A postcode gang who murdered two rival teenagers were on Wednesday January 6, 2021, sentenced to a minimum total of 126 years behind bars.
The killers, from B3 in West Bletchley, Milton Keynes had been tipped off that members of a gang known as M4 would be at a teenage girl’s 17th birthday party.
Armed with weapons, including a “Rambo” style knife, four of the gang donned frightening face masks to scale the back garden fence of the house late at night on Saturday October 19 2019. The fifth stood guard at the front of the property.
Seventeen year old Ben Gillham-Rice and his best friend Dom Ansah, also 17, who were both linked to the M4 gang, stood no chance in the carnage that followed.
At Luton crown court last month four gang members were convicted of the two murders and two charges of wounding with intent two other youths at the party.
Clayton Barker, 20, of Surrey Road, Bletchley was jailed for minimum term of 28 years.
Charlie Chandler, 23, of Fitzwilliam Street, Bletchley was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.
17-year-old Jamie Chandler of Woodrush, Beanhill, MK was detained at her Majesty’s pleasure for a minimum of 22 years.
17-year-old Ben Potter of Chiswick Close, Westcroft, MK was detained at her Majesty’s pleasure for a minimum of 22 years.
The fifth gang member Earl Bevans, 23, who had pleaded guilty to the four charges, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.
The court heard that before midnight, the gang burst in through the conservatory of the detached house in Archford Court on the Emerson Valley estate in a revenge attack.
Ben was stabbed six times in the lounge, with one wound to his chest penetrating his heart.
He died almost immediately after collapsing into a chair.
Dom managed to flee only to be pursued by members of B3. As he circled back towards the house in Archford Croft he slipped and fell.
He was set upon by those chasing him and repeatedly “sliced and stabbed” in a frenzied attack.
He managed to get to his feet and made it to the door of the house, where he was stabbed again.
In all, he had sustained 47 injuries, including wounds to his shoulders, his left arm, left leg, his chest and abdomen, on his back, including one which had incised his lung.
Injuries to his hands were caused when he tried to raise them to protect himself and even grab the weapons being used to stab him.
Two other young men attending the party suffered knife wounds, but survived.
Dom was taken to hospital that night and his mother, Tracey Ansah rushed to his bedside.
She told the jury that as her son’s life was slipping away, she asked him who was responsible for his injuries. The mother said her son gave her the first names of three of his attackers.
She went on “He did a B3 sign with his hand” and she said he did it by forming a circle with his thumb and first finger, with the three other fingers pointing straight up.
Shortly afterwards Dom died from his injuries.
Sentencing the gang, Mr Justice Spencer said: “There was a significant degree of planning and premeditation.
There was a hastily conceived plan to attend the party to take rival gang members by surprise. This house was targeted specifically because M4 were there.”
The jury heard all the defendants were heavily into Drill music, known for its violent lyrics which use urban slang terms to glorify the use of knives to inflict injuries on rivals.
Three of the defendants – Barker, Potter and Jamie Chandler – had made their own music video which was posted online.
There was a history of bad blood between the two gangs and on-going hostilities.
Prosecutor Charlotte Newell QC told the jury: “Two particular incidents had served to act as a catalyst for the events of October 19.”
In September 2017 when he was 14-years-old, Ben Potter had been assaulted, stripped and taunted in woodland near Westcroft. The incident had been filmed and shared on social media.
Ben Potter named Dom Ansah as one of those responsible but, despite his humiliation, he hadn’t gone to the police.
Gang culture decreed you didn’t “snitch” or “grass” even on your enemies, but waited instead to get even.
After his death, police found footage of the incident on Dom Ansah’s handset.
Ms Newell said six months before the murders, Jamie Chandler had been stabbed in the buttocks.
He claimed to police he didn’t know who had stabbed him and wouldn’t make a statement.
The jury was told when the defendants heard that members of the M4 gang would be at the birthday party last October, the scene was set of a vicious revenge attack.
The five travelled to the party late at night in a taxi, taking with them masks and weapons to carry out what Ms Newell said was to be a surprise attack “executed in a co-ordinated and deadly fashion.”
One remained outside the front of the house, which was decorated with balloons, to block the escape route, while the others went round to the rear of the property to climb the fence into the back garden.
She said the defendants didn’t know what resistance they might meet, but knew by arming themselves and using the element of surprise they would have the upper hand.
From the conservatory they made their way to the lounge where music was playing and guests were dancing.
He was left dying as the attackers moved through the house looking for more victims.
Two more young men were stabbed. Ryan Brown, 23, suffered a single stab wound to the left side of his chest which fractured a rib, caused a laceration to his spleen and a small contusion to his left lung.
A 17-year-old was stabbed in his right arm and had a cut over his right hip.
Dom Ansah, who had been a “particular focus of the defendants” managed to run from the house.
Moments later, when he slipped and fell, his fate was sealed when those chasing him caught up with him.
The first paramedics to arrive at the house described the downstairs of the house as being like a “blood bath.”
Ben was dead in a chair while Dom, who had managed to get into the house, was lying on a sofa and bleeding heavily.
The gang had fled on foot from the house.
Charlie Chandler and Barker made their way to London and Bevans and the 17-year-old went briefly to Liverpool.Within weeks, all were arrested.
Only Charlie Chandler gave evidence during the trial telling the jury he thought he was going to a party with friends.
He said it was only when he got out of a taxi that he saw the others were wearing masks as they climbed a garden fence to get into the rear of the property.
He told the jury: “I had a feeling something was not right because no one climbs a fence with face coverings.”
Sentencing the five defendants at Luton crown court Mr Justice Spencer said: “It is a dreadfully serious case.
“You Earl Bevans pleaded guilty to all these offences on the first day of the trial, before the jury was sworn. The other four of you were convicted by the jury after a trial lasting seven weeks.
“The five of you gate-crashed a 17th birthday party at a house in Milton Keynes, armed with knives and machetes, and with masks to conceal your identity.
“You had been tipped off that members of the rival M4 gang were at the party and you travelled there together by taxi. Four of you climbed over the fence into the back garden and burst into the house through the conservatory.
“The fifth remained outside, to intercept anyone who ran out of the house. Ben Gilham-Rice was stabbed to death in the living room whilst the party was in full flow, in the presence of several teenage boys and girls. Two other victims were stabbed in the house but fortunately not fatally. Dom Ansah managed to run out of the house but was chased, eventually cornered, and brutally and mercilessly stabbed some 35 times. He died in hospital three hours later.”
The judge went on: “ The all-too-familiar background to these senseless and tragic killings was rivalry between gangs of young men, and the culture of violence and knives, promoted on social media. Sadly, Dom Ansah was himself caught up in that gang culture, as a leading member of M4. And it was through his association with Dom Ansah, albeit not a member of the gang himself, that Ben Gilham-Rice was at the party that night with M4 gang members. But the violence that night escalated way beyond anything that had gone before.”
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