Britain’s youngest ‘hitman’ convicted of woman’s murder

26 year-old Gulistan Subasi was shot dead on 22 March 2010

This article titled “Britain’s youngest ‘hitman’ convicted of woman’s murder” was written by Sandra Laville, crime correspondent, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 15.18 UTC

The country’s youngest professional “hitman” has been convicted of murder at the Old Bailey .

The teenager, known as Riot on the streets of north-west London, was 15 when he was paid £200 to kill a young woman in Hackney, east London.

The man, who is now 16 and cannot be named, faces a life sentence after the jury found him guilty of shooting Turkish-born Gulistan Subasi, 26, on the doorstep of her east London home last year.

CCTV footage shows the moment the teenager pulled the trigger on a sawn-off shotgun, leaving Subasi with a chest wound bigger than a man’s fist.

He is then seen running from the scene before getting into a minicab and driving away, having carried out his first professional hit at the age most children are studying for their GCSEs.

By the age of 14, the teenager, who lived in Kensal Green, north-west London, had convictions for attempted robbery and a public order offence. He was a member of a notorious street gang known as the Kensal Green Boys (KGB), who were responsible for violently robbing commuters outside Kensal Green tube station.

The boy’s links to the gang were familial. He was not blood-related to Donnel Carty, who was a key figure in the KGB, but they referred to each other as “brother”. Carty killed 31-year-old solicitor Thomas ap Rhys Pryce near Kensal Green tube station in 2006, in a street robbery that went wrong.

The Old Bailey heard that the teenager was hired by a middle man, Izak Billy, to carry out the shooting of Subasi last March. When police saw CCTV footage of the incident on 22 March they assumed the killer was a professional hitman who would have fled the country within hours of the killing. But as they pieced together the details they realised the hit had been carried out by a 15-year-old schoolboy.

The prosecution claimed that he had been hired by Subasi’s ex-husband, Serdar Ozbek, of Tottenham, north London, who was also on trial for murder. After deliberating for three days the jury found him not guilty. Two other men – Leigh Bryan, 25 and Paul Nicoloau, 29, – who had been accused of being involved in arranging the hit were also acquitted by the jury.

The role of the teenager has exposed a pattern noted by north London detectives, in which Turkish gangs use young black men to carry out their “hits”. The hitman in this case was the fourth young black man to be used in this way in 12 months, according to police sources.

Detective inspector Andy Chalmers, who led the inquiry into Subasi’s murder, said: “In each case a young black man has been hired to carry out a killing. In the case of this 15-year-old boy, he has been used, his life is ruined. He was a vulnerable, damaged, easily manipulated and impressionable teenager and they used him because he was disposable and not connected to them in any way.”

The prosecution claimed that Ozbek had arranged Subasi’s killing because he believed she was about to take their young son to Turkey with her. A series of telephone calls between the couple two days before the murder was said to be the catalyst. Ozbek has denied any involvement throughout.

Ozbek’s brother Hussain, who has since left the UK, was alleged to have arranged the killing. Hussain is now out of the reach of British authorities and has not been charged in connection with the murder.

As a petty criminal and cannabis dealer, the convicted teenager had associations in the criminal underworld that led to him being hired, the court heard. Izak Billy, of Kensal Green, an associate of the teenager, was said to have recruited him for Turkish contacts in Tottenham. Billy, 21, was also convicted of murder.

Police were led to the young hitman after a teenage witness came forward saying that the boy had confessed to shooting a Turkish woman. The witness – whose life was threatened by Billy – is now under police protection. He told the court that the teenager said he was paid £200 for the hit and made his getaway in a minicab.

During the case jurors were shown the CCTV footage from a camera outside Subasi’s home. In it a figure wearing dark clothing, with his head covered by a hood, is seen walking up to her front door.

He is seen pulling a sawn-off shotgun from his rucksack and aiming it at the door. The hallway light comes on and the figure is seen recoiling as he pulls the trigger. He then runs from the scene.

Subasi was found lying in the flat’s doorway. Police arrived at the scene to find her being cradled in her mother’s lap. Attempts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead shortly after 9pm.

Ozbek, 28, Leigh Bryan, 25, and Paul Nicoloau, 29, all of north London, were all cleared of Subasi’s murder. The teenage killer and Billy will be sentenced on Tuesday.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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