‘Out of control’ gang ringleader found guilty of two murders months apart

The “ringleader” of the notorious street gang Mali Boys has been found guilty of two murders amid a spate of tit-for-tat violence, it can now be reported.

On November 16 2017, Hamza Ul Haq was involved in the fatal group stabbing of 18-year-old Kacem Mokrane in Walthamstow, east London.

Months later, Ul Haq was involved in the mistaken identity murder of 20-year-old Joseph Williams-Torres, who was shot dead as he sat with a friend in a van in March 2018.

Both fatal attacks were in revenge for the murder of one of their own, 17-year-old Elijah Dornelly, in May 2017.

The killers were associated with the Mali Boys gang which had been engaged in a bloody feud with the neighbouring Priory Court or Higham Hill gang in Walthamstow.

In 2020, Ul Haq was found guilty of Mr Williams-Torres’s murder and jailed for life.

Following a three-month trial, Ul Haq was found guilty in May of Mr Mokrane’s murder alongside Abdirisak Ali, 26, Luca Griffiths, 21, Kamil Kazmierski, 23.

On Monday, Judge Angela Rafferty KC lifted reporting restrictions on reporting their convictions during a hearing at the Old Bailey .

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Mokrane’s grandmother Marlene Sutton said: “The family have waited over five years for Kacem’s murderers to be brought to court where the family have had to go through the whole event again due to these animals denying their guilt or making excuses for the part they played in Kacem’s murder.

“It has been impossible for the family to begin any form of healing process.

“Those who murdered Kacem, have demonstrated no remorse for their crime.

“There are those in this pack who went on to commit further criminal activities and even another murder, identifying that they were out of control and dangerous.”

Mr Mokrane was described by his family as a “big personality”, who had been enjoying an apprenticeship at Thames Mead football club and had ambitions to become a professional footballer.

His life was cut short when he was attacked as he made his way to a local trap house in Higham Hill Road.

Two cars pulled up and 10 males got out and chased him down the road.

Ul Haq was among those leading the chase with attackers brandishing knives, including a “Zombie flasher” or “pirate” knife.

In just 25 seconds, Mr Mokrane was surrounded, pushed up against a wall and suffered serious injuries including an eviscerated bowel and stab to the leg. He died four days later.

The attacking group then ran back to the waiting vehicles which sped off.

The court was told the immediate trigger for the “revenge murder” was an acid attack in Subway and Downtown Pizza in St James Walthamstow two days earlier.

Ul Haq and others had been squirted with acid and one friend was stabbed, although not fatally.

Jurors were told that incident happened amid a “series of violent retaliatory attacks” between rival territorial gangs The Mali Boys, with whom the 10 attackers were associated, and the Priory Court/Higham Hill gang.

The “increasingly bloodied and vengeful feud” began in May 2017 with the murder of 17-year-old Elijah Dornelly. who was a friend of the defendants.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC had said: “As a group, they were reckless and ruthless, and swift to seek revenge for any perceived challenge to their territorial supremacy.

“They had grown increasingly angry, dangerous and confrontational since the murder of Elijah Dornelly which had marked the beginning of the tit-for-tat violence over the relevant period.

“Their eagerness to exact their swift revenge typically resulted in either the careless mistaken identification of their specific target, or else in acts of indiscriminate violence against any member of a rival grouping.”

Ul Haq, Ali, Griffiths, and Kazmierski will be sentenced for Mr Mokrane’s murder on June 28 at the Old Bailey.