Two rappers jailed for murder plot

A teenage rapper who pushed a pregnant 15-year-old girl into a canal and grinned as he held her under the water was jailed for 18 years yesterday.

Kingsley Ogundele hatched a plan to kill the teenager with his friend Brandon Jolie, who was given a 14-year sentence.

Mr Jolie feared that the victim, who was his girlfriend, stood in the way of his burgeoning stardom on the "grime" music scene, the Old Bailey heard. He and Mr Ogundele, both 19, plotted the attempt to kill her during a "chilling" webchat in October last year.

The following month Mr Jolie lured her by phone to an isolated spot beside the Regent's Canal in Islington, north London, where his friend was waiting.

Mr Ogundele hit her over the head with a metal pole and, despite her cries of "Please don't, I'm pregnant", pushed her into the canal and held her under the water.

Her life was saved by a passer-by who chased off the attacker and pulled her out of the water. She later gave birth to a healthy boy.

Mr Ogundele, of Romford, Essex, was convicted of conspiracy to murder by an Old Bailey jury and Mr Jolie, of Bow, east London, earlier admitted the charge.

Judge Paul Worsley told Mr Jolie: "When you discovered that your 15-year-old girlfriend was pregnant and she was going to tell your mother you decided that she should abort that child. When she refused, you together with Ogundele decided that she should be eliminated. You feared that your mother would cut off your student allowance, that your blossoming music-producing ambitions would be frustrated and that your lifestyle would be severely disrupted.

"Those selfish concerns gnawed away at you and you explained your problems to Ogundele.

"Ogundele suggested that she should be eliminated. Together you decided that she should be murdered, together with her unborn child.

"The conversation in which you planned that was captured on the chat log on Ogundele's computer. It is chilling."

The victim - who cannot be named because of her age - was six months pregnant, and "desperate that her unborn child should know his father", said the judge.

On the day she thought she was meeting Mr Jolie she was left waiting for him by the canal "cold and frightened" before Mr Ogundele hit her with the pole and pushed her into the freezing water.

The judge told Mr Ogundele: "You held her head under the water. She felt she was going to die. One of her last memories as she went under was the grin on your face as you pushed her under."

He said the victim was a "bright, attractive girl" who had recovered physically but suffered "long-term psychological distress".

The judge added: "I do not overlook how vulnerable she was."

He awarded £500 to Andrew Hall, the passer-by who saved her, saying: "Instead of passing by on the other side he went and tackled this young man, who ran off.

"Mr Hall did not know that he himself would not be the subject of an attack. By his action he saved the life of [the girl] and her unborn child."

The court heard that the victim and her mother had to be uprooted from their home in London because they were in fear after the attack.

The girl said in a statement that she suffered nightmares and no longer trusted boys.

She feared leaving the house without her mother and said she never wanted Mr Jolie to see her child.