Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

London drug dealer jailed for life for Jamaican girl's murder

Saturday, August 5, 2006

by: Peter Griffiths

England (Reuters), LONDON: A London drug dealer who fatally shot a Jamaican girl of seven in the back as she tried to flee after witnessing the killing of her father was jailed for life on Friday after being found guilty of two counts of murder.

Joel Smith, 32, who killed Toni-Ann Byfield to eliminate her as a witness after he murdered her father Bertram Byfield, was given concurrent sentences of 40 years for the youngster's murder and 33 years for Bertram's killing.

Smith, linked by police to a notorious criminal gang in northwest London, had a string of convictions and lived by dealing drugs and robbing other drug dealers such as Bertram Byfield.

Smith denied murdering Toni-Ann, known as TT to her family, and 41-year-old Byfield, at the latter's bed-sit in Kensal Green. Instead he had tried to blame it on a friend who is now serving life for an unconnected murder.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell said Smith gunned down Toni-Ann just after midnight on September 14, 2003 to cover his tracks after committing what he hoped was a near-perfect crime. There were no witnesses, forensic evidence or security camera footage.

"He would have got away with the crime but for one fact," Horwell told the jury. "The crime had shocked the nation and witnesses came forward that would not otherwise have done so."

Some of those who came forward were underworld figures that Smith had confessed to. Police finally charged him with murder in October 2005 after several televised appeals led witnesses to give his name.

Toni-Ann was a "bright and fun-loving" girl who had recently arrived in Britain from Jamaica, and was supposed to be in the care of Birmingham social services. An inquiry later criticised social workers for failing to look after her.

After the killings, DNA tests showed that Byfield, who had only recently being recently released from prison, was not Toni-Ann's biological father.

When the verdict was read out, Smith showed no emotion as he stood in the dock but Toni-Ann's mother Roselyn Richards, who had attended the month-long trial, burst into tears.

In a statement read out by her lawyer afterwards, Richards said she would never understand Smith's motivation.

"A man who can shoot a 7-year-old girl in the back does not deserve to rejoin society," her statement said.

"He is in my view a dangerous man capable of repeating such acts given the opportunity. That window of opportunity will slam shut today."

She said she also believed other people were involved in the murder.

"I am convinced justice has been done and at least one of Toni-Ann's killers has been caught. Having heard the evidence I believe Joel Smith did not act alone."

Detective Superintendent Neil Basu said no one knew exactly what had happened apart from Smith.

"Toni-Ann was a complete innocent who was executed in cold blood -- shot dead with a single bullet to the back and she cannot not have known what for," he told reporters.

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