Selfies betray teenage drug runners who killed Man in brutal attack

Three teenagers involved in a county-lines drug operation have been sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison for the killing of a 51-year-old man, after selfies and videos taken on the night of the attack helped police place them at the scene.

Anthony Marks, 51, was subjected to a sustained and vicious assault in the early hours of Saturday, 10 August 2024, after being accused of involvement in a drugs robbery.

He was struck with a car bonnet, chased through central London streets, stamped on and beaten with a glass bottle in what prosecutors described as a ruthless act of retribution.

Marks was found badly injured at King’s Cross Station at about 5:25am by officers from the Metropolitan Police.

He later died in hospital on 14 September, 2024 from severe injuries to his head and arms.

At the Old Bailey, Jaidee Bingham, who was 16 at the time of the attack and known by the street name “Ghost”, was found guilty of murder and on Monday sentenced to a minimum of 16 years’ imprisonment.

Two others, Eymaiyah Lee Bradshaw-McKoy and Mia Campos-Jorge, were convicted of manslaughter and jailed for three years 11 months and three years six months respectively.

Investigators said the teenagers had believed they would evade justice, even posing for selfies and recording videos before and after the attack.

Those images, alongside CCTV footage and forensic analysis of seized mobile phones, allowed detectives to track the group’s movements across London and reconstruct the events leading to the killing.

Detective Inspector Jim Barry of the Met’s Specialist Crime North said the case laid bare the “ruthless brutality” of county-lines gangs, adding that the offenders’ ages did not diminish the gravity of their crimes.

The court heard that the trio had begun working for the drug gang hours before the killing, confronting Mr Marks shortly after 5am. He was chased from Argyle Street to Whidbourne Street and repeatedly attacked until a passer-by intervened.

Police arrested the suspects in the weeks that followed, ultimately building a case that brought the killers to justice.