Four gang members who stabbed an innocent NHS worker to death outside a Nightingale Hospital in a ‘brutal attack’ are facing life sentences.
The group knifed David Gomoh at least nine times and he bled to death in front of his family, the Old Bailey was told.
The 24-year-old victim was chatting to his girlfriend on the phone when he was attacked by members of the Northside Newham gang in a move designed to send a message to their Custom House and Beckton rivals.
The killers drove to the scene in a stolen silver Dodge Caliber to ambush Mr Gomoh near the Covid-19 hospital at the ExCel centre in Canning Town, east London, on April 26 last year.
Mr Gomoh, who worked at St Bart's Hospital distributing PPE, managed to get to his feet and stumble the short distance to his home.
He died days before he was due to attend the funeral for his father, Ken Gomoh, who died after contracting coronavirus.
David Ture, 19, Mohammad Jalloh, 19, Vagnei Colubali, 23, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, were all unanimously found guilty of one count of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of murder by a jury.
The youngest defendant had to be told to ‘simmer down’ after trying to storm out of the dock when the verdict was reached.
CCTV footage showed the moment the car stopped beside Mr Gomoh and he began to run for his life.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow told the court Mr Gomoh’s girlfriend heard him being asked 'where are you from?' before hearing a struggle break out down the phone.
Mr Glasgow said: “The Dodge Caliber can be seen to be driving along behind him without its headlights on
“The reason for switching them off must have been to enable the car and the three knife-carrying defendants to sneak up on a potential target.
“That must have been all it took for David Gomoh to appreciate that he was in very real danger. The chase was clearly on at this point.”
The attack lasted a matter of seconds but Mr Gomoh 'was in effect a dead-man walking’ as he staggered to his house before collapsing and dying, the prosecutor said.
The gang had already made one attempt to attack an unidentified man prior to coming across Mr Gomoh but he got away.
Mr Glasgow said there was ‘rivalry, hatred, violence and death’ involved in gang conflicts in London but said Mr Gomoh had ‘nothing to do with this petty but fatal game of one-upmanship’ and ‘had no bad blood with anyone and...was ambitious to make something of himself’.
Mr Gomoh, a marketing graduate from South Bank University in London, lived with his mother and sister, who also worked for the NHS.
Investigators found a ‘storyboard cartoon’ depicting the murder at Ture’s home, the court heard, which ‘could have only been drawn by someone who was present at the attack'.
Each image illustrated a different stage of the attack beginning with four figures deciding to head to the 'opp block' - the south Newham gang's territory - and the clothing matched what was worn in CCTV captured at the scene.
In the penultimate image, a drawing of a figure can be seen lying on the ground in what is supposed to be a pool of blood.
The gang attempted to get away in the stolen car but one of the wheels came off and they had to walk back to the north side of Newham.
Describing the defendants, Mr Glasgow said: “A group of young men who have such low regard for the lives of others that they will attack a stranger in the street simply because they assume he is a rival given the area where he lives.”
Mr Gomoh suffered catastrophic injuries, including severed carotid and brachial arteries and his liver had been cut through.
Some of the wounds were as deep as 12.5cm and sliced into the bone.
Judge Mark Lucraft, the Recorder of London, has warned the group to expect life sentences when they are sentenced at a later date.
