POLICE have released footage of the moment a London-Irish schoolboy was chased down by a gang of vicious thugs who hacked him to death.
CCTV footage shows Hani Hicham Abou El Kheir, whose mother is from Kilkenny, walking home with his girlfriend and a friend on the night he was brutally murdered.
The 16-year-old is pictured nearest the wall in Pimlico’s Churchill Gardens Estate on January 27 last year as a 10-strong gang of masked and armed men run down the road behind him.
The Old Bailey heard last month that tragic Hani’s final moments then saw him sprint through an alleyway in a desperate attempt to flee his killers.
But they finally caught up with the boy and launched a “frenzied attack” on him, stabbing and hacking at him 30 times with knives and meat cleavers.
The attackers then left Hani dying in the street from severe stab wounds to his head, arms, legs and torso as they scattered in different directions.
Hani’s killers were jailed for 131 years last week.
Arber Barbatovci, 20, of Pimlico, SW1; Ahmed Mikhaimar, 20, of Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1; Tarquai Joseph, 19, of Maida Vale; and a 20-year-old man from Camberwell, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of murder on Tuesday, January 28 – a day after the one-year anniversary of Hani’s death.
All four were jailed for life and told they would spend at least 26 years behind bars.
A fifth gang member, 26-year-old Craig Boyce, of Paddington, W2, was also found guilty of murder and ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years.
Speaking after the verdict was handed down, Hani’s mother Pauline Hickey said she still pines for her only child “every day”.
"I cannot face the truth of Hani's death and I cannot get over the devastating image of my son lying dead in the hospital,” the distraught Kilkenny woman added.
Arber Barbatovci (left) and Ahmed MikhaimarDetective Chief Inspector Neil Attewell of the Metropolitan Police said: "It is the casual acceptance of knives amongst young people that has led to the needless loss of yet another young person in London.
“Hani had been out with friends when he was chased and set upon en masse. The frenzied attack through streets of Pimlico left at least two of the gang members with injuries which gives a clear indication of the ferocity at which they attacked Hani.
“Sadly Hani stood very little chance of being able to escape.”
Hani Hicham Abou El KheirDCI Attewell added: "Hani was the first teenager to lose his life in London in 2013 and his mother has been left completely devastated. Tragically she has not only lost her son but her only child.
“Hani's mother has shown an immense amount of courage to attend court throughout this process, to have sat through and heard the distressing details of how her son came to die has been extremely difficult for her.”
Police are offering a £20,000 reward for information about others involved in Hani’s murder.
For more on this story, including heartbreaking testimony from Hani’s mother about losing her only child, see this week’s Irish Post…
See More: London Irish, Murder, Pimlico
