Man jailed for murder after teen he attacked in Clapham dies six years later

A man has been jailed for murder after a teenager he attacked in Clapham died from his injuries six years later.

25-year-old Tyrese Osei-Kofi, of Lordship Lane in East Dulwich, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday (December 6) where he was sentenced to a minimum term of seven years and ten months in prison for the murder of Jamel Boyce.

A court heard police attended Triangle Place, Clapham, on the evening of October 14, 2016, where they found a young man with stab wounds to the chest and leg.

Jamel was treated at the scene by the London Ambulance Service, but he went into cardiac arrest due to the injury to his heart before arriving in hospital, depriving his brain of oxygen for a critical 14 minutes.

Doctors concluded he had been left in a “vegetative state” and he was transferred to a specialist long-term care facility where he required round-the-clock nursing care.

Osei-Kofi was first interviewed after handing himself into police on October 20, 2016, following police appeals in which his father recognised him.

He was subsequently re-arrested two months later and charged with attempted murder on April 13, 2017.

Osei-Kofi was convicted of GBH and found not guilty of attempted murder following a trial at the Old Bailey in February 2018. On May 4, 2018, he was jailed for ten years.

After five-and-a-half years of care, Jamel died on February 13, 2022, aged 22.

A post-mortem examination held a few days later gave a cause of death as a penetrating injury to his chest.

Homicide detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command then initiated murder proceedings against Osei-Kofi.

Detective Inspector Andy Griffin of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command said: “Jamel was a young man with a very promising future, known as ‘Smiley’ to his friends.

“He was described by those who knew him as an intelligent, thoughtful and considerate young man.

“The ordeal that he and his family have been through has been devastating.

“I sincerely hope that today’s sentence brings closure to the nightmare they have lived through for the last eight years.”

Jamel’s father Patrick said: “I have come to witness the sentence of this man who took my son’s life, and I wish to hear him say he is sorry and ask for forgiveness from us.

“No amount of sentence can justify what he has done to me and my family, but I hope in time that somewhere in his heart he can find some remorse and ask whichever God he believes in for forgiveness.”

Jamel’s mother Pansy said: “This stabbing turned an ordinary day in 2016 into a nightmare that we were forced to live through for five and a half years, while Jamel was left blind, unable to speak and severely limited in his ability to interact with the world around him.

“He fought tirelessly to survive, with us by his side throughout, despite such a bleak outlook, before closing his eyes for the last time.

“The impact of Jamel’s death extends far beyond his individual life; it has ripped through our family and community in ways that words can barely capture.

“The damage caused by this crime will ripple through all our lives for years to come.”

 

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