Secrets of a Murder Detective Episode 2 - Mother's Grief
Secrets of a Murder Detective Episode 2 - Mother's Grief
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00:00I'm Steve Keogh, a former Scotland Yard murdered detective inspector.
00:11I'm going to take you deep inside murder investigations.
00:15So he had 11 stab wounds to his body.
00:19We had no clue about who was responsible.
00:24Opening my contact book for the first time to reveal the secrets of what it really
00:29takes to be a murder detective.
00:33Your heart's in your mouth, you know, I was literally shaking.
00:40On the front line, exposing how we solve the most heinous of crimes.
00:48Depend of losing your son, it can wake you up.
00:54Welcome to Secrets of a Murder Detective.
01:06The murder of Champion Gander in May of 2013 was one of East London's most testing cases.
01:13I'm going to be meeting one of the senior officers on the case to discuss what really
01:16happened, the pressures, the setbacks and the methods they used to eventually bring
01:20a killer to justice.
01:25My name's Perry Benton, I'm a retired detective chief inspector.
01:29I retired from the Metropolitan Police Homicide Command.
01:33I've dealt with over 100 investigations, but this case will always stay with me.
01:37Perry, thanks for coming in.
01:39Hi Steve, nice to meet you again.
01:42Cheers.
01:43So the case we're talking about, what happened and what's your first knowledge of the case?
01:48I was a detective sergeant on one of the murder investigation teams.
01:51I was actually in the office on the day the murder occurred and I remember getting a phone
01:55call to say that there had been a stabbing outside a school in Forest Gate and that local
02:01officers had attended and they were treating two people.
02:04Emergency, which service?
02:07There were a number of 999 calls made, not only from the school where the incident happened,
02:13but there was a number of residents as well in the area, in the street where it happened,
02:17who called police and who had witnessed the incident.
02:20So straight away I knew obviously it was serious and so we had to deploy officers to the scene
02:25to try and find out initially what has gone on, whether there was any suspects, ultimately
02:30to try and preserve life and find out the sort of status of the two people that were
02:36stabbed.
02:38When your officers arrived at the scene, what information were they given about what had
02:44happened?
02:45We were initially told by local officers that there'd been an incident where two males
02:50had been involved in a fight with at least three males and that three males had run away.
02:56One of the victims had been stabbed in the buttocks and he was being described as a walking
03:02wounded person.
03:04The other person had suffered life-threatening injuries and was being treated by emergency
03:09services.
03:10Police officers who arrived at the scene quickly ascertained the names of the two boys
03:15that had been stabbed.
03:17The boy that was walking wounded was quickly identified as Shaquille Davis and he identified
03:21his friend who was seriously injured as Champion Gander.
03:26It was quite obvious early on that Champion had received a number of stab wounds to the
03:30right side of his body.
03:35I remember, yeah, it's just like it was yesterday.
03:42I remember it was a normal morning.
03:44My name is Peggy Kato, I'm Champion Gander's mum.
03:47Then I saw a phone call me, my daughter, telling me that mum, they stabbed Champion.
03:59Then I asked my daughter, where is he?
04:03She said that mum is in the forest, can't you stab him?
04:09I said to my daughter, then I'm coming.
04:12She said that mum is serious.
04:16I said, yes, I'm coming.
04:23The officers obviously had to treat Champion as best they could and they were trying to
04:27perform life-saving treatment whilst they were waiting for the paramedics to take over.
04:34It was horrendous because you had lots of people shouting, you had lots of people screaming,
04:38you had Shaquille walking around, not really engaging with the police officers who were
04:42trying to save the life of his friend.
04:48Then I was driving and she called me again.
04:51She said, mum, Champion passed away.
04:56Then I said, what do you mean that he passed away?
04:58Then she said, mum, he died.
05:02I said, what do you mean that he died?
05:05She said, mum, I said he died.
05:10I said to my daughter, I'm coming.
05:13The paramedics tried to do everything they could to save Champion's life but unfortunately,
05:18despite their best efforts, Champion passed away at the scene and it was very traumatic
05:24for everybody.
05:29And I said, no, he cannot die, thinking in my head that I have to go there because I
05:34know Champion, first he loved life, he loved me, he loved his brother and sister, he cannot
05:47die.
05:48Then I said I have to go, pray with him.
05:52Then he woke up.
05:55When I go there, I see the police in Catherine Road.
