User:Jermaine Goupall

= Jermaine Goupall = Jermaine Goupall (31 December 2001 - 08 August 2017) was a black British teenager from Thornton Heath, Surrey, who was murdered in a premeditated attack while on his way home on the evening of 08 August 2017. Jermaine was buried on 29 September 2017. This was one of the most prominent cases linking knife crime to drill music, as it is believed that his death was foreshadowed in a drill music video. This was one of the first deaths to highlight the Youtube and drill music aspect for evidence, it's one of the main cases that had done that.

= Background = Jermaine was a student at St. Joseph's College and Saturday school student at Croydon Supplementary Education Project until the date of his passing. Jermaine died during the summer holiday which he would have been going into year 11 so sit his GCSE's. Jermaine started swimming at 5 years old and done so up until he was 14, where he had reached a top level of swimming.

Jermaine had aspirations of being either an architect or a commercial gas engineer, as he was very inspired by his father successfully owning and running his business in electrical engineering, which at some point Jermaine wanted to takeover.

= Stabbing = Jermaine was standing outside a Costcutter in Green Lane, when a group of masked men armed with knives began to attack him. The teenager was chased down until he was caught and stabbed .Despite best efforts from bystanders and emergency services, Jermaine bled to death. The senseless murder seemed to stem from a gang rivalry and violence, he was mistaken for an enemy from the CR0 gang and stabbed seven times. Jermaine was pronounced dead on the 8th August 2017.

= Trial = The court trial took place at The Old Bailey. It began on 08 January 2018 and four out of the five were convicted on 14 February 2018 resulting in three of the offenders being sentenced to a total of 72 years in premeditated murder.

Adam Benzahi, 21, of Carshalton, Samuel Oliver-Rowland, 18, of Epsom Road, Waddon and Junior Simpson, 17, of North Downs Crescent, New Addington were all found guilty of murder, while Saskia Haye-Elliot, 8, North Downs Crescent was found guilty of manslaughter.

On the first day of the trial, the court was told by Mukul Chawla QC (Jermaine's Barrister) that Haye-Elliot says she thought they were going to "annoy or irrate" members of the CR7 gang by videoing them for Snapchat and or YouTube. Haye-Elliot and Simpson both accept they were in the Ford Focus car that was driven to the scene on the night of Jermaine's death.

During the trial Simpson said he was not aware that anyone was hurt until the three other passengers in the car returned. He also denied knowledge of and unaware of any knives, masks or balaclavas being in the car, as the prosecution alleges. To which he stated "I am already scared as it is."

The court heard how Simpson has a previous conviction of possessing a knife, in 2015, to which he pleaded guilty.

= Aftermath = Jermaine Goupall's case is one of the most influential cases of the decade because it was one of the first cases to highlight YouTube and drill music as evidence for a murder. After, Jermaine's trial the director of public prosecutions, Max Hill stated that "Violent social media posts must be used by prosecutors to crackdown on gangs." His death is also constantly highlighted when bans and sanctions often, most notably with 1011 music group, who were banned from making music due to the threat of violence. Jermaine's death featured on episode 5 of the Channel 5 show Gangland, a show that exposes the violent world of London's violent gangs and how children are being recruited into gangs that plague the capital's streets. Another documentary which highlighted Jermaine's murder was the Channel 4 series 'When Teens Kill'. As well as this, Jermaine's death had made two BBC documentaries in May 2018 & August 2019.

Jermaine's death gained worldwide attention after his death opened conversation on the impact of drill music as well as the increase of knife crime across the capital. This was seen through multiple articles from the New York Times and CNN.

Jermaine's death was so significant in opening conversations of the ramifications for drill music and the violent culture that it glorifies.

= References =