Teenager given life sentence over nightclub murder

A 19-year-old has been handed a life sentence for the "ruthless" murder of a man he shot at point-blank range outside a south London nightclub.

Tyler Roberts-Emmanuel shot Shaquille Graham, 30, in Catford on 10 March 2024, after lying in wait for him for 20 minutes outside the venue.

He was convicted following a four week trial at the Old Bailey. However, the motive for the attack remained a mystery, the court was told.

At the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC sentenced Roberts-Emmanuel to a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years.

The trial heard how he had left his grandmother's house in Linden Grove, Peckham, in the early hours of 10 March and driven on a high-powered scooter heading for Catford where he shot Mr Graham as he left the nightclub.

Judge Plaschkes said the atmosphere outside the nightclub had been "happy" and the "night had been calm".

"What happened next was unexpected and shocked all those present at the scene," she said.

"Shaquille Graham was approached from behind and shot once at point blank range with the gun angled so the bullet entered his neck and travelled into his skull."

Mr Graham was killed instantly and the gunman disappeared, the court heard.

The shooting was "targeted, premeditated and ruthlessly executed", Judge Plaschkes said.

"One of the shocking features of this case is that you were only 18 years old when you fired that gun," she added.

Mr Graham's mother and father read an impact statement to the court.

Natasha Barrow described the "devastation" Mr Graham's death had caused to his family.

"The heinous and cowardly way he was taken away from us adds poisonous salt to an irreparable wound," she said.

"He was my only son, my everything."

Norman Harris described how his son had been tragically taken away in a "senseless act of violence" and how during the trial the family had to relive in detail the events surrounding the "assassination" of their beloved son.

"We gave him life and no-one else had the right to take it and him away from us," he said.

During the trial, the jury heard there were key strands of evidence that tied Roberts-Emmanuel to the murder.

The scooter used by the gunman to travel to and from the scene was a Kaboo Wolf Warrior 11 - a model that the defendant had been trying to buy the month before.

The address the gunman used as a base was covered by CCTV - it showed that the defendant had made a "dummy run" to the Catford nightclub on his scooter earlier on the night of the murder.

In mitigation James Scobie KC said that the defendant had lived in a "hopeless twilight zone" in which he had to fend for himself as a child.

"Tyler Roberts-Emmanuel was used by those closest to him," Mr Scobie said. "It's no comfort for anybody, but it is a fact."

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