Croydon killer brandishes knife and threatens to 'shank' gang rivals in disturbing video

A murderer who beat and stabbed a teenager to death in south London boasted about knifing gang members in a video filmed just months before the killing.

Disturbing footage shows Ali Zahawy smile as he brandishes a knife in a car and threatens to "shank" rivals.

He later killed 19-year-old Andre Aderemi in a pre-planned attack last year which saw the aspiring rapper stabbed multiple times, kicked and beaten with a metal pole.

In the video, which was shown to a jury during the murder trial, Zahawy is seen behind the wheel of a car as his passenger films.

While holding a large knife, he can be heard saying: "Bruv, listen yeah, tell Monks Hill and the rest of them yeah, Money Habits, shanking habits, yeah, watch."

Zahawy, 19, was referring to Aderemi's gang Money Habits on Monks Hill estate, a rival to his own gang Shrublands Boys.

He and fellow Croydon gang member Rodney Mukasa, 20, were found guilty of murdering the teen and handed life sentences with a minimum of 22 years at the Old Bailey on Thursday (4 May).

A third member of the Shrublands Boys, 19-year-old Fabio Cela, also from Croydon, was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment after being found not guilty of murder but convicted of manslaughter at the same court.

The killing followed several months of violent confrontations between Aderemi and Cela after the pair had fallen out, the court heard. The dispute was said to relate to Cela's alleged maltreatment of his girlfriend, who was a friend of Aderemi's.

Aderemi's family feared so much for their safety they moved out of London to Kent several weeks before the murder.

But police said upon learning that the teen would be visiting south London, Cela, Mukasa and Zahawy planned an ambush and armed themselves with knives and a metal pole.

On 16 August last year, they chased Aderemi before beating and stabbing him up to 20 times, including in the chest, until he was unconscious.

Police found the collapsed teen in the Monks Hill Estate in Heather Way, Croydon. He died later that evening from his injuries after being taken to hospital.

The trial saw the gang solidarity between the three defendants slip away as they soon began blaming each other for the attack, the Croydon Advertiser reported.

After the verdicts were read out, Mukasa reportedly hurled abuse at Zahawy who lunged at him as the two murderers were led to their cells. Cela wept in the doc having been cleared of murder.

Andre's mother, Yemi Hughes, 38, who taught design technology to Cela at Shirley High School where Zahawy and Mukasa were also pupils, said she felt no satisfaction in watching her son's killers face life sentences.

She told the Evening Standard: "Five lives have been ruined for nothing. I'm not happy, I'm not rejoicing that those verdicts have come back.

"I just feel like it was a waste of lives. Their lives have been ruined, their families' lives have been ruined, my life has been ruined, all our lives have been ruined – for no particular reason."