06:00I said to them that I'm Champion's mum, the police officer said to me that you cannot
06:04go there but I need to go see my son because Champion don't know how to pray.
06:11He need me, so we need to pray.
06:13Then they said to me that go to the police station and then one police officer will talk
06:18to you so they can tell you if he's your son or not.
06:23I said maybe he's not Champion.
06:28In my experience, it's really difficult when a family member turns up for a number of reasons.
06:33Often they want to be sure, they want to be able to see that in this instance it is Champion.
06:40Someone saying my son, my sister, my brother has died, I want to make sure, I want to see
06:45this for myself.
06:46And also as well, sometimes they just want to say goodbye and give a last cuddle or something
06:51which is completely understandable, isn't it?
06:53Yeah, it's absolutely heartbreaking but obviously you have to be very diplomatic, you have to
06:58explain to them the process and the procedures.
07:00We're just trying to preserve everything that we can to try and get the best outcome for
07:05the families which might then ultimately lead to justice.
07:11I went to the police station.
07:13They put me in the room and there were police officers that come.
07:17They said to me that, Mom, yes, he's your son, Champion.
07:23I still didn't believe it.
07:27But I remember I stand in the window and then I start to shout louder, Champion, Champion.
07:39Then I say, he cannot go.
07:42I say, God, I want my son.
07:44I want my son, I want Champion.
07:47Then I see screaming his name.
07:54Next consideration is preserving the crime scene and everything you want to do, you want
07:58to do it as quickly as possible.
07:59So you want to sort of preserve the scenes, preserve any forensic evidence which is crucial
08:03that might help you identify who's responsible.
08:05If you don't get there and evidence is lost, particularly maybe witnesses that are there
08:10or some kind of forensic evidence, you only get one chance at this, don't you?
08:15Yes, scene management is crucial to any investigation and that there were a number of witnesses
08:19nearby including people that worked at the school who were in shock at that time.
08:24What they saw was obviously very traumatic.
08:26They gave detailed descriptions and detailed accounts of what happened to the officers
08:30at the scene initially.
08:31What were they saying that they saw?
08:34So they were walking through the school playground at the time and they saw basically a coming
08:39together between two people that had come from one end of the road, of Sandringham Road,
08:44and a group of three that had come from the other end, and that there was a big fight
08:47between them.
08:49They saw weapons being used.
08:50They described belts being swung by both groups and then they saw the boys being stabbed basically.
09:02You didn't have a lot to go on at this stage.
09:05You were given some descriptions.
09:06What were they?
09:07They were described as black males.
09:09The clothing was quite generic.
09:11One of the things that stood out is that one of the potential persons was quite small compared
09:17to the other two.
09:18In those first sort of few hours, we had no sort of idea, no motive.
09:23We had no sort of clue about who was responsible.
09:30During a murder investigation, an officer will be designated as a family liaison officer.
09:36I'm actually a trained family liaison officer, so when I joined the murder command initially
09:40as a detective constable, I always wanted to help people, which is one of the reasons
09:44why I became a police officer.
09:46They are essentially the link between the victim's family and loved ones
09:51and the investigation team.
09:53So I met with Champion's mother and sister, Peggy and Jennifer, and the family, because
10:00obviously they had so many questions about why, you know, why the Champion had been killed.
10:05And it's heartbreaking to see because you just initially can't answer that question.
10:09In my head, he was just thinking what he can done wrong for someone to kill him.
10:18What he done to make them to do this to him.
10:22Why he deserve it?
10:23The job of the family liaison officer can be extremely difficult,
10:27particularly at the early stages where emotions and feelings are very raw.
10:32Champion was just a normal boy, like every young boys, and he was very funny.
10:43He had to do something just to make people laugh, and he was a happy boy, enjoy football.
10:56For him, he was thinking that it would be like Ronaldo, and he was dreaming to become a bigger.
11:04He always look after me, and when we go out, someone's look at me.
11:09Champion will look the person to make sure that why you look at my mom like this.
11:13So he was protecting, you know, he was also do the same thing with his friend.
11:19That's why he was protecting his friend.
11:21You know, he was also do the same thing with his friend.
11:25That's why I never understand.
11:27He was very young, but this is the way Champion was.
11:31A huge part of the murder investigation team is building up a picture of your victim.
11:35What did you learn about Champion?
11:37So we learned that Champion was very much into his music,
11:40and he'd released some music out into social media.
