‘Honeytrap’ killer who helped murder 16-year-old lured to death by girlfriend to be freed from prison after 13 years

Shakilus Townsend was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times after being ambushed by love rival’s gang in south London

Andre Thompson is to be released from prison 13 years after he was jailed for the ‘honeytrap’ murder of 16-year-old Shakilus Townsend (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A murderer who helped kill a 16-year-old boy after he was lured to his death by his girlfriend is to be freed from prison after more than a decade.

Andre Thompson, then 17, was jailed for his part in the 2008 “honeytrap” murder of Shakilus Townsend in Thornton Heath, south London.

Shakilus was lured to a quiet cul-de-sac by 15-year-old Samantha Joseph, where he was ambushed by love rival Danny McLean, 18, and five members of his gang, which included Thompson.

The teenager, who had been in a month-long relationship with Joseph behind the back of her older boyfriend McLean, was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times before he was left to die in the street.

As he lay bleeding to death, Shakilus, from Deptford, southeast London, called out for his mother and cried: “I don’t want to die.”

During the murder trial, a court heard how Shakilus was besotted with Joseph and told his mother he wanted to marry her, but she told friends she was just using him and treated him like “s***”.

Shakilus Townsend, 16, was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times by a love rival before he was left to die in the street (Metropolitan Police/PA)

While Joseph was happy for him to shower her with gifts, she was still obsessed with McLean.

He had dumped her when he found out about her relationship with Shakilus but she was prepared to do anything to get him back.

McLean told her: “If you still love me, will you set up Shak?” Joseph agreed.

CCTV footage from the day of the murder showed her wearing a see-through floral dress as she met Shakilus and took a bus with him.

He thought they were on their way to meet her cousin but in fact she was leading him to the ambush, secretly keeping in touch with McLean by mobile phone the entire time.

CCTV footage from the day of the murder showed Samantha Joseph wearing a ‘see-through’ floral dress as she met Shakilus and took a bus with him (Metropolitan Police/PA)

After the murder, Joseph was seen walking off with McLean, carrying his hoodie and a cream-coloured handbag stained with his blood from an injury sustained during the murderous melee.

McLean was ordered to serve a minimum 15 years’ detention.

Former public schoolboy and London Irish rugby player Andre Johnson-Haynes, 18, from Croydon, south London, brothers Tyrell Ellis, 19, and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, of Thornton Heath, together with Michael Akinfenwa, 18, from Norwood, were given minimum sentences of 12 years.

Joseph served a 10-year jail term before she was freed in 2019 and deported to her native Trinidad.

Samantha Joseph, then 15, lured of Shakilus Townsend, 16, to his death in Thornton Heath, south London in 2008 (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Thompson, from Norwood, southeast London, was given a minimum 14-year term for murder which was later reduced to 13 years and three months.

On Tuesday the Parole Board said Thompson, now 30, was suitable for release from prison.

In a summary of the decision, the board said it had looked at the risk factors that made him likely to offend at the time of the murder, which included “his way of life, his antisocial friends, his poor decision making, his difficulty in managing extreme emotions and his willingness to involve himself in violent behaviour”.

The panel said Thompson had undertaken programmes to work on his decision making and use of violence, and had completed courses on knife crime and gangs.

It revealed Thompson had been approved to be moved to an open prison in November 2019 – but was returned to a closed prison after he was arrested in December 2020 and later convicted for driving offences.

The board said it had been told of how Thompson had since “behaved well in prison” and there was “no furth work considered necessary for him to complete”.

Thompson will have to live at a specific address after his release and be of good behaviour, while strict restrictions will be placed on his contacts, movements, and activities.