Keelan Wilson: Four guilty of Wolverhampton boy murder

Keelan Wilson was 15 when he was stabbed more than 40 times

Four men have been found guilty of murdering a boy stabbed more than 40 times in a "well-planned execution".

Keelan Wilson, 15, was fatally injured on Langley Road in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton, on 29 May, 2018.

The four murderers acted "like a pack of animals" amid rising gang violence in the city, police said.

Keelan's mother Kelly Ellitts said the convictions meant justice for her son, but added "nothing would bring Keelan back".

It emerged a few days after the murder that when an ambulance was called for the wounded boy, his final words included "tell my mum I love her".

The trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how the night time attack - carried out by Brian Sasa and Nehemie Tampwo, each aged 20, along with Tyrique King and Zenay Pennant-Phillips, both 19 - was "not in any way spontaneous".

Det Sgt Nick Barnes from the West Midlands force said Keelan had the "single worst set of injuries" he had seen on a victim in more than six years investigating homicide.

Clockwise from top left: Zenay Pennant-Phillips, Brian Sasa, Tyrique King and Nehemie Tampwo

There had been increasing acts of violence between opposing gangs leading up to the murder, including disorder earlier that day, police said.

That included weapons being brandished in Wolverhampton city centre, and in another incident, Keelan and two others being shot at by a group of youngsters on bikes. No one was hurt.

But later on, the court heard, the group of four killers ran towards Keelan as he sat in a taxi close to his home, then pulled open the rear door and "set about him with weapons", inflicting more than 40 knife wounds.

Michael Duck QC, prosecuting, said the killing "was not in any way a spontaneous act of violence".

He said: "This was a well-planned, targeted group attack by a number of youths armed with knives, and that was with the plan to execute another young man."

During the 13-week trial, jurors heard there was evidence to suggest the victim had "become embroiled in gang culture", with his killers believing he had switched factions.

Det Sgt Barnes said it was "difficult" to pinpoint a motive "because Keelan wasn't on the police radar particularly for any such activity".

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Keelan was wounded just metres from his home, receiving 43 stab wounds in total, according to police.

He had been driving with a friend - with whom he met up after the shooting incident - when their car broke down, which led to a taxi being called.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said while Keelan was attacked on boarding the vehicle, his friend was "left unscathed" and fled, making it "evident" to authorities that "Keelan was the only target".

The taxi driver sustained a minor cut.

Ms Ellitts said she lived with the shock of her son's death daily.

"This isn't something that you think of every now and again, this is a daily thing that you have to live with.

"It's terrible my daughters won't know who he is."

On the day of Keelan's death, CCTV captured a scene from the Wolverhampton city centre disorder that police said was linked to gang activity

Sasa, of Long Ley, Heath Town, Wolverhampton; King, of Chelwood Gardens, Wolverhampton; Tampwo of Fern Grove in Bletchley, Milton Keynes; and Pennant-Phillips, whose address cannot be published for legal reasons, had all denied murder.

"Keelan was a child who had his whole life ahead of him," Det Sgt Barnes said.

The convictions, he added, came after a "very difficult and long investigation," with more than 2,000 lines of inquiry having to be examined.

Some lines of investigation had been met with a "wall of silence," he said.

Judge Michael Chambers said: "It is an utter tragedy that a 15-year-old child lost his life at the hands of others who are barely older than he."

Sentencing is set to take place at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 19 March.