Three teenagers have been jailed after being found guilty of killing a man they lured to a Birmingham park and stabbed to death.
Danish Mansha, Rimsha Tariq and Daiyaan Arif, all aged 18, used the internet to find someone they believed wanted to have violent sex with women and enticed him to his death.
Their victim, 29-year-old Sohail Ali, was lured to Summerfield Park by the promise of meeting a girl on 4 December last year.
He’d been speaking with Tariq online before agreeing to meet with the girl in the park where Mansha, armed with a knife and a blank firing gun and Arif were lying in wait.
Sohail was ambushed in the park at around 2.30 pm.
He was stabbed seven times and shot. He was attacked with such force the knife snapped, and part of the blade was found embedded in his chest.
Sohail was rushed to hospital for treatment but sadly died just after midnight.
After the attack, the teenagers ran off, but CCTV footage captured as part of the investigation shows Mansha and Arif celebrating the kill with a fist bump.
Footage seized from CCTV cameras enabled homicide detectives to trace the teenagers, and they were arrested on suspicion of murder a few days later.
Detectives found lots of evidence on their mobile phones.
Although the trio had deleted some of it, a dedicated digital forensics team could recover quite a lot of it.
Conversations on messaging apps were cross-referenced with those from the victim’s phone to piece together what happened.
The teenage killers were in regular contact with each other in the days
leading up to the killing, Tariq continued to chat to Sohail via WhatsApp and Instagram until half an hour before he was killed.
Following their arrests, the teens refused to answer any questions about what happened.
Still, in light of the forensic evidence – DNA, CCTV and digital – the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a murder change for all three teenagers based on joint enterprise.
All of them denied murder.
After a 10-week trial at Coventry Crown Court, Mansha and Tariq were found guilty of murder, while Arif was convicted of manslaughter. Mansha was also found guilty of possession of a bladed article.
At sentencing yesterday, Mansha was jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years. Tariq was jailed for life with a minimum of nine years. Arif was jailed for three years and six months.
Detective Inspector Laura Harrison, from our homicide team, said:
“This case is really sad. It was a completely senseless attack that took a life and changed three more forever.
“My officers have worked tirelessly on the case; and although today’s verdict can never bring Sohail back, I am pleased that we have been able to secure justice for him and his family. My thoughts are with them at this time.”
Following the sentencing, Sohail’s family said:
“We are pleased that the defendants were found guilty and sentenced today for the brutal crime they committed. Sadly nothing can bring Sohail back to us.
“Sohail was murdered needlessly and his life has been stolen from him. The pain that we suffer from his loss is overwhelming. He will forever remain in our hearts.
“We are truly grateful and thankful to the police and legal team who worked so hard on my son Sohail’s case to get him justice.”
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