Gang leader responsible for two revenge murders locked up for at least 36 years

Kacem Mokrane was fatally stabbed in November 2017 and Joseph Williams-Torres was shot dead in March 2018.

Kacem Mokrane was fatally stabbed in Walthamstow, east London, in November 2017 (Metropolitan Police/PA) (PA Archive)

The leader of notorious street gang Mali Boys, who killed two young men to avenge the death of his friend, has been jailed for at least 36 years.

On November 16 2017, Hamza Ul Haq planned and executed the fatal group stabbing of 18-year-old Kacem Mokrane in Walthamstow, east London.

Afterwards, Ul-Haq fled to Pakistan, where he stayed for four months.

Five days after his return, he and two others were involved in the mistaken identity murder of 20-year-old Joseph Williams-Torres, who was shot dead as he sat in a van with a friend in March 2018.

Both killings were in revenge for the murder of Ul Haq’s 17-year-old friend, Elijah Dornelly, in May 2017.

The murderers were associated with the Mali Boys gang, which had been engaged in a bloody feud with the neighbouring Priory Court or Higham Hill gang in Walthamstow.

In 2020, Ul Haq was found guilty of Mr Williams-Torres’s murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years.

In May 2023, he was convicted of Mr Mokrane’s murder alongside Abdirisak Ali, 26, Luca Griffiths, 21, and Kamil Kazmierski, 23.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Judge Angela Rafferty jailed the three men for life.

She told Ul Haq he had played a “pivotal role” in planning the murder and had been recorded vowing revenge after being targeted in an acid attack two days earlier.

She handed him a minimum term of 36 years to take account of the subsequent killing.

She told him: “I cannot send you to prison for the whole of your life because the law does not allow it.

“You may never be released if the Parole Board decide it is not safe to do so.”

Ali was told he would have to spend at least 17 years in jail, Griffiths was sentenced to 14 years and four months, and Kazmierski was given 16 years.

The judge said the killing of Mr Mokrane came amid a “bloody and vengeful feud between gangs” and involved significant planning and the use of “horrific knives” being openly brandished.

She recognised the impact on the victim’s family, who no longer feel safe in their community and are “tortured” and “traumatised” by what Mr Mokrane must have felt as he was eviscerated in the street.

In a victim impact statement read to the court previously, Mr Mokrane’s grandmother, Marlene Sutton, raised concern over the delay in seeing justice for her grandson and the start of the healing process.

She said: “The family have waited over five years for Kacem’s murderers to be brought to court, where the family have had to go through the whole event again due to these animals denying their guilt or making excuses for the part they played in Kacem’s murder.

“There are those in this pack who went on to commit further criminal activities and even another murder, identifying that they were out of control and dangerous.”

Mr Mokrane was described by his family as a “big personality”, who had been enjoying an apprenticeship at Thamesmead football club and had ambitions to become a professional footballer.

The court was told the immediate trigger for his “revenge murder” was the acid attack on Ul Haq and others in Subway and Downtown Pizza in St James Street, Walthamstow, two days earlier.

Mr Mokrane had pizza and told his mother he loved her before leaving his home on the evening of the attack.

Two cars pulled up and 10 males got out and chased him down the road.

Ul Haq was leading the chase with attackers waving knives, including a “Zombie flasher” or “pirate” knife, the court was told.

In just 25 seconds, Mr Mokrane was surrounded, pushed up against a wall and suffered serious injuries including an eviscerated bowel and stab wound to the leg. He died four days later.

Jurors were told that that incident happened amid a “series of violent retaliatory attacks” between rival territorial gangs the Mali Boys, with whom the 10 attackers were associated, and the Priory Court/Higham Hill gang.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC told jurors: “Their eagerness to exact their swift revenge typically resulted in either the careless mistaken identification of their specific target, or else in acts of indiscriminate violence against any member of a rival grouping.”

Detective Inspector Ben Dalloway, of Scotland Yard, said: “Kacem – who had just left home with a slice of pizza after telling his mother he loved her – stood absolutely no chance when he was ambushed by the defendants who ran at him in possession of knives and other weapons.

“Kacem’s family have had to deal with losing him following a senseless attack, and have then had to live through this trial.

“I am pleased with the verdict and sentences handed down, and hope they demonstrate the Met’s dedication to tackling knife crime – no matter the time that has passed – and ensuring justice is served.

“Let this be a warning to those young men involved in this type of lifestyle that it rarely ends well.”