ianstone
06-18-2010, 07:26 AM
Gang pleads guilty to ‘just for laughs' murder
Teen members would film victims during attack
By Stephen Wright, Daily Mail
Published: 00:00 June 18, 2010
London: Two members of a teenage ‘happy slapping' gang faced long prison sentences last night after admitting to killing a Muslim pensioner outside a mosque for fun.
The schoolboys, then aged 14 and 15, laughed as they attacked Ekram Haque in front of his three-year-old grand daughter with whom he had just attended prayers during the holy season of Ramadan.
Haque, 67, collapsed after being hit twice over the head as he walked home in Church Lane, Tooting, south London.
He received severe brain injuries when his head hit the pavement and died a week later in hospital.
Previous attacks
CCTV footage shows the girl comforting her grandfather after he was felled. She is said to be deeply traumatised. The two killers attacked two other men only 20 seconds earlier along the same road.
One of them had also taken part in a happy slapping attack in the home of a married couple five days previously.
In total, the thugs filmed six previous attacks on vulnerable or elderly people on their mobiles.
The escalating violence used by the gang, many of whom had histories of attacks, petty crime and dreadful school discipline records, appalled detectives.
They would shout out ‘Lane Gang Productions', and film themselves hitting innocent people then run off, laughing.
Admission
Police did not recover any mobile phone video of Haque's killing but the attack was caught on CCTV.
When three of the happy slapping gang first appeared in court last year, they laughed and smirked during the proceedings.
The pair, Boy A and Boy B, had originally been charged with murder but the Crown Prosecution Service controversially accepted their admission of manslaughter after concluding it would be difficult to prove they intended to kill Haque.
They will be sentenced next month and Judge Martin Stephens QC said he would consider naming them.
All of them, the whole gang should die in the prison system as an example
Teen members would film victims during attack
By Stephen Wright, Daily Mail
Published: 00:00 June 18, 2010
London: Two members of a teenage ‘happy slapping' gang faced long prison sentences last night after admitting to killing a Muslim pensioner outside a mosque for fun.
The schoolboys, then aged 14 and 15, laughed as they attacked Ekram Haque in front of his three-year-old grand daughter with whom he had just attended prayers during the holy season of Ramadan.
Haque, 67, collapsed after being hit twice over the head as he walked home in Church Lane, Tooting, south London.
He received severe brain injuries when his head hit the pavement and died a week later in hospital.
Previous attacks
CCTV footage shows the girl comforting her grandfather after he was felled. She is said to be deeply traumatised. The two killers attacked two other men only 20 seconds earlier along the same road.
One of them had also taken part in a happy slapping attack in the home of a married couple five days previously.
In total, the thugs filmed six previous attacks on vulnerable or elderly people on their mobiles.
The escalating violence used by the gang, many of whom had histories of attacks, petty crime and dreadful school discipline records, appalled detectives.
They would shout out ‘Lane Gang Productions', and film themselves hitting innocent people then run off, laughing.
Admission
Police did not recover any mobile phone video of Haque's killing but the attack was caught on CCTV.
When three of the happy slapping gang first appeared in court last year, they laughed and smirked during the proceedings.
The pair, Boy A and Boy B, had originally been charged with murder but the Crown Prosecution Service controversially accepted their admission of manslaughter after concluding it would be difficult to prove they intended to kill Haque.
They will be sentenced next month and Judge Martin Stephens QC said he would consider naming them.
All of them, the whole gang should die in the prison system as an example