11:44I also know that he was involved in football,
11:46and I believe he was at Arsenal Academy when he was younger.
11:49Champion was, say, a very much loved son, and, you know,
11:53initially, we could not identify kind of any motive of why anyone would want to kill him.
12:04In any murder investigation, victimology is crucial.
12:08An understanding of a victim's lifestyle, their habits,
12:12the people that they associate with, their friends, their enemies.
12:17Do they commit crime?
12:18Do they owe money to anybody?
12:20All factors that may lead into a motive for a murder.
12:24And it will be the job of the family liaison officer
12:26to try and extract that information from the family.
12:34Champion, I didn't see him for one month before he passed away.
12:39He was living with my mum because when Champion was 16,
12:44he had a stamp on his leg in Homford, so near my house here.
12:50There was some boy, he wanted to beat his friends,
12:54and they ran, and he may come back to fight this person
12:59because he didn't want to leave his friends beat up with this boy.
13:03Me, I'm thinking that it was dangerous for him to live in my house.
13:08I said that he have to go to my mum for a short time,
13:11so these people are not going to attack him again.
13:16But I spoke to him one week before he died.
13:20I remember Champion all the time when we talk on the phone.
13:24When I say, I say, I love you, he never say anything.
13:28When I say, Champion, I love you, he say anything.
13:31But one week before he died, I said to him that I love you.
13:34He say, I love you too, mum.
13:36There's nothing you can do that will ever take away the pain
13:39that they're suffering, and it is heartbreaking,
13:41and it's something that will always stay with you.
13:44And, you know, you try not to let it affect you,
13:47but of course it affects you.
13:48Like I say, you wouldn't be human if it didn't affect you.
13:55Is there anything that Peggy could do to help with the investigation?
13:59Yeah, so obviously one of the biggest factors for me
14:02in that initial investigation and for the team
14:04was that, you know, Shaquille was crucial.
14:07You know, he was present.
14:09We believed that he had vital information about who was responsible.
14:28He was really reluctant to speak.
14:31And it was really frustrating because you'd think that
14:35he'd just witnessed his friend being stabbed and killed.
14:38So you'd like to think he'd want to help the investigation,
14:41but he was very, very difficult to deal with from that initial outcome.
14:45He just refused to give any sort of detailed account of what had happened.
14:48That's really frustrating, isn't it?
14:50It was incredibly frustrating because all we're trying to do
14:53is find out who's responsible and why, and get justice for the family.
14:57You know, we came up against a wall of silence in this case.
15:05We had to keep an open mind about the potential motives,
15:21but certainly one line of inquiry was potentially this being gang-related.
15:27We know that from sort of information and intelligence that we had
15:30that Shaquille was linked to a local gang called the Blood City Gang.
15:34Whether Champion was the intended target,
15:36or whether it was actually meant to be Shaquille was more the intended target,
15:40all these sort of factors were being considered by the team at the time.
15:47So your team are under pressure to identify who it was that stabbed and killed Champion.
15:53One of the processes that your officers and the crime scene manager over there
15:57would have done would be to look at the scene and see if there's anything within it
16:02that through forensics, whether blood or DNA has been left by a suspect,
16:07could be taken away, sent to a laboratory,
16:09and examined for anything that could give clues to who did this.
16:14Was there anything in that scene that that happened to?
16:18There was a number of swaps of blood from the actual crime scene,
16:20but then there was also a piece of belt buckle that was found at the scene.
16:25We didn't know at that stage whether it was from the victims,
16:28from Champion or Shaquille, or whether it belonged to one of the suspects,
16:32and that was recovered from the scene.
16:34It could have been left by anybody.
16:41In modern-day murder investigations, especially a built-up area like London,
16:45CCTV is going to play a key role.
16:48What was the CCTV picture in this case?
16:51So in this investigation, the initial CCTV parameters were around the school,
16:56and so the footage was viewed,
16:57and it actually did capture the incident in pretty much the entirety.
17:01It showed that Champion and Shaquille were coming in one direction down the road,
17:08and three others came from the opposite direction,
17:12and ultimately they saw each other,
17:14and the CCTV shows that they're kind of taunting each other.
17:18There's a bit of gesticulation,
17:20but then Champion and Shaquille kind of turn away to walk away,
17:24and they walk away a short distance, being followed by one of them else.
