Life in jail for killer snared by Louis Vuitton manbag

A drug dealer has been jailed for life for the “callous and cowardly” killing of a rival after being snared by his designer Louis Vuitton manbag.

Dualla Abdi, 21, failed to ditch the luxury accessory he was carrying when he fatally stabbed Tyreece Scott, 24, in Hounslow, west London, shortly before 1am last January 16.

Having disposed of his clothes after stabbing Mr Scott in the chest, he could not be parted with the valuable bag which helped to identify him, the Old Bailey heard.

Following a five-week trial, Abdi, from Acton, was found guilty of murder and having a blade, and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years on Thursday.

His accomplice and getaway driver Ben Laing, 24, from Feltham, was also found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years by Judge John Hillen KC.

He said: “The facts of the case bring to light yet again two crimes often overlapping that can properly be called a plague on society in general and this great city and its suburbs in particular – drug dealing and knife crime.”

“Yet again a judge has to sentence young men who took away the life of another young man with a knife,” he said.

“Nothing I can do or say can bring back Tyreece Scott. No sentence can place a value on his life.”

Mr Scott was “no angel” but had been “vulnerable and defenceless” when he was attacked and left to die “alone and scared”, he said.

The judge added: “We don’t know how or why and whether he would turn his life around. He had qualities that indicated that possibility – he was a young man who was caring and full of life.”

“He was not acting in an aggressive manner or posed a threat to you.”

At their Old Bailey sentencing, members of Mr Scott’s heartbroken family spoke of the young man they knew as kind, gentle and loyal, with “big hopes and dreams”.

His mother Lynette Phillip said she struggled to understand how and why her son was attacked in such an “evil, cold and callous” way.

She told the court: “Tyreece was 6ft 3in and despite his size he was the gentlest person I know. He was loving, kind, loyal and funny, and he had the most amazing cheeky smile.

“Ty was only 24 years old and he had his whole life ahead of him. He had so many dreams and aspirations.”

Pointing to a photograph of his coffin, she said: “This picture is the outcome of what carrying a knife leads to and the daily consequences of knife crime.

“I hope that one day no other person will have to feel the way I do and have to bury their child before their time because of callous and cowardly people like Dualla Abdi and Ben Laing.”

Addressing the defendants in the dock, grandmother Irma Phillip said: “Tyreece was a beautiful soul, full of kindness and love. He was a bright young man with a future full of promise who should have had the chance of outlive me, to grow and to thrive.

“But because of your senseless and cruel actions that future was taken from him, and from all of us who loved him so deeply.”

The court had heard how Abdi and Laing had driven up beside the victim and got out.

Abdi delivered the fatal blow but Laing was standing beside him, jurors were told.

Both men then got back in their car and Laing sped off, leaving Mr Scott bleeding to death on the residential street.

The pair fled to Morocco, only to be arrested at Stansted Airport days later on January 19 upon their return to the UK.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC had told jurors the background to the murder was linked to drug dealing and Mr Scott had been operating on rival territory.

She had said: “We will never know the precise reason why Tyreece Scott died that night. There is no evidence that he knew the other defendants or had met them before.

“Drug dealing is an ugly, competitive business in which dealers protect their ‘turf’ at any cost. It was Tyreece Scott’s exposure to that world which led to his murder.”

Evidence including CCTV, mobile phone data and a GPS tracker on the attacker’s hire car made a “compelling” case against the defendants, jurors were told.

At the time of the stabbing, Abdi was wearing a black hooded jacket with a “Trapstar” logo in white on the front of the jacket and a Louis Vuitton manbag with a distinctive buckle on the strap, jurors heard.

After the murder, Abdi dumped his outfit – except for the manbag, which became important in helping to identify him at the scene, Ms Johnson said.

Ms Johnson asserted that Abdi and Laing had worked as a team with a common purpose when Mr Scott was stabbed.

In his evidence, Laing claimed he had no knowledge that his co-defendant was going to stab Mr Scott and did not encourage or participate in any way.

In mitigation, his barrister Naeem Mian KC described him as an “immature idiot” who had gone into the witness box and told jurors “who did what”.

On his lack of previous convictions, Mr Mian said: “He has gone big right at the very beginning, according to the jury’s verdict. He will have to live with that.”

Abdi had a previous conviction for having a blade in 2022 and was in breach of his suspended sentence when he killed Mr Scott.

Reda Mohamed, 24, from Hounslow, west London, and Morgan Allen, 29, from Chertsey, Surrey, were convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Mohamed and Allen were each jailed for four-and-a-half years.