Life for drug debt killers

Two schoolboys who stabbed a 15-year-old to death outside his east London school were jailed for life at the Old Bailey today.

But Judge Paul Focke QC ruled the murderers were so young that it would be "inappropriate" and not in the public interest to allow them to be identified.

Boy A, aged 16, with an IQ of only 63, will be deported back to Jamaica on completion of his sentence. Boy B, who was only 14 when he thrust a kitchen knife into his victim's heart, has an IQ of 68 - like A in the lowest two per cent of the population.

The judge ordered them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence. Their victim, Abdul Maye, was attacked moments after sitting a mock GCSE exam in December last year. His family had fled the civil war in Somalia for London in 1995.

A and B, who attended a different school from Abdul, were convicted of murder after a three-month trial. The jury was told there had been friction between the defendants and Abdul over a £10 cannabis debt.

In previous clashes in his school playground and at a nearby youth club, Abdul had been challenged to a fight by A and B, who had also squirted his face with CS spray.

On the day of the murder, they approached him but were chased off by his friends, only to return armed with knives in search of revenge for their public humiliation. Boy A produced a knife from his sleeve and lunged at Abdul at head height. But as Abdul evaded the blow, Boy B plunged his knife into his back before both defendants ran off shouting: "It's done."

Abdul died although a doctor performed open heart surgery in the road. Today, the judge told A and B: "Your intention was to cause Abdul really serious harm rather than to kill him but it was a bold, planned attack."

The court heard today there have been threats to the families of both defendants and their parents have been rehoused.

The judge ruled both boys, who have been in secure accommodation awaiting trial and sentence for 10 months, should serve a minimum eight years and two months before being considered for parole.