17:28Unfortunately, then Shaquille decided to turn around
17:31and go back to confront the group,
17:33and then Champion obviously goes back with him,
17:35and that's when the CCTV shows a fight between the two groups.
17:40It shows a belt being swung.
17:43It shows sort of punches being thrown,
17:46and footage behind a vehicle where it shows Champion is being stabbed repeatedly.
17:54You could see the movements, but unfortunately,
17:57the quality of the CCTV was not sort of sufficient
18:00to help identify individuals at that time.
18:04That must be a bittersweet moment.
18:05On one hand, you've captured it,
18:07which is, as a murder investigator, that's what you're looking for,
18:11but on the other hand, it's not quite good enough to be able to say who's who.
18:15Again, it was another frustrating element to this investigation.
18:18In any murder, a cause of death is really important, isn't it?
18:23And that's going to be achieved by holding a post-mortem examination.
18:28How did that go?
18:29The cause of death is vital to any homicide
18:31because you have to prove the cause of death was a homicide.
18:35So he had 11 stab wounds to his body,
18:39mainly on the right side, which caused his lungs to collapse.
18:42Some of the stab wounds actually made him unable to breathe.
18:46Some of the stab wounds actually chipped the bone in Champion,
18:49which actually shows the ferocity of the person
18:52that actually stabbed him a number of times.
18:54That's a horrible amount for anyone to suffer,
18:57and that's what makes, you know,
19:00almost like the determination of the team even more so.
19:08We wanted to appeal to any members of the public that had information,
19:11and so the DCI at the time made a public appeal for information.
19:17We were then contacted by a schools officer
19:20to say that a local schoolboy had come forward
19:23to say that they were in a local KFC
19:27shortly after the murder, in the afternoon,
19:29about half-past four in the afternoon,
19:31and he overheard a group of males coming to the KFC
19:36and then talk about stabbing somebody and the knife being bloody.
19:41So you dispatched officers to KFC to obtain their CCTV?
19:46Yes. What did that show?
19:48It showed a number of individuals in KFC,
19:53which, you know, loosely kind of matched the description
19:56of what the witnesses had described people being involved in the murder.
20:00So the officers that were reviewing the CCTV footage from the KFC
20:05then managed to track back in the local area
20:09the movements of these individuals,
20:11and what it then showed is that shortly before the murder,
20:16three males were seen approaching a nearby taxi company on the same road,
20:19getting into a nearby taxi
20:21and driving in the area towards Forest Gate Police Station.
20:24The officers spent painstaking hours
20:27reviewing all that footage,
20:29tracking that taxi to see its movements,
20:32to see where it had gone,
20:34and trying to sort of see how it would have come,
20:37either in contact with Champion and Shaquille.
20:39So at this point in time, we had three pieces of crucial CCTV footage
20:43from the school itself, from the KFC,
20:46and from nearby to the taxi company.
20:50I'm Ashley Windsor, Forensic Image Analyst and Expert Witness.
20:57We then had to request the use of a CCTV expert
21:00to provide sort of a comparison analysis
21:03to help show that all the people, all the detectives,
21:07all the different clips of footage were the same three people in all of those clips.
21:11So I was presented with a limited set of video clips in different formats.
21:17I had two sets of footage that were suitable
21:21for carrying out identification through facial comparison.
21:27However, the rest of the footage was pretty poor.
21:31In fact, it was impossible to carry out any facial identification
21:35on any of the other footage.
21:37But what it did have were a number of figures
21:41moving together through different camera views.
21:46And finally, a number of figures who got together at the scene of the incident.
21:52So this was more of a tracking exercise.
21:55Could I follow these three people and be confident
21:58that I was finding the same three people in different sets of footage?
22:03You have to look at the entire package of the person
22:07which includes their build, their relative height to other persons.
22:13Are they taller than other persons?
22:16Are they shorter than other persons around them?
22:20I managed to find some fine detail on the jacket of one individual
22:25and he was the shortest individual.
22:27This would indicate that this person is the same build,
22:31wearing the same clothes as the person I've recognised.
22:35And in my opinion, there was strong image support.
22:39It's the same person.
22:45Perry Benton and his team would have been getting
22:48a huge amount of information coming into their investigation.
22:52And the best way in order to deal with this and make sense of it
22:56is to put it onto a timeline,
22:58to chronologically lay out the information,
23:01to see how events unfolded and how they relate to each other.
