'Vile' trio jailed for beating man to death in brutal broad daylight attack in Southwark

Reginald Ofei-Berko died in the attack last August
Met Police
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A “vile” trio who stalked their victim through streets in Southwark before beating him to death in broad daylight have been jailed.

Reginald Ofei-Berko, 26, was brutally attacked last summer after the men followed him through the streets of Walworth.

Leon Dixon, 37, from Crawley, West Sussex, was sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter.

Mason Adrien-Dixon, 22, of Doddington Grove, Kennington, and Daniel Murphy, 20, of St Davids Close, Bermondsey, were each jailed for eight years for manslaughter.

Leon Dixon, 37, from Crawley, pleaded guilty to manslaughter
Met Police

Two other people were also sentenced at the same hearing for their role in the attack.

John Paul Gillespie, 43, of Carter Street, Kennington, received 12 months in prison for conspiracy to commit affray.

Dipa Modhwadia, 36, of Varcoe Road, Southwark, was jailed for three months after pleading guilty to an offence of assisting an offender.

Mason Adrien-Dixon, 22, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter
Met Police

The Old Bailey heard CCTV footage seized by police showed Reginald Ofei-Berko walking through Walworth on Thursday, August 26 – hours before his death – with his killers following him, one after the other.

Mr Ofei-Berko, from Southwark, eventually sat down on a bench in Penrose Grove and two of the defendants joined him.

Witnesses described how two other men then came running towards the victim and, as this happened, the two defendants who were sat alongside Mr Ofei-Berko hit him relentlessly.

Daniel Murphy was found guilty of manslaughter
Met Police

One of the defendants then dragged him by his upper clothing into the road where his attackers kicked him in the head while he was helpless on the floor.

One of the men, who had arrived on a bicycle, used this to beat Mr Ofei-Berko, while one was also heard to say: "You won't do that again".

John Gillespie, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit affray
Met Police

After running off to a waiting car, driven by Modhwadia, one of the attackers returned yet again to kick the defenceless victim in the stomach.

Mr Ofei-Berko was taken to hospital but later died.

Dipa Modhwadia, 36, of Southwark, also pleaded guilty to assisting an offender after she drove some of the attackers away following the incident
Met Police

Detective Inspector Ken Hughes, the investigating officer, said: "Reginald Ofei-Berko was stalked through the streets by this group of people determined to do him harm.

“He was caught in a pre-planned trap, then beaten and kicked to death while he lay helpless. It was a vile and deliberate attack that was carried out in the street in front of horrified members of the public.

"We believe the attack may have been motivated by a theft from a relative on one of the attackers, but the consequences were out of all proportion.

“Now a family and friends have been left devastated by the senseless death of a young man."

All five defendants were originally charged with murder, but the prosecution accepted guilty pleas to the above offences at the Old Bailey on February 21.

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