Three men who attacked and killed a schoolboy in an unprovoked attack in a park in London’s East End have today been found guilty by a jury of his murder.
Ajmol Alom, 16, who was aspiring to be a doctor, collapsed yards from his home after he and his friends were attacked with knives and a machete-like blade.
His mother rushed from their home and watched helplessly as he lay dying in Spey Street, Poplar.
Ajmol was hoping to study medicine at university—but died just days before receiving eight As and three Bs in his GCSE results from Poplar’s Langdon Park School last August.
He had been playing football with friends at Brownfields Park when a gang wearing hoodies and bandanas attacked them.
Aminur Khan, 19, from Robin Hood Gardens, and Ali Akbar Choudhury, 20, from John Smith Mews, both in Poplar, were found guilty of Ajmol’s murder and GBH to his friend Azime Rob. Also found guilty was Mashudur Rahman, 23, from Victoria Street in Stratford.
All three are being sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 2. A fourth man, Muhammod Malik, 21, was acquitted.
The gang was tracked through CCTV, witness statements and evidence linking them to the scene.
Prosecutor Mark Dennis had told the six-week trial: “The friends had no care in the world—all that was about to change by sudden and gratuitous violence which left one wounded and another dying. They had done nothing to provoke such aggression.”
Prosecutors have the power to bring people before the courts who were present when a crime is committed, under a legal doctrine called joint enterprise, which led to all three facing the same charges.
Det Insp Julie Willats said after the trial: “Today’s verdicts mean justice for Ajmol Alom and Azime Rob.
“Ajmol was an innocent teenager enjoying a summer evening with friends when they were targeted in an unprovoked attack which highlights the misery that knife crime causes.”
The joint enterprise prosecution, she added, reinforced the message that “you don’t have to have your hand on the knife to have blood on your hands.”
The Alom family tonight issued a statement thanking police and the Crown Prosecution service for bringing Ajmol’s killers to trial.
The statement said: “It has meant a lot to us to hear evidence from the community who came forward to help our son.
“Ajmol was a part of us and had his whole life ahead of him—we can only hope other young people turn away from violence and knife crime.”
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