23:11When the officers tracked these three males
23:14going into the taxi office to order a taxi, that was like a huge moment.
23:19But for us, then the priority was to try and locate that taxi.
23:23The forensic value of that taxi was enormous.
23:26So from the CCTV investigation that was being conducted
23:31and what we were able to show is that the taxi
23:34actually drove past Champion and Shaquille at one point
23:37in one of the residential streets.
23:42And so because of that almost chance meeting,
23:46Champion and Shaquille were seen by the people in the taxi.
23:50The taxi then carried on driving past Champion and Shaquille.
23:53It stopped in a nearby residential street.
23:55Three males are seen to get out of the taxi and go back a couple of streets
24:00where they then confront Champion and Shaquille.
24:04During some murder investigations,
24:06the use of police intelligence may be vital
24:09in identifying those involved in a murder.
24:13The methods used might include the use of police informants,
24:17crime stoppers and various covert methods available to police.
24:23We then received some intelligence indicating that a boy called Armani Lynch
24:29and a boy called Marvin Simos were involved.
24:31And so they quickly became sort of focused for the investigation
24:35to try and identify where they were.
24:37We conducted some inquiries regarding the taxi company
24:40and managed to identify the driver and recover the taxi.
24:44When we conducted a forensic examination of the taxi,
24:48we managed to recover three men.
24:52We managed to recover fingerprints linking Armani Lynch to the taxi.
24:57There was also a sample of blood from the rear seat of the taxi,
25:00which was submitted for a forensic examination.
25:03At the same time, we then received the results back from the lab
25:07regarding the belt buckle, which gave us a partial DNA profile
25:12indicating that the contributor was mainly Marvin Simos.
25:16We were confident that Armani Lynch and Marvin Simos
25:19were two of the three that were involved
25:20and it was our job now to find the third person.
25:32So now your investigation is really gathering apace.
25:35Identifying the taxi in the case was absolutely monumental.
25:38It was all game changing.
25:40We then managed to get that forensic breakthrough
25:42naming Devoncy Clifford as being the person
25:45whose blood was found in the back of the taxi.
25:49And that was huge for the investigation team
25:51because it now gave us a name of that third person.
25:53You know, Devoncy Clifford was the third person involved.
26:01You've got three names, Simos, Clifford and Lynch.
26:05What now would be important is building up
26:07an intelligence picture of those three people.
26:10What did that show you?
26:12Well, that showed us that Armani Lynch and Marvin Simos
26:15were heavily linked to the Custom House gang
26:18who were from Newham
26:20and that also they were associated to Devoncy Clifford.
26:24He wasn't as well known to the police
26:26at that time as they were.
26:28So we conducted a manhunt inquiry to try and locate them.
26:34We established quite early that Devoncy Clifford
26:38fled the UK shortly after the murder
26:40and travelled to St Lucia.
26:42So manhunts can be quick or they can take a long time.
26:46How long did it take for you to find
26:47the first of these individuals?
26:49So Lynch was found hiding on the 14th of May,
26:52so within five days of the murder and he was arrested.
26:56And then the manhunt team were looking for Simos
27:00and they found him a week or so later
27:03hiding at an address in Sussex.
27:06When Lynch and Simos were arrested
27:09and held at the police station and interviewed,
27:11did they say anything to you?
27:13No, they had legal representation
27:15during the interview process,
27:16but they both declined to answer any questions
27:19and made no comment.
27:24As information is coming in,
27:26is there anything that was telling you
27:27what could have been a motive for Champion's murder?
27:30So as a result of our research into the investigation,
27:33we identified that there'd been a stabbing
27:35three days before the murder of Champion,
27:37which Shaquille Davis was allegedly involved in.
27:40And we think that was then the backstory
27:41and the motive behind this,
27:43and that Lynch, Simos and Clifford
27:46then sought retribution for that earlier incident.
27:49When we started to look into these individuals' backgrounds,
27:53they were members of a custom house gang
27:55who actually in turn were rivals to the Blood City gang,
27:57which Shaquille was connected with.
28:12When they come, they come with Champion's body,
28:17so we can go to the church just to see the car.
28:24It was so hard.
28:33It was so difficult, so difficult.
28:38Everyone was there.
28:40It was a big funeral.
28:42I never see so many people like that.
28:44There was so many young people,
28:46many Congolese people,
28:51many, some people from Champion's school,
28:54the teachers,
28:57even from the college.
