Teenagers guilty of Brixton 'sex abuse' killing

A boy and girl have been found guilty of killing a man who had been accused of sexually assaulting one of them.

The 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named due to her age, told the Old Bailey Robert Daley touched her indecently twice when she was 12.

The pair had denied fatally stabbing the 45-year-old at his flat in Brixton, south London, in April. The girl was found guilty of manslaughter.

The boy was found guilty of murder. They will be sentenced on 17 November.

'Perverted man'

The prosecution said the defendants, then both 14, had gone "to teach him a lesson".

Earlier that day, Mr Daley had been informed that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was dropping a case involving an allegation of sexual assault against him.

The girl, her sister, then aged 15, and a woman had complained to police that the heavy-drinking crack user had abused them.

Soon after receiving a call from police telling him lawyers considered there was a lack of evidence, Mr Daley rang the older girl.

She texted back saying: "Stop calling and texting me. I really don't want anything to do with you. You are a perverted man."

The court heard she rang her sister and the boy - the father of the baby she was expecting.

Soon after the 14-year-olds arrived at Mr Daley's home a struggle broke out in the kitchen and he was fatally injured when two knife wounds punctured his heart.

'Jekyll and Hyde character'

The teenagers had denied the charges and told the jury Mr Daley had grabbed the girl round her throat and was trying to indecently assault her.

They said the boy started jabbing him with a knife to try to free the girl as she struggled with Mr Daley.

Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the evidence suggested Mr Daley was something of a "Jekyll and Hyde character".

But he told the jury that this was not a "vigilante society" and people were not allowed to take the law into their own hands.

Mr Daley's mother Inez Marks said in a statement to the court: "It feels like I have been stabbed in the heart. I don't think I will ever get over it."

The Crown Prosecution Service said after the case: "The CPS had carefully considered all the evidence relating to those allegations against Mr Daley.

"The young female defendant in this case failed to assist police in that investigation and, due to this and other conflicting evidence, the CPS was not satisfied on the evidence available that there was a realistic prospect of conviction and in the circumstances decided that no further action should be taken."