Teen killer's brazen attempt to get life sentence reduced

A teenage killer jailed for murdering a friend in a drug deal gone wrong has lost his bid to have his sentence reduced. Yousef Sesay has been told he will serve at least 22 years in prison for his role in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Kyle Hackland in Withington in November 2022.

Sesay, then 18, was one of four teenagers imprisoned for the senseless murder. Manchester Crown Court heard that Kyle was stabbed to death in broad daylight after being arrested at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

He was targeted because of his association with a friend, whom one of his killers blamed after being “trapped” in a drug deal gone wrong. Kyle was attacked by the group of four after seeing him walking with his friend, a man named James Todd.

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Todd ran away when he saw them but Kyle, who knew all four of them, seemed surprised by the brutal attack. Tafari Smith, then aged 16, stabbed him before Yousef Sesay and Lewis Ludford, both aged 18, joined in as Kyle was punched and kicked.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Alfie Benson, 17, drove the killers to and from the scene in a stolen VW Golf. After leaving Kyle to die in a driveway on Southlea Road, at around 11.30am on November 22, 2022, the four, some of whom claimed to be Kyle's friend, arranged to be “taken underground”.

Following a trial in June last year, Smith, Sesay and Ludford were found guilty of murder. Benson was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Sesay, of Denton Road, Audenshaw; Smith, of Lancashire Hill, Stockport; Ludford, of Aylesby Avenue, Gorton; were all detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the equivalent of a life sentence for juveniles. Benson, of Wellington Road North, Stockport, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Smith will serve at least 19 years. Sesay and Ludford will serve a minimum of 22 and 21 years, respectively.

But at London's Court of Appeal, Sesay launched an appeal for a reduction in his sentence, arguing there was an “unjustified disparity” between his prison sentence and that of his co-accused Lewis Ludford. Barrister Tim Storrie KC said Sesay's position was “effectively identical” to Ludford's and therefore the minimum prison sentences imposed should have been the same.

The two men were almost exactly the same age, Mr. Storrie said, and “neither [Ludford’s] Neither his personal circumstances nor his involvement in the offense gave rise to greater mitigating circumstances than those that existed in Sesay's case.

But the appeal was dismissed by Lord Justice William Davis, Mr Justice Morris and Mr Justice Peter Johnson. They wrote: “There was a legitimate basis for the minimum sentence in Ludford's case to be 12 months less than that relating to Sesay. In particular, it was not wrong for the judge to take into account the fact that Ludford accepted that he was involved in the unlawful killing. of Hackland.”

But judges granted an appeal to reduce the length of Sesay's sentence by 301 days – the time he had spent on remand – after the Court of Appeal heard the original trial judge had failed to “specify in his sentence the days of pre-trial detention to be respected”. counted as time served.”