Ayoub Majdouline jailed for murder of 14-year-old Jaden Moodie

Nineteen-year-old imprisoned for life with minimum term of 21 years

A teenager has been sentenced to life imprisonment for being part of a gang who hunted down and stabbed 14-year-old Jaden Moodie in in an attack linked to a drug feud.

Ayoub Majdouline, 19, was one of five gang members who went on a “killing” mission into a rival gang’s territory in Leyton, east London, in January this year.

Driving a stolen black Mercedes, the members of the Mali Boys came across Moodie, from a rival gang, who was riding a moped.

They rammed their car into the 14-year-old before four attackers rushed out and surrounded Jaden, who was lying on the ground, stabbing him nine times in seven seconds. They inflicted such force that bone was damaged and his lung and liver were punctured.

After earlier being convicted of murder, Majdouline was sentenced on Wednesday at the Old Bailey and will serve a minimum of 21 years in prison. He had past drug and knife-carrying convictions, and was on licence at the time of the murder.

Jaden’s family told the sentencing hearing that the 14-year-old was a child who was loved and loving. As a younger child, Jaden gave clothes to the homeless and was fascinated by cars and bikes.

His mother, Jada Bailey, said: “He had been genuinely concerned about the state of some of those less well off than him. He purchased gloves from Primark and would hand them out to those on the streets in winter time to make Christmas more bearable.

“At his tender age he showed empathy for humanity - he was a remarkable human being … [He] was a loving, caring, family-oriented little boy. He was a very loyal friend.”

Jaden was the youngest victim this year of a series of gang wars across London.

By age 13, Jaden was dealing drugs for the Beaumont Crew gang in Leyton, having been moved by his family to east London to get him away from gangs in his previous home in Nottingham who had threatened the family.

Jaden’s family repeatedly reported their concerns to the authorities. In the last year of his life, he had appeared in a video with an imitation firearm and had been arrested in Bournemouth for alleged drug offences.

Jaden’s older sister Jamilla said: “Jaden was like my best friend, but in a brotherly form. I feel I failed him as a big sister because I’ve allowed this to happen to him, whereas I was supposed to protect him as his big sister.”

Majdouline had been officially designated as a “modern slave” because of his vulnerability to being groomed since an early age to joining a drug gang.

Judge Richard Marks QC told Majdouline: “Your life too has, through no fault of your own, been blighted by huge personal difficulty from a young age, the impact on you of which I in no way underestimate.

“As young as 15, you became involved in selling drugs for others, in what is now called county lines, which one hears, depressingly, too much of these days. Even by the standards of gang and drug-related killings, which this court deals with all too frequently, this is a truly shocking case.”

Majdouline said his life went downhill after his father was murdered when he was 14: “I just had bad influences from my exclusion unit that I got sent to after I got excluded from school when my dad died, and I don’t think I was thinking properly.”

Majdouline’s mother started a relationship with an alleged Islamist extremist. His barrister, James Scobie QC, said Majdouline was his most desperate client in over three decades at the criminal bar: “I’m 35 years this side of the court and I’ve never seen someone more broken than this man.

“He’s never really been given a chance … He’s had significant disruption from trauma and exposure to certain ideologies, bereavement and instability in care arrangements. It’s absolutely classical that he should end up as a victim of modern slavery. It would be remiss of me not to state this obvious. He’s had a shattered existence.”

Majdouline denied the charges, leading to a full trial during which Jaden’s family and the jury watched CCTV of the attack.

Police are still looking for the four people in the car with Majdouline. He has refused to name them.

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