29:00So many people, so many friends.
29:05I remember when we finished the funeral,
29:10we have to come back home.
29:12My kids have to go back to school.
29:15My house was so dark.
29:17Everything was just like electricity cut off in the house,
29:21so we was not talking a lot.
29:25I was crying by myself.
29:29The pain of losing your son,
29:33it can wake you up.
29:36The pain is so strong, you can sleep,
29:39and the pain will wake you up,
29:40and you feel like your heart is getting in pieces.
29:52So you have two arrested quite early,
29:56but Clifford is in St. Lucia,
29:59and that clearly adds a layer of complication
30:03to your investigation.
30:05What did you do?
30:06How did you go about trying to extradite him back to the UK?
30:10So there had never been a UK extradition with St. Lucia before.
30:14So one of the things we had to closely do
30:16is form a good close working relationship
30:18with the Crown Prosecution Service.
30:19It has to be also what they call trial ready
30:22before you can extradite somebody back to the UK.
30:25So in other words,
30:26the whole of the investigation has to be as complete as possible.
30:30It was very frustrating for the family,
30:32and we had many, many conversations with the family
30:34that the team were doing everything they could
30:36to get justice for them.
30:38You know, because of that,
30:39and because of obviously the challenges
30:41in the investigation as a whole,
30:43Lynch and Simos were released on bail
30:46because we just didn't have the evidence
30:48to charge them initially.
30:55And it was so difficult,
30:57and there was no answer.
30:59There were so many questions, but there was no answer.
31:02And no one didn't say anything to me.
31:04Shakir never said anything to me.
31:07The police didn't have enough to say to me
31:11because he was still doing investigation.
31:19How long did it take before you got a decision
31:21on whether or not they were going to charge?
31:23It took almost two years of lengthy investigation.
31:28When we finally got that authority to charge
31:32from the Crown Prosecution Service,
31:34from the reviewing lawyer,
31:35and from the council,
31:37it was just, you know,
31:42it was really emotional.
31:43It was one of those moments
31:45where, you know, the team had worked so long,
31:48and, you know, they were vindicated
31:50with the hard work of the team.
31:53So, yeah, it was a great feeling,
31:56but we knew that there was a lot of hard work still to come.
32:05Perry Benton was a very experienced murder investigator
32:08with over 17 years of investigating murders.
32:11And in that time,
32:13the investigation into Champion Gander's death
32:16was the longest investigation he had been involved in.
32:20And that journey would be one taken by the family too.
32:23And it was a journey of frustration,
32:26ups and downs, probably more downs than ups.
32:29And those fears that,
32:32actually, we're not going to get justice for our son or our brother,
32:36fears that those that have committed it
32:38are going to walk away scot-free
32:40would have been in their mind throughout.
32:47On the 15th of December,
32:49Armani Lynch was finally charged
32:50with the murder of Champion Gander
32:52and the attempted murder of Shaquille Davis.
32:58Marvin Simos was subsequently charged after that,
33:01and they were both then held in custody awaiting trial.
33:04So they were going to go to trial now
33:07and stand trial for the murder of Champion.
33:11But at the same time, in St Lucia,
33:15there was a third person.
33:17Now, that can cause a complication, can't it?
33:20If you go to trial,
33:21you've got multiple people involved in an event
33:24and one of them isn't there.
33:25Yeah, so for us as an investigation team,
33:28it was certainly concerning
33:30because we were worried that if we had a trial
33:33with just Lynch and Simos,
33:34that they could potentially blame the third person
33:37and say it wasn't us, it was him.
33:39And then subsequently,
33:40if we ever then extradited Clifford back to the UK,
33:43that when he came back to the UK and stood trial,
33:46he would then blame the other two and say,
33:48it wasn't me, it was the other two.
33:49And that's why, like I say,
33:50we press the St Lucia authorities
33:52to try and arrange for that extradition
33:53to be done as soon as possible.
33:55And I think it's only when they realise the urgency
33:57of the need to bring Clifford back to the UK
34:01is when they finally granted
34:03their first ever UK extradition from St Lucia.
34:09There must have been a huge release for the team.
34:11It was a monumental occasion
34:12when I got a phone call early in the morning
34:14to say that he'd been arrested out in St Lucia.
34:17And we then liaised with the Met Police extradition team
34:21who then travelled out to St Lucia
34:24and liaised with the local authorities there
34:26and brought him back to the UK
34:28where he was then arrested at the UK airport.
