The Justice Gap in Tooting

The killers of Ekram Haque; Leon Elcock and Hamza Lyzai and their victim in hospital

There is widespread disbelief and anger in the UK about the message given to society by the sentences passed on three London teenagers who attacked a man leaving a mosque with his three year old daughter. It was called a “happy slapping” attack and resulted in the death of the pensioner who was attacked “for fun.” Local MP Sadiq Khan has described the sentences as “truly shocking”, a sentiment which is widely felt.

Shocking footage shows a man dying in the street after a “happy slapping” attack as his bewildered granddaughter stands by his side. CCTV footage released today shows 67-year-old Ekram Haque lying flat on his back as his hooded attackers aged 14 and 15 flee. They ran up behind and felled him with a powerful blow for the fun of it. Ekram Haque, a retired care worker, was standing outside the local mosque in Tooting in August last year. He had been there to pray because it was the Holy month of Ramadan. Hospital doctors turned his life support machine off a week later.

A judge ordered that the boys, previously granted anonymity because of their age, be named and shamed. Leon Elcock and Hamza Lyzai struck as Mr Haque waited with three-year-old Marian outside the Idara-e-Jafferiya mosque in Church Lane, Tooting, last August 2009.


Ekram Haque and his grand-daughter Marian

In the film she is seen playing at a railing under his watchful eye when the thugs, who had filmed previous attacks on a mobile phone, attack. The girl goes to his side, falls to her knees, her hand pushed out across his chest towards his face as if pleading with her grandfather to get up and show he is all right. A man in white robes, believed to be Mr Haque's son Arfan, rushes out of the mosque and takes the little girl inside before phoning for help. Elcock was on bail for an attack on an elderly Asian couple at the time.

Judge Martin Stephens told them: “You committed a series of very serious, cowardly, deeply unpleasant offences against elderly and vulnerable men and women. The attacks were entirely gratuitous and done without thought for your victims. Some of the attacks carried out on earlier occasions, although not of the same seriousness, were filmed by you as part of what you saw as fun. As a result of your so-called bit of fun, Mr Haque was deprived of a full and content life and his family were deprived of a devoted, inspiring and beloved father and a grandfather.” Three teenagers were originally charged with the murder of Mr Haque but lawyers accepted pleas to lesser offences after consulting the victim's family. Elcock, now 16, and Lyzai, 15, both from Tooting, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Elcock was sentenced to four and a half years and Lyzai to three and a half. With time served already, Elcock could be free in 18 months while Lyzai could be out in just over a year. The charge against a third defendant, who was 14, will lie on the file. He was sentenced to six months detention for two other attacks.

The judge said his powers of sentence in relation to the assaults were “very limited” because of the defendants' ages. He lifted restrictions on naming Elcock and Lyzai as a warning to others “who may be tempted to indulge in such appalling behaviour”. Outside the Old Bailey, Arfan Haque was furious that Elcock had been let out on bail after a previous attack, saying: “The Crown Prosecution Service needs to buck up their ideas, because they are being bailed and just walking free. My father is dead, it's just a disgrace.”

Lawyers for the “happy slap” gang claimed they were simply bored teenagers craving entertainment. Oliver Blunt QC told the court: “They are young, bored, listless youths who sought entertainment in this extremely unpleasant and distorted fashion.” Throughout the Old Bailey case the three defendants did not show a flicker of remorse, sitting impassively as they watched the sickening violence on CCTV film. Leon Elcock, the oldest of the three and the gang leader, was said to recruit his “foot soldiers” with the same ruthless intimidation he showed his victims. He shares a council house in Tooting with his mother and five siblings. A serial truant after being suspended from school for assaulting a teacher, he is suspected of committing several robberies. Hamza Lyzai is Ugandan-born. Neighbours claim he was transformed from a polite boy into a killer when he joined the gang.

The youngest defendant, who was not named, photographed the gang's attacks. All the “happy slap” clips recovered by police were found on his mobile. A teacher told police she found him watching internet clips of elderly people being happy slapped and he was “laughing hysterically.”



Can anyone actually explain why these loathsome individuals were given such lenient sentences? Reading the Home Office guidance would suggest anyone aged over 10 but under the age of 18 can be given "Detention for life" for manslaughter. So how exactly does a pitiful 3 and a half years come into play? And if the judge is in fact constrained by the system then the system needs changing. A man has lost his life, a family had theirs irreversibly blighted and the perpetrators will be back on the streets laughing about it in a year and carrying on their trend of violent crime on their next unfortunate victim.

It is difficult to see how the sentences meet the needs of retribution and rehabilitation. Is anybody in any doubt how these totally unrepentant feral teenagers will behave on the streets of London when they are released in just over a year’s time? It is even more difficult to imagine how the family of Ekram Haque will be able to explain to his grand daughter Marian when she is older that her beloved grandfathers life counted for so little in the eyes of the justice system. All of our lives have been devalued by this lenient sentencing which says you can cause somebody’s death for “fun”, record and leer at the scene on your mobile phone and get away with murder with only minor inconvenience in your own life. These shocking sentences which do not address the need for retribution and rehabilitation cannot be allowed to stand.