Three teenagers jailed for luring ‘paedophile’ to beach and stoning him to death

Three teenagers who killed a man they thought was a paedophile by luring him to a beach and pelting him with rocks have been jailed.

The trio – two boys aged 16 and 15 and a 16-year-old girl – encountered their victim Alexander Cashford in Leysdown-on-Sea last August.

Mr Cashford, 49, had given the girl his number in an arcade, later calling her ‘really pretty’ and asking if she liked champagne. He told the teen her age didn’t put him off and lied about his own saying he was 30.

But the meeting he had planned with ‘Sienna’ quickly turned into an ambush, with the girl filming as the two boys chased him to the seafront while she screamed ‘f***ing paedophile, get him’.

Just over an hour later, Mr Cashford was dead.

Witnesses saw him shouting for help as he ran towards the beach, with others describing seeing the older boy throwing rocks at his lifeless body lying face down in the mud.

The girl and the younger boy were both convicted of manslaughter following a trial at Woolwich Crown Court. The older boy admitted the same charge part-way through.

All three were unanimously cleared of murder.

The older boy and the girl, who cried loudly as she was taken back down to the cells, were each jailed for seven years. The younger boy was given a five-year sentence.

Jailing them today, judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told them: ‘You are all young and you will still be young when you rejoin society.

‘You did a terrible thing, and you are each paying a price for it. But there is great potential for each of you to live a good and fulfilling life when you are released.

‘It is up to you to choose how you will live.’

Jurors were told Mr Cashford gave the girl his number on August 8, after meeting her by chance at the Playtime Arcade, and that he also handed her a business card with a different name.

Using the alias ‘Sienna’, the three teenagers exchanged messages with Mr Cashford and arranged to meet him by the sea wall.

The 16-year-old boy had saved Mr Cashford’s number in his own phone as ‘pedo’ and around 75 messages were sent between them, the trial heard.

Mr Cashford asked the girl if she liked champagne and said he wanted to kiss her, with ‘Sienna’ then suggesting they meet at her parents’ empty home and telling him to bring alcohol.

Prosecutor Kate Blumgart KC told jurors: ‘These three defendants did happen by chance to meet Mr Cashford. What happened thereafter however was not by chance.

‘They were so outraged by his interest in “Sienna” that they deliberately planned to meet him and to attack him.

‘This was a joint attack with each of them playing a vital part.’

During his evidence, the older boy was asked if, in the immediate aftermath – before they were arrested or discovered Mr Cashford had died – he had thought he had ‘done the right thing’ by attacking him.

The boy replied: ‘Yeah, kind of, yeah.’

Asked why, he said: ‘Because I feel like the police wouldn’t have done anything.’

Danny Robinson KC, defending the girl, told the trial that texting Mr Cashford started as a ‘big laugh’, and may have turned ‘into a desire to expose him as someone who should be named and shamed’.

However, the attack was not the product of an ‘organised plan to kill or cause anyone really serious harm, it was a childish escapade that got out of hand very quickly with tragic consequences’, he said.

The girl and the younger male defendant said there was never a plan to hit Mr Cashford.

A post-mortem examination showed Mr Cashford had injuries to his face and head, bruises on his limbs and body, and a number of fractured ribs that had punctured his lung.

A statement from Mr Cashford’s parents, David and Linda, read out at the sentencing hearing described him as a ‘kind, friendly and compassionate person’ who cared about local animals and wildlife, and loved all sports.

They said they were ‘emotionally crushed’ and the impact on the family was ‘practically impossible to put into words’.

They added he was the rock in their life and ‘the slander against Alex’s name is particularly difficult, we know this could not be further from the truth’.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said of the victim: ‘His family have had to endure the publicity this case has attracted, and the notoriety now attaching to their much valued family member who has had no opportunity to defend himself.’

She told the teenagers she accepted the incident may have started out as a ‘relatively harmless bit of mischief’ exposing someone behaving ‘creepily’, in the girl’s words.

But she added their activities ‘became darker’ and moved ‘from what might have been excusable as childish mischief to dangerous misconduct which risked, and ultimately took, a man’s life’.

The senior judge said: ‘In this country we have law. We have police. We have a justice system. Everyone is equal under the law.

‘Everyone has the right to expect to be treated fairly and allowed to give their side. No one can be punished without law.

‘I am sure you knew, and know now, that if you had a complaint there was a right way to go about making it.

‘None of you chose that right way and on everything I have read about you I am sure that each of you was mature enough to understand that what you were doing was completely wrong and unlawful.

‘This was not a spontaneous incident of violence. It wasn’t a group acting together by instinct, egged on by each other. None of you can sensibly claim to have been led on, manipulated or to have fallen into bad behaviour without thought. This is simply not that kind of a case.’

Reacting to the sentences, Kent Police detective sergeant Alastair Worton said: ‘Alexander Cashford ‘s life was cut short following a vicious attack carried out by a group of teenagers who plotted to meet him under false pretences.

‘The devastating outcome of the offenders’ brutal actions that day has left a family grieving the loss of a loved one and young lives changed forever.

‘The sentencing imposed on the offenders reflects the conspiratorial nature of their behaviour and the tragic consequences of their crime.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.