34:38When they picked up this boy from St Lucia,
34:40they contacted me.
34:42They said to me, Peggy, we have the boy back in UK now,
34:46which I was so happy.
34:48So the original trial date for Lynch and Simos
34:50was postponed whilst Clifford was brought back to the UK.
34:55So now you're going to go to trial
34:56with all three standing in the box together?
34:59Yes.
35:03When Perry and his team
35:04were first assigned this murder investigation,
35:08little did they know how challenging it was going to be.
35:12These challenges would have made this investigation
35:16really, really hard on the team.
35:18It would have been draining.
35:20It would have been emotional.
35:21How long actually did it take to get to this point
35:24from the day Champion was murdered
35:27to actually the start of the first trial?
35:29It was just about three years in total.
35:32So by the time they get to court,
35:34it would have been a relief.
35:36But at the same time,
35:37they knew the challenge was only just starting.
35:39Getting somebody to court is one thing.
35:41Getting them convicted is something else.
35:47It's the first day of the trial.
35:49How are you going to get to court?
35:51How are you feeling now?
35:53Really nervous,
35:55but also relieved that we'd got to that point.
35:58But you don't know what the defence are going to do.
36:00You know from experience,
36:02the defence are going to use every trick in the book
36:05to try and get their client off.
36:07What sort of defence did they each put across?
36:09When Simos gave evidence,
36:11he said that basically he would talk about himself
36:15and talk about his actions on that day.
36:17He denied stabbing anyone.
36:21He admitted being present at the scene.
36:23He actually finally admitted
36:24that the belt buckle was his belt buckle,
36:27which was a eureka moment
36:28because at that time,
36:30the police only had a partial DNA,
36:32but he finally admitted it was his belt buckle.
36:36He was not prepared to talk about what Lynch
36:38or what Cliff had done.
36:40Lynch was very arrogant throughout the whole trial.
36:43He claimed that he wasn't present at the scene.
36:48Simos and Lynch, they was laughing.
36:53They was laughing.
36:55Even I remember one day, Corona,
36:58he was explaining the way champion has been stabbed.
37:01This boy was laughing.
37:04He was so awful.
37:07And Lynch, you can see this boy have like
37:14no emotion, no regrets.
37:18He was so proud.
37:21He didn't have no sympathy, no love.
37:25Armani Lynch during the trial was,
37:27you know, his behavior was horrendous.
37:29He'd even on one occasion got associates to come to court
37:33and be in a public gallery to intimidate Devontae Clifford
37:36before Devontae Clifford was due to give evidence.
37:39We had to then put special measures in at the court
37:42to protect the public gallery.
37:44So when Devontae Clifford finally gave evidence,
37:49he was the kind of first person to admit
37:53that the stabber was Armani Lynch.
37:55And he actually said it was Armani
37:56that had stabbed champion.
37:58And he said that, yes, he was involved in the fight,
38:01but he was defending himself
38:04and that he accepted that he had champion
38:06in a headlock at one point,
38:07but it was actually Armani that came around
38:09and then stabbed champion and Shaquille.
38:12It was a real turning point
38:15and it corroborated what we suspected and what we believed.
38:19Lynch, Simos and Clifford were in a taxi
38:23going to Forest Gate Police Station
38:25because Simos had to sign on at the police station
38:28because he had bail conditions
38:30for previous unrelated matters that he was on bail.
38:32And it was the fact that they were in a taxi
38:35and they actually drove past champion Shaquille
38:39made actually this incident unfortunately happen.
38:41And if they hadn't seen them as they went past in the taxi,
38:44then this would never have happened
38:45and champion would have been alive.
38:46But it was certainly gang rivalry
38:48that was playing a part in this unfortunate murder.
38:54Every day I was going to the court,
38:55I was saying to him, oh, I'm not going.
38:58Because all the time I was going to the court, I was sick.
39:01And the next day I said, I'm not gonna go.
39:03But when he's coming the next day,
39:04you're thinking if I'm not going,
39:06champion will be sad
39:08because I want to be there for him.
39:10I didn't want him to be there by himself.
39:13So I said, I have to go.
39:14Then I have to go again.
39:15Then I have to go again.
39:21During the course of many murder investigations,
39:24what will quite often happen is
39:26an application from defense or the judge themselves
39:29may decide to add an extra indictment of manslaughter.
