Salim Coulter murder: Mother ‘feels sorry’ for drug dealer who shot son dead outside celebrity restaurant

“Targeted”: Salim Coulter. His killer had lain in wait for him outside a restaurant where he was dining with a friend
Scotland Yard
Isobel Frodsham30 May 2018

The mother of a trainee gas engineer shot dead outside a restaurant popular with celebrities today said she “felt sorry” for his killer.

Salim Coulter, 24, was gunned down in a “targeted execution” as he got into a friend’s car outside a restaurant in Fulham.

A jury heard how Omar Hutson, 31, had lain in wait outside Jerky’s Jamaican in Walham Grove, which is frequented by pop stars and footballers. Mr Coulter was shot in the head at close range and pronounced dead 20 minutes after leaving the restaurant, where he had been eating with a friend.

At the Old Bailey yesterday Hutson, who lived near Walham Grove, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 32 years.

Speaking at the family home in White City after the hearing, Mr Coulter’s mother Faouzia said justice had been delivered — but she wished that Hutson had admitted his crime.

The 58-year-old told the Standard: “I feel sorry for him but wish he had told the truth and pleaded guilty from the beginning and he would have less of a sentence now. He should have apologised to correct his life, to be good.

“This is a life, not a joke and not a game. I said to my lawyer, tell him to plead guilty and I’ll forgive him. I wanted to forgive him. He knows he killed Salim. It’s been a very painful three weeks.”

The court heard that Hutson and Mr Coulter were rival drug dealers locked in a feud. After the shooting on December 5, 2016, Hutson fled in his own car. He was arrested 10 days later after his getaway was captured on CCTV.

Days before his trial was due to start in June 2017, Hutson’s friends had tried to pass off dashcam footage filmed days after the murder as proof of his alibi. Mr Coulter, who attended the former Henry Compton secondary school in Fulham, celebrated turning 24 a month before his murder. Birthday decorations were still up at his home when his family received the news.

His mother had moved to London from Malaga in Spain about 15 years ago to give her son a better education.

Paying tribute to her son, Ms Coulter said: “Salim will never be forgotten. He was a loving boy. He gave me a lot of joy, care and happiness. The house was full. Now the house is empty with a kind of sadness.”

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