Three men who cornered a man in a Paddington cul-de-sac and stabbed him to death in a vicious premeditated attack have been jailed.
Steven Woods, 27, Majid Kebire, 22, and Fadel Dabbous, 19, all from Marylebone, were jailed at the Old Bailey on Tuesday for the murder of 28-year-old Adnan Saleh on June 11 last year.
All three were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Woods and Kebire ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years and Dabbous ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years.
The court heard that Snapchat messages were uncovered between the defendants sent a week before the attack alleging Adnan had been present when another man was stabbed.
The defendants and the stabbed man arranged to meet the victim in Paddington at 6.30pm where the trio carried out their planned attack.
As the group approached the cul-de-sac of Junction Mews, close to the Edgware Road, Woods and Dabbous walked ahead and entered the cul-de-sac.
CCTV captured the moment Dabbous passed Woods a knife. As the victim entered the mews, Woods produced the knife and swung it at him.
Adnan attempted to run back to nearby Sale Place but Woods caught up to him and launched an attack with Dabbous joining in.
The third defendant, Kebire, was sitting on a wall at the end of the Mews. As the fight developed, he got out a knife and provided the fatal stab wound to Adnan’s collar-bone area.
Adnan was eventually able to get away from his attackers and collapsed further along Sale Place. He was taken to hospital where doctors made numerous attempts to save his life.
However, he had suffered catastrophic damage to his brain due to severe blood loss and was in a coma until he died, five months later on November 29.
In a victim impact statement presented to the court, a relative said: "Adnan’s life wasn’t the only one that was lost that day, you’ve taken mine, his mother’s and his family’s life. We’ve begun our life sentence."
Detective Inspector Marcus Jones, the investigating officer in the case, said officers had never established the exact reason why the gang turned on Adnan. He said the “brutally violent encounter lasted just minutes but its impact will last a lifetime”.
“My thoughts are with Adnan’s family. It cannot be easy to listen to how these three men planned the last moment of their loved one’s life,” he added. “I hope that seeing these men jailed can provide some comfort.”
During an earlier court hearing Woods and Dabbous pleaded guilty to violent disorder and separate counts of having a knife. Kebire also pleaded guilty to having a knife.
