Thugs get life for killing Dean

BY NEWS REPORTER
shuz@slpmedia.co.uk

Two men who hunted down and brutally murdered a 21-year-old man in a South London street have been sentenced to life with a minimum of 18 years to serve.

Alex Scott, 18 of Ludwick Mews, New Cross and Corey Donaldson, 18 of Abinger Grove, Deptford were sentenced at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, having been found guilty on November 17 of murdering Dean Pascal-Modeste.

Dean died after being attacked by a group of males in Mottingham at around 2.45pm on February 24. The court heard how on the day of the murder, Dean had travelled to Mottingham with two friends from his home in Barking, east London.

They all went to Lambscroft Avenue, Mottingham where one of Dean’s friends dropped in on someone he knew – Dean and a friend waited outside.

They were approached by a group of males who arrived in the street on mopeds.

One of the men shouted something at Dean and his friend and brandished what witnesses described as a handgun. Dean and his friend fled but Dean was caught by the group in an adjacent street, Charlesfield, and subjected to an attack involving knives.

The suspects ran off from the scene leaving Dean dying in the street. Police and London Ambulance Service were called but Dean could not be saved. He died at the scene.

A post-mortem at Greenwich Mortuary on  February 25 established that Dean had died of stab wounds; he had also suffered head injuries during the attack.

Officers conducted a search of the area and in a nearby garden they found three knives believed to have been used in the attack. One of them had Dean’s blood on it and a second was linked to  Scott.

CCTV footage showed Donaldson arrived  at Bellingham railway station at around 2pm before getting a cab to the Lambscroft Avenue area where they met with others.

Detective Inspector Richard Leonard of the Homicide and Major Crime Command led the investigation. He said: “I believe Dean was not the intended target of Scott and Donaldson.

“He did not live in the Mottingham area and from what we know had no associations with the locality.

“However, it appears the defendants were involved in a dispute with Dean’s friends and they attacked Dean merely because he was with them that day.

“I hope that the sentence can help his family begin to move on from this horrific chapter in their lives.”