39:32Did that happen in this case?
39:34So yeah, once the evidence was near the conclusion,
39:37the trial judge, Wendy Joseph,
39:40decided that when the jury would go out
39:42to consider their verdict,
39:44that she would then give them an extra indictment
39:48to consider being manslaughter.
39:50If they didn't think it was a murder case,
39:53that they could still convict somebody of manslaughter.
39:55Now for murder, you have to have the intention
39:57to kill or cause really serious harm.
40:00And as far as the prosecution case was,
40:03this was a case of murder all day long.
40:07Champion had been stabbed 11 times.
40:10That meant somebody had intended to cause
40:12at the very least serious harm,
40:14if not intended to kill.
40:20There comes a time at any trial
40:22where the jury have to retire and make their decision.
40:25And you're now reliant on these 12 members of the public
40:28to make their mind up about
40:30what should happen to the defendants.
40:32How long did they go out to do deliberations?
40:36The jury were out for a couple of days
40:39and it is one of the most stressful times
40:40of any criminal trial.
40:42Everybody shuffles into the court, sits down
40:45and you sat there and you're waiting for the verdict.
40:48So you're there now, what are you thinking?
40:51Your heart's in your mouth.
40:52You know, I was literally shaking
40:55because it had been three years
40:58of hard work by the team, of dedication
41:02and you're now literally waiting for those jury members
41:05to come back.
41:05You hope you've done enough,
41:07you believe you've done enough,
41:09but you just never know.
41:14So the court usher will say to the jury,
41:16foreman, foreperson,
41:18have you reached a decision at which you all agree?
41:21They would have said yes.
41:23What happened then?
41:35The juries found Marvin Simons not guilty
41:38of murder or manslaughter
41:42and they found Devonte Clifford
41:43not guilty of murder and manslaughter.
41:47But for Armani Lynch,
41:48they found him guilty of manslaughter.
41:55Not guilty of murder?
41:56And not guilty of murder.
42:01How does that feel?
42:05Your heart sinks to a degree.
42:09Whilst you have to respect the jury's decision,
42:13you know, as a team,
42:15when you put so much work into proving
42:18all three were at the scene,
42:19they were all involved in the attack
42:22and the fighting with Champion and Shaquille,
42:25it's hard to comprehend how the jury would see that
42:30if you stab someone 11 times,
42:32how that could be manslaughter.
42:35The jury to decide that it was a manslaughter,
42:40which I don't understand.
42:42Manslaughter to stab someone 11 times,
42:45for me, is not correct.
42:50So we have to respect the jury's decision,
42:52but it was heartbreaking that Lynch
42:54was only convicted of manslaughter.
42:57He was then subsequently sentenced to 14 years.
42:59It meant that he would be off the streets
43:01for a number of years,
43:02that the streets of London would be safer
43:04without him,
43:05but it didn't feel like justice for the family.
43:08It felt like he'd got away with it,
43:10and that's really hard to take.
43:15It's something I'll never understand it,
43:17because this boy, when he come out,
43:19he's gonna kill again.
43:21He's a killer.
43:23Sometimes you can read into the sentence
43:26passed by a judge,
43:2714 years for manslaughter of a juvenile.
43:31That's quite a substantial sentence,
43:33and for me,
43:34reflects that this was on the upper end
43:38of the scale of manslaughter.
43:40This was as close to murder as any trial
43:43and any investigation will ever be.
43:50So I believe this was a chance encounter,
43:54and that Champion was basically in the wrong place
43:56at the wrong time.
43:58He went to help his friend,
43:59who decided to confront these three individuals,
44:02and paid the ultimate sacrifice for that.
44:06And it must have been a terrifying moment
44:08for Champion, his last few moments,
44:11to be stabbed 11 times in those circumstances.
44:15I can't even begin to imagine,
44:16I can't even begin to think of the trauma
44:18that he was feeling in those last few seconds,
44:22as his life ebbed away.
44:24It doesn't even bear thinking about.
44:26As a father of three myself,
44:29I can't even begin to comprehend
44:32how you would even start to get over something.
44:34And so I have so much admiration for Peggy.
45:02And it was heartbreaking to see, you know,
45:06how the three years had impacted Champion's family,
45:10and, you know, the devastation
45:12that Lynch caused that family.
45:14It's something that I'll never, ever forget.