Gang members jailed for attack on insurance broker

Four members of a gang have been jailed for a total of 39 years for an attack on an insurance broker and his friend as they left a popular City nightclub last April.

Reginald Weir, and youth worker Hasheam Burnett, both 26, were left with life threatening stab wounds after the attack, which is believed to have been triggered by a trivial remark, the Evening Standard reports.

The pair had left the London nightclub Apt Bar in the early hours of the morning last April, and were walking along King Street near Bank station when they were attacked by the gang with at least one knife.

The gang left their victims for dead and escaped in two cars.

Weir suffered a gash across the top of his head and a spleen injury that left him unable to work for two months. Burnett required reconstructive surgery and 42 stitches and has been left with a permanent scar on the side of his face.

The attackers are believed to be part of the Kensal Green Boys gang, the same group responsible for the 2006 murder of City lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce.

Dean Alcendor, 28, his brother Pierre, 25, and Duane John-Baptiste, 27, were each jailed for 10 years after admitting their part in the attack at the at the Old Bailey. Julian McLeod, 33, was jailed for nine years.

Sentencing the gang, Judge Paul Worsley said it was an “unprovoked, cowardly and mindless violent attack.”

“For no reason at all you set upon these two young men in the street at night armed with a knife.

“Neither man had done anything at all to deserve or attract your attention.”

A fifth gang member involved in the attack remains at large and is wanted by police.

City of London police were able to trace the vehicles using CCTV, and linked the gang members to the attack.