A teenager who stabbed a defenceless man to death yards from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium was jailed for a minimum of 15 years at the Old Bailey today.
Taylor Fernandes-Nelson, now aged 18, chased down Ryan Gray, 24, in the street before plunging a knife into his heart.
The victim, a rapper who performed as Reckz, was beaten with a crutch, kicked and knifed seven times in broad daylight during the vicious attack in the Holloway Road.
The assault was captured on CCTV and witnessed by horrified passers-by who bravely intervened to try and save Mr Gray.
He was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to hospital where he died four days later from his injuries.
A jury took 14 hours and 51 minutes to convict Fernandes-Nelson, of Finsbury Park, of a single count of murder last week.
Today he was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Anthony Bate for the “ferocious” attack and added that it was “stark and disturbing” that the killer was carrying a knife in the street.
“The fateful sequence of events unfolded quickly. As Ryan Gray arrived he was carrying two weapons, a plastic Persil bottle containing caustic ammonia solution and a metal cosh,” said the judge..
“You had brought to the scene a small folding knife concealed in a trouser pocket.”
When Mr Gray sprayed ammonia at him Fernandes-Taylor chased down his victim and knifed him seven times.
“Angry at what he had done you pursued him,” said the judge. “You stabbed him to death. The jury rejected your claim that it was a sudden loss of control.”
He added: “His partner Pauline was pregnant at the time and their daughter will never know her father.”
The judge also commended the bravery of Good Samaritan Vivian Taylor who fought off the attackers with her shopping bag.
“She wielded a red leather shopping bag to deter the three attackers, who promptly desisted and fled the scene,” he said.
“Mrs Taylor stayed with Ryan to offer what first aid and comfort she could to him. Her public-spirited action is to be commended.”
Mr Gray’s mother Alison, 45, has previously branded her son’s killer a coward. “I feel like I don’t have justice when I don’t know why it happened. Taylor is a coward,” she said.
“Why he doesn’t come clean about why it happened, I don’t know.”
Mrs Gray added: “The people who take a life like this need to realise how many other lives they destroy.”
Delton Campbell-Brown, 19 of Stoke Newington, and Stephen Roberts, 22 of Highbury, were both cleared after claiming they did not know their friend had a knife.
