Sekou Doucoure was stabbed to death at the Esso petrol station on Nursery Road, Newtown on July 12, 2022
Ishmael Farquharson stabbed 16-year-old Sekou Doucoure to death on July 12, 2022
A man who was wanted for nearly three years has been found guilty of killing a 16-year-old boy amid a postcode gang war in Birmingham.
Ishmael Farquharson stabbed Sekou Doucoure in the chest at the Esso petrol station on Nursery Road in Newtown on July 12, 2022, with the incident being captured on CCTV.
The boy, who had once played for Nottingham Forest academy but slipped into gang culture, died at the scene.
READ MORE: Rivalry between Birmingham postcode gangs Bandits, GRD, 9Boyz and AR explained to boy’s murder trial
Farquharson, then aged 31, fled the area. Police issued numerous wanted appeals while Crimestoppers put up a £10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.
He was eventually arrested in Spain in March this year.
The now 34-year-old of Porchester Drive, Newtown, accepted he inflicted the fatal wound to Sekou but claimed he acted in self-defence.
Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court he was today found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter as well as possession of a knife.
Police at the scene of Nursery Road in Newtown where 16-year-old Sekou Doucoure was killed. (Image: Birmingham Live/BPM MEDIA)
Farquharson, a father-of-three, was also found not guilty of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in relation to an incident in the build-up to Sekou’s death. He will be sentenced on Wednesday, September 17.
The jury was told that Sekou had been a ‘prominent young member’ of a gang called Get Round Der (GRD), which associated itself with the B20 areas of Perry Barr and Handsworth Wood.
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Prosecutors said that on July 12, 2022, he and another male, riding an e-scooter and bicycle, deliberately took on the ‘challenge’ of entering into the ‘enemy territory’ of B19 Newtown, claimed by the 9Boyz gang in particular.
The rivalry stems back to the deadly clashes between Birmingham’s notorious Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew gangs from the 1980s, police gang expert PC Gareth Evans said.
He told the trial that while those infamous gangs no longer existed, with many of their members having been jailed or simply grown older, the postcode areas remained ‘repped’ by children gangsters.
Sekou Doucoure, aged 16, was stabbed in Nursery Road, near Burbury Street in Lozells(Image: WMP)
Around 6pm Farquharson, who had no clear gang affiliation, was sitting at a bus stop on Wheeler Street when he saw Sekou and his associate emerge from Markford Walk opposite.
He immediately contacted Pierre Thomas, then aged 17 and said to be affiliated to gangs in B19.
Minutes later Thomas confronted Sekou at the junction of Villa Street and Farm Street and fired a fake gun at him.
Sekou, who had brandished a knife, fled the scene as Farquharson arrived, took hold of the imitation firearm and appeared to pursue him.
Ishmael Farquharson
Around 20 to 30 minutes later they encountered each other again on Nursery Road where they engaged in a knife fight.
CCTV captured the confrontation as Sekou chased Farquharson across the street to the Esso petrol station forecourt where they both fell to the ground.
They both got up but Farquharson wrestled the boy to the floor, overpowered him and stabbed him to the chest with a kitchen knife he had been carrying.
He ran off only to return within 30 seconds to take an e-scooter Sekou’s associate had left at the scene.
Farquharson gave evidence and downplayed the influence of any gang-related motive.
He claimed he had been stabbed in the back by two unknown masked males around a week earlier.
He told the court when he saw Sekou and the other male on July 12 he suspected it was the same two people who had attacked him.
Farquharson stated when he and Sekou encountered each other near the petrol station, he realised the ‘Rambo’ knife he was holding was the same as the weapon one of his attackers had been carrying.