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GUILTY: Leon Elcock and Hamza Lyzai

TWO TEENAGE members of a 'happy slapping' gang were jailed for a total of eight years yesterday for killing a pensioner in front of his three-year-old granddaughter.

Leon Elcock, 16 and Hamza Lyzai, 15, slapped 67-year-old Ekram Haque on his face and at the back of his head outside a south London mosque last August. Mr Haque, who had just attended prayers at the mosque, fell and fatally hit his head on the pavement after the attack.

Mr Haque's three-year-old granddaughter, Mariam tried to help her beloved grandfather as he lay injured, but he died of brain injuries seven days later in hospital.

The teenagers were members of Lane Gang Productions, a gang of youths who performed a series of 'happy slapping' attacks on defenceless people “for fun” and filmed the assaults on mobile phones.

Elcock and Lyzai were charged with Mr Haque's murder, but plead guilty to the lesser charges of manslaughter and assault causing bodily harm. Their pleas were accepted by prosecutors who sentenced 15-year-old Lyzai to three-and-a-half years in custody and 16-year-old Elcock, who was on bail at the time of the attack for an assault five days earlier, to four-and-a-half years.

Mr Haque’s son Syed Arfan Haque said that “justice has not been served today” when speaking to the press outside the Old Bailey yesterday.

“I have really been let down. The CPS really ned to buck up their ideas because people are getting away with murder and walking free for nothing

“My father is dead and it is just a disgrace”

Judge Martin Stephens QC told the killers: “As a result of your so-called bit of fun he was deprived of a full and contented life and his family of a devoted, inspiring and beloved father and grandfather.”

He lifted restrictions on naming the pair as a warning to others “who may be tempted to indulge in such appalling behaviour.”

He admitted that his powers to give the boys tougher sentences were “very limited” because of their ages.

Referring to his father’s attackers, Arfan Haque said: “I hope the boys who did this to my father realise the gravity of what they have done and the profound effect their actions have caused

“I hope they reflect on their actions when they serve their sentence and repent and become better individuals. This is what my father would have wanted” He said.

Published: 27 July 2010
Issue: 0

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