The judge who sentenced each of the eight men to long prison sentences yesterday outlined how they plotted the botched arson attack.
The Honourable Mr Justice John Griffith Williams said things began to move shortly after popular sports coach Antoin Akpom was fatally stabbed in Kent Street, Highfields, Leicester, at about 5.30pm on Thursday, September 12.
Mr Griffith Williams said: "Within minutes of the fatal attack on Antoin Akpom, Nathaniel Mullings told Shaun Carter of it, Tristan Richards contacted his partner, Shavez Jeffers, to tell her to contact Antoin Akpom's partner, Amber Riley, and Shaun Carter drove to the gym in Sussex Street.
"All three were to play pivotal roles in the increasing activity which followed as those who were in due course to carry out a revenge attack were gathered together.
"It was known at that early stage that Abdul Hakim was one of those responsible for the attack, because he was known to some who had witnessed it.
"Shaun Carter drove in the Yaris to collect Aaron Webb and Nathaniel Mullings – in the Golf – met up with them at Shaun Carter's flat.
"Nathaniel Mullings then drove the not inconsiderable distance to Gleneagles Avenue to collect Jackson Powell from football training and to drive him to his home where he changed.
"In due course, they went with Shaun Carter, Aaron Webb and Akeem Jeffers in the Yaris and two others in another car to Joe French's (Mr Akpom's close friend's) house, where Shaun Carter left them and drove off in the Yaris. By then, it was known that Antoin Akpom had died.
"While these events were taking place, Tristan Richards and Kemo Porter were in Tristan Richards's home at 58 Sparkenhoe Street, not far from the address in Stoughton Street South of the grandmother of Amber Riley, where a large number of people had congregated.
"During the course of the evening, Tristan Richards left the house a number of times and Shaun Carter drove the Yaris to Stoughton Street South three times.
"By the last of those three occasions, he had met up with Cairo Parker and with Kemo Porter, who were the passengers in the car when he met Courtney Challenger and Oliver Allen by arrangement.
"It was following that meeting that Shaun Carter drove the Yaris with Kemo Porter and Cairo Parker to Wood Hill.
"I am satisfied that Tristan Richards used Kemo Porter as a messenger and arranged for him to make his separate way to Wood Hill in the Yaris so that he (Tristan Richards) could set up his own alibi, in part by arranging for his mother to drive him there.
"At about the same time and, after leaving Joe French's house, Nathaniel Mullings drove the Golf with Jackson Powell, Aaron Webb and Akeem Jeffers, his passengers, to Wood Hill and Tristan Richards was driven there by his mother, and so it was that all eight were collected together for the first time.
"I am sure that the purpose of that meeting was to finalise arrangements for the premeditated and planned attack on Abdul Hakim's house in Wood Hill.
"Whether the type of attack had been considered earlier that evening it is impossible to know, but I am satisfied the plan was finalised in the 20 minutes or so the defendants were at the top of Wood Hill and in Prospect Road.
"If there had been any talk of bricking the house – which I doubt – it would have been quickly dismissed because the defendants were out for really significant revenge.
"That this was their intention is proved by the mobile phone silence which I am satisfied Tristan Richards enforced, by the decision to drive the cars with their lights off and to park a short distance away for a speedy escape and by the steps taken after the fire by many of the defendants to get rid of mobile phone data and clothing.
"And so all eight defendants set out from Wood Hill to attack the house of Abdul Hakim by fire. The journey to Noel Street may have been to collect cannabis but I have concluded its real purpose was to get petrol without drawing attention by visiting a garage. That petrol was carried in the Yaris.
"Once back in Wood Hill, they split into two groups only because the Golf had to be parked on the other side of the junction to the Yaris. Tristan Richards and Kemo Porter led the way to the house, Tristan Richards with the petrol and Kemo Porter with the lighter.
"Close behind were Shaun Carter and Aaron Webb. On the other side of the street were Nathaniel Mullings, Jackson Powell, Cairo Parker and Akeem Jeffers. Cairo Parker was recruited because he, as a resident of Wood Hill, knew or thought he knew where Abdul Hakim lived and so it was that he was called forward by Tristan Richards to point out the house.
"The horror of what then happened is all too apparent. The quantity of petrol and the pouring of petrol through the letterbox provide the evidence the plan was that the house was to be consumed by fire, a fire which took hold instantly and spread upstairs.
"The terrified Shehnila Taufiq, her daughter Zainab and her sons, Bilal and Jamal, tried to escape but there was and could not have been any escape from that ferocious fire.
"A small, but moving detail in the evidence was the account of the next-door neighbour who heard, over a period of 10 to 15 seconds, what she described as "panicky noises", crying and words such as "help" from the children's bedroom.
"If the house had been Abdul Hakim's house and he, with members of his family, had been there, these would have been atrocious crimes and the belief he was responsible for the murder of Abdul Hakim would in no way have mitigated the offending.
"Indeed, the taking by the defendants of the law into their own hands should properly be regarded, and will be regarded, as an aggravating factor in each case.
"Other aggravating factors are that there was a significant degree of premeditation and planning, there was the use of petrol as an accelerant and this was group offending.
"While Tristan Richards has no convictions which aggravate his offending, he was clearly a class A drug dealer, but there is no evidence that these events were linked to the drug trade or to a postcode gang dispute.
"Even so, on the evidence I am satisfied Tristan Richards had a reputation as someone who was not to be crossed. In reaching that conclusion I am sure he is someone who is feared.
"The credible evidence of Aaron Webb was that he was not the sort of person you can talk to. I observe that Tristan Richards yet again made his partner give perjured evidence in support of his defence case.
"I have no doubt it was his decision to use petrol to attack the house and that his target throughout was Abdul Hakim."• Abdul Hakim (19), of Wood Hill, Spinney Hills, Leicester, is charged with murdering 20-year-old Antoin Akpom.
He denies the charge. His trial is expected to last about five days and will begin on a date yet to be set.
Another man, Hussein Hussein (19), of no fixed address, has been convicted of murdering Mr Akpom and has been given a minimum term of 22 years in prison.
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