Jodie Chesney: Teenagers convicted of stabbing Girl Scout to death in London park

Victim’s family erupt into cheers as guilty verdicts announced

The 17-year-old died after she was stabbed in the back by two males who had mistaken her for someone else (Metropolitan Police)

Two teenagers have been convicted of killing Jodie Chesney after the teenager was stabbed to death in a park in east London earlier this year.

Svenson Ong-a-Kwie, 19, and a 17-year-old boy who has not been named for legal reasons, were found guilty at the Old Bailey after less than six hours of deliberation from the jury.

Their co-defendants Manual Petrovic, 20, and a 16-year-old boy, were cleared of the same charge.

Members of Jodie’s family, including father Peter and sister Lucy, erupted with cheers and clenched their fists as the guilty verdicts were delivered.

The teenager was stabbed in the back in Amy’s Park in Harold Hill on 1 March – a matter of mistaken identity that made the popular student a victim of the “casual violence” of the drug-dealing world, the court heard.

She had been socialising with friends, smoking cannabis and listening to music shortly before she became another of the capital’s stabbing deaths on a year of deadly violence on the streets of London.

The 17-year-old died at the scene shortly after sustaining her injuries – including an 18cm stab wound she sustained that almost passed right through her body.

The murder weapon was never recovered.

Although the motive was unclear, the court was told how the defendants had been involved in numerous violent clashes as they fought to protect their turf.

Each of the four had denied being involved in Jodie’s death, with two blaming each other for the stabbing.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, of Scotland Yard, said Jodie’s murder was a tragedy that shocked the nation.

He added: “It could have been anybody’s daughter. She was a very nice girl, she had a small circle of friends, she did well at school, worked in the community, she was in the Scouts. She had been up to Downing Street. She was the girl next door.

“She was just an ordinary girl and that’s the tragedy. She was an ordinary girl going about her ordinary business and has fallen foul of these people.

“They have gone there purposefully to stab somebody and they have not cared who they stabbed. They stabbed a 17-year-old girl in the back for no reason.”

Giving evidence, Jodie’s boyfriend Eddie Coyle, 18, told how she collapsed in his arms in front of their horrified friends.

“She was in shock at first,” Mr Coyle said. “She started screaming continuously, very loud, about two minutes straight. After she stopped screaming she began to faint.”​

At first officers were unable to find any leads on what had occurred in the pitch-black park, with no motive and no CCTV footage to go with.

However the case was cracked when a motorist came forward to report Mr Petrovic’s Corsa in a road nearby.

In the coming days, police seized key CCTV and phone evidence linking Mr Petrovic to the rest of the defendants, who turned on each other at their Old Bailey trial.

The two killers will be sentenced on 18 November.