Footballer blasted in the back for straying on to the Stonebridge Estate

Two teenage boys who shot a footballer in Harlesden train station have been jailed for 12-and-a-half years each in jail today (Thursday).

Samuel Woods, 16, of Windrush Road, Stonebridge, summoned Jordan Gabbidon, 17, of Greenwood Terrace, also in Stonebridge, to the station where they blasted the 27-year-old victim on the platform.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard the victim had been shot for ‘straying’ into the Stonebridge Estate as he walked to the station on March 9 last year.

He had been talking part in a football tournament near the estate and was making his way back to his south London home when he became embroiled in an argument with the youths.

Woods and Gabbidon were convicted of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence at their trial last November.

Ola Salau, of Nettleden Avenue, Wembley, and Chantelle Franklin, of Gladstone Parade, Cricklewood, both 17, were jailed for six years each for possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and cleared of attempted murder.

Franklin was also found guilty of perverting the cause of justice.

They were also convicted in November.

Jurors heard all four were part of a gang that called themselves ‘TOS’ or Thugs of Stonebridge.

CCTV captured the shooting as Gabbidon raced through the barrier and took aim at the victim as he neared the bottom of stairs leading to the platform.

Gillian Etherton QC, prosecuting, said: “The shooting was not pre-planned, it was a complete over-reaction - an act of gratuitous senseless violence.

“These defendants did not like the fact that Paul was on their territory or turf, the area around the Stonebridge Estate.

“The victim was very lucky in one sense, because some of the shot was lodged next to vital organs, and other metal shot was found next to his spine.

“He was within millimetres of paralysis or death.”

Despite being shot, the victim managed to board a train and travel one stop to Willesden Junction where he collapsed on the platform.

Judge Aiden Marron QC told Woods and Gabbidon they were a clear danger to the public.

He said: “This was a serious, wicked act, all for no apparent reason at all. It was idiotic.

“There is clear evidence, especially from the YouTube evidence that you Samuel Woods and Jordan Gabbidon were promoting gang violence with gun and on this occasion were acting out what you had rapped about earlier.

“The violence progressed at such a frightening speed. Bringing the gun, loaded, to be used suggested there was some real preparation and it was conducted at startling speed.’

“You have no disregard for life and limb.”

Addressing Salau, who was a talented footballer who had trials with Charlton, Millwall and Chelsea, the judge said his rap demonstrated his part in the gang.

The judge accepted that Franklin had told the others to leave the man after he had been shot, but added that ‘for a brief 10 minutes’ she had associated yourself with the group.

Detective Inspector Karl Skrzypiec, the investigating officer from British Transport Police, said: “The victim was shot for nothing more than an argument in the street and left at the station for dead.

“I would like to thank the witnesses who came forward and provided vital evidence during the trial to lead us to these convictions.

“This was a shocking incident which happened in broad daylight just yards from a busy road and those responsible are clearly capable of completely disproportionate acts of extreme violence.”

Joseph Mene-Otubu, 19, was cleared of supplying the gun and Kevin Georgiou, 26, both from Stonebridge, was cleared of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent on the judge’s direction earlier in the trial

Mr Georgiou, a rapper who performs under the name K-Koke, is set for international stardom after signing to Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation shortly before his arrest.

Since his acquittal he has returned to the recording studio and is set to release an album later this year.