Guilty of murder: Youths stabbed boy 17 'like vultures'

A jury has found five youths guilty of the murder of seventeen-year-old Kyle Yule in Gillingham last year, and also guilty of committing violent disorder.

Maidstone Crown Court had heard that the teenager's murder had been part of a 'revenge attack' after a number of violent clashes between rival groups of boys in the Medway Towns - including one between twenty to thirty youths at Gillingham train station.

The five defendants - 19-year-old Victor Maibvisira from Gillingham; three boys aged 17: Ephrain Akinwunmi-Streets from Sittingbourne, Tyler Ralph from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, Shezakia Daley from Gillingham; and 16-year-old Jordan Dania from Croydon in London - had all denied murder, manslaughter and violent disorder. However they were found guilty after a trial which began on 10th April.

The jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard that police had spoken to Kyle and his friend Lewis Dilallo, 18, about their ongoing problems with Maibvisira (also known as Vee) just twenty-four hours before the fatal stabbing. An officer had even warned the teenagers that one of them could could die and advised them to leave the area to let the situation calm down. However the court was told that the boys had smirked and Kyle replied "Don't worry, I can run fast".

The court heard that on 6th October 2017, in an attack triggered by the theft of a bike, Maibvisira and the other four defendants had rounded on Kyle 'like vultures'. The teenagers - dressed in hoods and masks - stabbed, punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground outside his best friend's home. Witnesses said that he had screamed for his mother and told 'Vee' that he had had enough.

Kyle suffered five stab wounds and was left with blunt force injuries. He died on the operating table at the Medway Maritime Hospital in the early hours of the 7th October - the day following the attack. The court was told that Kyle Yule died from a stab wound to his right armpit which cut a large blood vessel.

During the trial only two defendants gave evidence: Maibvisira and one of the 17-year-old boys. The two had blamed each other and both denied carrying knives. The jury also saw footage from a mobile phone belonging to one of the other 17-year-old boys in which he could be seen with a variety of knives.

The prosecutor, Steven Perian QC, said it was not possible to say which one of the five defendants delivered the fatal blow, or which defendants were actually stabbing Kyle.

The five defendants will be sentenced next week.