Teenager guilty of christening party murder

LONDON: A teenager was found guilty on Thursday of shooting dead a cowering woman as she cradled a baby at a christening party in south London.   

The 17-year-old was part of a heavily-armed masked gang which was intent of carrying out extreme violence as they carried out an audacious robbery plot, London's Old Bailey criminal court heard.   

Three other teenagers, aged 15, 16 and 17, were cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of Zainab Kalokoh, 33.   

None of the teenagers can be named for legal reasons.   

About 100 guests, including young children, had been at the party in a community hall in Peckham in August last year enjoying themselves, talking and dancing when the gang burst in and began taking their valuables.   

One of the gang fired a sawn-off shotgun into the ceiling of the hall while Kalokoh was shot in the head with a handgun.   

“They came heavily armed -- with loaded guns and intent of extreme violence -- and extreme violence is what they did that night,” prosecuting lawyer Brian Altman said.   

“The fact that Mrs Kalokoh was holding the baby girl for whom the christening party was arranged did not prevent her death.”

She collapsed to the floor still holding the baby in her arms. The child was covered in blood but otherwise unharmed although Kalokoh died quickly from her wounds.   

Altman said the victim, who had come to Britain to flee her native war-torn Sierra Leone, had been seeking a peaceful, violence-free life.   

“She was tragically wrong. Her life ended in a dilapidated community hall where she and other guests had become targets of this gang of masked and hooded youths,” he told the court.   

The teenager convicted of murder faces a mandatory life jail term and he and his accomplices will be sentenced early next year.   

The court was told there were certainly other gang members involved in the attack and they were still at large.