‘Honey trap’ faces life sentence for teen’s murder

A TEENAGE girl who acted as a “honey trap” to lure a smitten 16-year-old to his death at the hands of a love rival faces a life sentence.

Samantha Joseph was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey for leading Shakilus Townsend to the quiet cul-de-sac where he was killed by a masked and hooded gang. The love-struck teenager bled to death after being beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times in a “relentless and merciless attack”.

He was besotted with Joseph, a schoolgirl from Brockley, south-east London, and told his mother he wanted to marry her, but she told others she treated him like “s***”.

While Joseph, who was 15 at the time, was happy for Shakilus to shower her with gifts, she was still obsessed with another teenager, gang member Danny McLean.

CCTV pictures from the day of the attack in July last year show Joseph wearing a see-through floral dress as she met Shakilus and took a bus with him. He thought they were on their way to meet her cousin but, in fact, she was playing a “dangerous double game” luring him to the ambush in Thornton Heath, south London, while secretly keeping in touch with McLean by mobile phone.

She laughed as his attackers caught him and began raining down blows with fists, feet and baseball bats before she turned and walked away.

McLean plunged a knife into his chest, raking it across his liver before twisting the blade.

Joseph was found guilty of murder along with McLean, 18, of Thornton Heath.

Five other men were also convicted on murder charges.