

He was identified by the National Crime Agency in 2018 as a victim of "modern slavery", amid concerns of exploitation by older youths, the jury was told.

The teenager said in court he sold drugs "for and with" the Mali Boys gang, including county lines in Basingstoke, Ipswich and Andover.

He had been caught with drugs and carrying knives, but despite serving time behind bars, went straight back to dealing, the court heard.

Majdouline told jurors he got "confused" sorting out jobseekers' allowance when he turned 18.

He said he returned to drug dealing after a few weeks of volunteer work, adding: "I felt I had to make money the only way I knew how to make money."

Majdouline, who is white, said the majority of the older Mali Boys were Somali, but "black boys, Asian boys and white boys" sold drugs for them.

He explained why he had been given a knife to carry while dealing, saying he had been "sliced" on one occasion in Basingstoke.

Majdouline said: "Because I was selling drugs for this older guy in Leyton and obviously when I was selling drugs, a lot of people I was selling drugs to were older than me.

"He didn't want me to get robbed or lose his drugs so he gave me a knife... to hold a knife to sell drugs for my own safety."

In a series of agreed facts read to the court, jurors learned that Jaden had been in trouble with police since he was 13 years 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.

He admitted appearing in a Snapchat video with an imitation firearm in November last year.

Jaden had been found with crack cocaine at an address in Bournemouth the previous month, jurors were told.

Olcay Sapanoglu, from the CPS, 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."

Jaden's father Julian Moodie added that the killers "showed no remorse" after they sent him "flying up in the air" and stabbed him.

As they left court, the family embraced each other and said: "For Jaden, we've done it."