Teacher whose son was killed with sword by former pupils: 'our lives are ruined'

Andre’s mother, Yemi Hughes said: "five lives have been ruined for nothing"
Chris Baynes4 May 2017
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A school teacher whose teenage son was hacked to death with a sword by three of her former pupils today said: “All our lives have been ruined.”

Aspiring football coach Andre Aderemi, 19, was beaten with a metal pole and stabbed repeatedly in the street on a Croydon estate as a feud over a teenage girl “escalated out of control”.

He and his family had moved away from the Monks Hill estate to Kent on police advice after Andre urged the girl, who cannot be named because of her age, to break up with her “controlling” boyfriend, 19-year-old Femi Cela.

But two weeks later, on August 16 last year, he returned to the area and was confronted by Cela, who had recruited Ali Zahawy, 19, and Rodney Mukasa, 20, to attack him.

At the Old Bailey yesterday, Mukasa and Zahawy were both found guilty of murder at the end of a 10-week trial.

Andre Aderemi was hacked to death with a sword

They had to be stopped by security guards from attacking each other in the dock after the verdicts were read out.

Cela was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter, while the jury was unable to reach a verdict on fourth man, Jamell Lonergan, 19, who will face a retrial.

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

Ali Zahawy, 19 was found guilty of murder

She told the 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.”

Andre was due to begin a physiotherapy course in September after completing a BTEC sport qualification at John Ruskin College and earning his FA coaching badge at Crystal Palace.

His mother described him as “sweet, sensitive, caring, loyal, compassionate”, adding: “His downfall was sticking up for people.

“I’m very, very proud of him and I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t broken yet, because I know my son was amazing.

“I know everybody says that about their children, but people genuinely had nothing bad to say about him.”

Ms Hughes, now head of Year Nine at Oasis Academy Shirley Park, said she “reluctantly” dropped her son off with friends on the day he was killed.

She said: “I left him there and I said to him ‘I’m dropping you off with a heavy heart’. Those were my last words to him. He said, ‘Oh don’t worry mum, I’ll see you in a bit, I love you.’ And that was it.”

Within half an hour of his arrival, Mukasa, Zahawy and Cela arrived armed with a sword and a metal bar in a white Seat Ibiza.

Andre was chased on foot, but fell on nearby Heather Way. He suffered multiple stab wounds, kicks and blows with a metal bar and bled to death despite being rushed to hospital by helicopter.

Ms Hughes added: “I never got to see him alive again, to tell him how much I love him, to see his infectious smile, to cradle my baby in my arms and tell him that I would fix and make everything better.

“Nobody should die the way that he did and I am devastated not only by the loss of Andre but also by the manner in which he died.”

The court heard the feud over the teenage girl, a close friend of Andre’s, had led to Mukasa and Zahawy being stabbed and a friend of Andre’s being shot.

Zahawy, Mukasa and Cela were due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey this morning.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in