Judge's clear warning to teens carrying knives which did not get through to KFC murder plot gang

The clear message about the deadly consequences of carrying knives and the lengthy jail sentences that can follow did not 'get through' to a gang behind a plot to kill a teenager at KFC, a judge said. Justice Cheema-Grubb stated there are 'no second chances' when someone is stabbed to death, as was the tragic fate for Kelvin Ward.

The 50-year-old was killed in the street on April 18 last year by a single wound to the chest. That would was inflicted by Leighton Williams, aged 28. He and his gang of teenagers Tyrone Hollywood, 17, Aaron Coates, 18, and Rusharn Williams-Reid, 18 had planned to murder Mr Ward's son and rammed his car at the KFC drive-thru on Chester Road, Castle Bromwich.

But when he got away their attention turned to Mr Ward. Williams and Hollywood were found guilty of his murder while Coates was convicted of his manslaughter and Williams-Reid was cleared of homicide offences in relation to him. But all four were found guilty of conspiracy to murder his son and were collectively jailed for more than 80 years at Coventry Crown Court yesterday.

READ MORE: Gang jailed for over 80 years after dad killed amid plot to murder son at KFC

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Justice Cheema-Grubb acknowledged a different sentencing approach had to be taken to the three teenagers than Williams, who is more than ten years older. She stated their 'brains and personalities are not fully mature' and said: "Although there are differences between you, and differences in the degree to which this applies, I am sure that each of the three of you behaved as you did through a combination of deliberate malice, inexperience, emotional volatility, personal limitations and negative influences.

"Those influences include other people, of your age and older, who glamorise the carrying of frightening knives or pretend that carrying a knife is the way to protect yourself. The court does not under-estimate the difficulty of growing up in a sub-culture where machetes and other knives are carried routinely. But under the law everyone is responsible for themselves."

She continued: "With sad frequency trials such as this one expose the dangers of knife carrying and the necessarily severe sentences that must follow offences such as these. But the message seems not to get through to young men like the three of you. The false teachers who say you should carry knives are not in the dock now, you are."

Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court 'foolish, adolescent conduct can be as dangerous as determined adult actions'. She told the teenaged defendants: "None of you can take back what you have done but you are all at a cross-roads.

"There must be every chance that, if you commit yourselves to resist the negative influences you are exposed to in custody, you can grow into men who will be a credit to your families even as you stand here today, wholly disgraced. As the months and years go by, the way you respond to your sentences is the power that all four of you have left to you, to be better than your actions in April last year."

Delivering a wider message about knife crime the judge added: "It took just one actual stab wound to kill Kelvin Ward. No one would die by a knife in this way if knives were not carried about unlawfully on the streets of our cities.

"The law is that young and older men, including all of the defendants, who carry knives or associate deliberately with those who do, will go to prison for long terms if the knives are used to kill. There are no second chances when someone is stabbed to death, not for them and not for the perpetrators."

Williams, of Horne Way, Shard End was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 29 years. Hollywood, of Findon Road, Ward End was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 19 years.

Coates, of Sydney Way, Shard End, was sentenced to 21 years detention, of which he will serve two thirds in custody before being eligible for release. Williams-Reid, of Orchard Meadow Walk, Castle Vale, was sentenced to 13 years, six months detention of which he will serve two thirds in custody.