Rishon Florant was caught red-handed by prison officers at Strangeways jail
16:26, 14 May 2025Updated 17:29, 14 May 2025
Rishon Florant was caught red-handed(Image: Met Police)
A jailed murderer was caught with a ‘fearsome’ makeshift knife while he was scrolling Snapchat on a smuggled iPhone in his cell at Strangeways prison.
Rishon Florant, 23, who is serving a minimum 18 years behind bars for a shocking fatal stabbing in a youth centre in London in 2019, was caught red-handed when prison officers searched his cell at HMP Manchester on September 5, 2023.
The prison officers visited the cell after they had ‘received information’, the court heard.
As they entered they saw the seated inmate brazenly scrolling a smuggled iPhone on which he ‘appeared to be accessing social media’, prosecutor William Donnelly told Manchester Crown Court today (Wednesday May 14, 2025).
“He made an unsuccessful attempt to hide the phone in his clothing and volunteered possession of the knife,” said Mr Donnelly.
The prisoner revealed the six-inch weapon, fashioned with sharpened aluminium beading from his cell window for the blade wrapped with cloth to form a handle, from behind the waistband of his trousers.
It was a ‘fearsome weapon which can only be engineered in that way to cause injury to persons within the prison estate’, said Mr Donnelly.
Also found in Florant’s cell was a charger for the iPhone and two USB memory sticks. The inmate refused to be formally interviewed about the finds.
The court heard the defendant was serving a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years behind bars for murder while the possession of knives ‘looms large’ on his record of previous convictions, with five offences of possession of offensive weapons since 2017, said the prosecutor.
Simon Molyneux, defending, said the sentencing was ‘somewhat academic’ as his client could not received a sentence which extend the life sentence he was currently serving although it would ‘mark the gravity’ of the crime.
“As everybody knows prisons are frightening environments and sometimes people make errors of judgment when they think they are acting for their own protection,” said Mr Molyneux, adding that his client was still ‘only a young man’ who was 17 when he was convicted of murder and it would be ‘a long time’ before he can be released.
The judge, Mr Recorder David Temkin KC, referring to the knife, told the defendant: “At best the intention would be to use it to threaten. At worse it would be used to cause violent attacks. It would be capable of causing significant injury to another.”
The judge also noted that the iPhone, on which the defendant was seen scrolling Snapchat, ‘could not be monitored’ unlike the official prison phone system which inmates can use to dial friends and family.
However, Mr Recorder Temkin went on that there was ‘no evidence’ the phone was being used for criminal activity nor of the person who had made the knife.
Florant, appearing at the hearing on videolink from HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire, showed no reaction as he was given a formal 18-month prison sentence after he had earlier admitted possession of a prohibited item in prison (namely the iPhone and charger) and possession of an offensive weapon.
Although the sentence cannot add to his current life sentence – and by law it cannot be used extend his minimum tariff of 18 years for murder – it will be considered by the Parole Board when it considers his eventual release from prison.
In 2019 Florant and another teenager were were jailed for killing an aspiring mechanic in a ‘shocking and cruel’ attack inside a youth centre.
Glendon Spence(Image: Press Association Images/Press Association Images)
Glendon Spence, 23, and his friends sought refuge at the Marcus Lipton Youth Centre in Brixton, south London, when two hooded teenagers ran at them armed with large knives. Mr Spence tripped and fell by a table tennis table and was set upon by one of the youths in a ‘swift and merciless’ attack in front of horrified staff and youngsters.
He suffered a stab wound to his thigh, severing the femoral artery, and was pronounced dead at the scene soon after the attack on the evening of February 21 earlier that year. His attackers were driven off by an accomplice in a BMW, the Old Bailey heard.
Rishon Florant, then 18, of Peterborough Road, Waltham Forest, east London, who was accused of delivering the fatal wound, denied being involved. But his co-accused, 18-year-old Chibuzo Ukonu, of Loughton, Essex, identified Florant as the stabber.
He told jurors he was also at the scene but had no intention to cause any harm to Mr Spence, let alone an intention to kill. The jury deliberated for 21 hours to find Florant guilty of murder and Ukonu guilty of manslaughter.
Marcus Lipton Youth Club in London(Image: PA)
Judge Mark Dennis QC ordered Florant to be detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure for at least 18 years and handed Ukonu 14 years in a young offenders’ institute.
He told the pair: “The whole event had taken less than 90 seconds. Glendon Spence died at the scene from heavy bloody loss. The exact motive for the attack is unknown, however the attack has all the hallmarks for organised gang violence.
“This was grave offending of the utmost seriousness. The CCTV captured what was a shocking and cruel attack and one which would have horrified or caused great alarm to anyone that witnessed it.
“You are both young men attracted to and engaged in an urban culture that embraces violence.”
The victim’s family described their devastation at the loss of Mr Spence, who hoped to become a motor mechanic. In a statement, they told of their ‘pity’ for his killers, taking comfort from their memories of Mr Spence.
The court heard how Florant had multiple previous convictions for carrying knives dating back to when he was aged 15.
Ukonu also had a conviction for carrying a 12-inch combat knife when he was aged 15. He told police at the time: “Not gonna lie, I got something on me. Brixton is a dangerous place.”
He was also caught possessing cocaine and heroin with intent to supply.
The court was told how people in the area of Brixton where the murder took place had taken to wearing body vests because of the “prevalence of knife crime”.
The fact the stabbing of Mr Spence was targeted on the leg indicated it was a focused attack, the prosecution suggested.
Florant laughed and shouted up to friends in the public gallery as he was sent down.
After the hearing, DCI Richard Vandenbergh, of Scotland Yard, said: “This was a premeditated and brutal attack and Glendon’s death underlines the vile nature of knife crime and the pain it inflicts of communities.
“Glendon was murdered in a youth club – a venue expected to be a place of safety where they can develop their skills and talents.
“The two males who burst in, each armed with large knives, turned that on its head with their actions which were sadly witnessed by so many other people.”
Mr Spence’s parents said: “The killing of our fantastic and much loved son Glendon has shattered us as a family. There is no comfort anywhere and it is hard to accept what has happened.
“Our son was talented and he was unable to fulfil his aspirations to be a mechanic, not through any fault of his own but because of the evil act of these two men. Glendon did not know the perpetrators and he had no association with them whatsoever.
“Society will not tolerate what his killers did and we hope these sentences will allow them to recognise the evil they inflicted upon him by stabbing him to death for no reason.”