Search: Seyi Ogunyemi murder
A 22-year-old man who repeatedly stabbed a teenage boy is facing life in jail after the first case in which new dog DNA technology was used in a murder prosecution.
Seyi Ogunyemi, 16, was stabbed to death in a "vicious" attack by a gang of youths said to have acted like a "pack of wild animals" as they set upon him and his friends.
The murder by Chrisdian Johnson, 22, was described in court as unique because dangerous dogs were used as weapons to savage their victims before they were knifed.
One of the animals, called Tyson, brought down and mauled slightly-built Seyi as he tried to escape from his pursuers over a fence. The boy stood no chance once he was in the dog's ferocious grip and was then stabbed six times by its owner Johnson.
Johnson was arrested as he fled from the scene of the murder last April, bare-chested and covered in blood.
New technology, used for the first time, proved by a billion-to-one probability that some of the blood came from his dog Tyson, which had been knifed during the melee. The rest was shown to come from the teenage murder victim. Police hailed the dog DNA technique, which had just been developed at the time of the murder, as a "hugely powerful investigative tool".
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Johnson, of Wyvil Road, south Lambeth, south London, who had been allowed to keep the dangerous dog only when a court imposed strict conditions on his ownership in late 2007, was on Thursday found guilty of murder. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of the victim's 17-year-old friend Hurui Hiyabu, said to have been lucky to survive after he was knifed nine times.
Johnson's brother Shane Johnson, 20, of the same address, was cleared of both charges. A third defendant, 18-year-old Darcy Menezes, of Studley Road, Clapham, south London, was cleared earlier during the trial.
The court heard that his dog, a female adult brindle Staffordshire terrier called Mia, also took part in the attack, but a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to show Menezes was involved. A decision on whether to destroy the dogs has not yet been made. The convictions come shortly after the Government announced new measures designed to tackle the problem of dogs being used as weapons.
Johnson was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday.
