Murder-plot rap stars ‘to spend best years of lives behind bars’

TWO rising rap stars who planned to drown a pregnant schoolgirl were jailed on Friday for a total of 32 years for their “evil deeds”.
The Old Bailey heard that the 15-year-old victim had become “a liberty” because she was standing in the way of the promising grime music careers of the men.
Brandon Jolie and Kingsley Ogundele, both 19, wanted her out of the way, said Rufus D’Cruz, prosecuting.
“They perceived the victim as nothing more than an irritating inconvenient problem which had to be eliminated,” he added.
The girl – in court to see the men sentenced – was six months pregnant with Jolie’s child when she was lured to the Regent’s Canal at Wenlock Basin, Islington, by a phone call and then attacked by Ogundele.
He beat her with a metal pole, threw her into the freezing water and held her under late on November 11 last year.
Resident Andrew Hall, 36, heard her cries for help and ran to her rescue as Ogundele fled.
Mr Hall, praised for his public spirit, took the girl – she later gave birth to a healthy son – to safety. Judge Paul Worsley, QC, awarded him £500 and said that but for his brave intervention “she would have died”.
Jolie, of Bow, east London, who goes by the tag Maniac the Wonder Kid and whose work has been used in EastEnders, the film Adulthood and by Nike, admitted conspiracy to murder. He was given 14 years’ youth custody.
A jury convicted Ogundele, of Romford, who uses the tag Snoopy Montana, on the same charge.
Ogundele, who lived in Islington for many years and knew the canal area well, was sentenced to 18 years.
Judge Worsley told the men that the case was “a tragedy” for the girl and her family. The accused’s families were “decent, hard-working people”, he added.
“The best years of your lives are now to be spent behind bars,” he told the accused.
The court was told the murder was plotted over an online chat. “There can be no doubt that this was a plan to kill and not just to injure and scare,” Mr D’Cruz said.
Giving evidence, the girl described being attacked under a bridge by a hooded figure in black. It was Ogundele. At the time Jolie was on a train to Luton to establish an alibi.
“I went into the canal and swallowed a lot of water,” the victim said. “I was trying to swim to get away but I couldn’t because he had a hand on my head pressing me under. I thought I was going to die.”
DAVID ST GEORGE