London: Moped Thug Jailed After Stabbing Young Father to Death for His Watch

London
London Metropolitan Police
Virginia Hale

Jordan Bailey-Mascoll, 26, reportedly ‘smirked’ in court as he was given a life sentence for stabbing a stranger to death for his watch in Sadiq Khan’s London.

Danny Pearce, the father of a five-year-old girl, had just left a jazz club in Greenwich, southeast London,  and was walking with his girlfriend and two friends when he was targeted by two armed men on July 15 last year.

Woolwich Crown Court heard that Bailey-Mascoll and an accomplice, who he refused to name, confronted the 31-year-old and demanded he hand over his £7,000 Rolex watch.

When Pearce refused, he was chased by the pair, with Bailey-Mascoll drawing a large, “particularly gruesome”, hunting knife while the second man fired a number of shots at the victim as he ran down the street.

In scenes the jury heard were so “horrifying, brutalised and sustained” that onlookers feared they were witnessing a terror attack, Bailey-Mascoll cornered Pearce, who died at the scene following multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest.

Investigating officer Detective Inspector Jo Sidaway described how the victim sought help at a nearby address before he was “cornered and shown no pity … [then] repeatedly stabbed as he lay collapsed on the steps of a stranger’s house.”

“The level of violence used against Danny was truly horrendous and the length of time over which they carried out the attack — up to two minutes — marks it out as the most sustained random stabbing attack I’ve seen in my 26 years in the police service,” she said.

His girlfriend, Stephanie Holland, said she threw her boyfriend’s timepiece at the attackers but they murdered him anyway, weeping as she told the court: “We were walking down the street and then two men both wearing balaclavas and motorcycle helmets come in front of us.

“I thought it was a joke at first but then when the gun was shot I just ran. The gun was shot several times.

“I went away a little bit. I was scared. I saw the guy repeatedly stabbing Danny a lot of times. He just would not stop,” she said.

Ordering Bailey-Mascoll, who has an extensive criminal record dating back to his teens, to serve at least 35 years in jail, Judge Christopher Kinch QC told the court the victim’s friends had been “totally unprepared for the savagery which was about to erupt”.

“This case as any case were a life is lost carries with it a huge hinterland both for the those who are connected to the person whose live was lost, as well as for those connected with the defendant,” the Daily Mail reported him saying.

“On 15 July last year, you went out with another man looking for someone to rob. Your intended targets were people sporting high-value watches.

“The more expensive the better. The two of you went armed with a handgun and knives. You went on a motor-scooter scouring the streets of London looking for a victim.

“Danny Pearce did resist, indeed he fought back, but the two of you chased him down and attacked him with hunting knives before his friends.”

Figures published last month showed the number of moped robberies recorded in London had surged 50 percent in the past year under Mayor Khan, with police in the capital now dealing with an average of 60 incidents a day.

Tourist hotspot and major shopping destination Oxford Street, the worst affected part of the capital for the crime according to Metropolitan Police data, saw the number of moped muggings rise by 2,138 percent between 2015 and 2017.

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