Two teenagers have been convicted of the manslaughter of a 49-year-old man they believed was a paedophile, after luring him to a Kent beach where he was pelted with rocks and beaten. A 16-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court, while a second 16-year-old boy had already pleaded guilty to the same charge. All three were acquitted of murder.
The court heard the fatal sequence began when Alexander Cashford met the 16-year-old girl at an amusement arcade on the Isle of Sheppey two days before the attack. He gave her his phone number and a business card bearing a fake name. The teenagers then engaged him in a text message exchange using the alias “Sienna,” during which Cashford, claiming to be 30, asked the girl if she liked champagne and said he wanted to kiss her.
On the evening of 10 August last year, they arranged to meet him at the seafront in Leysdown-on-Sea. The girl walked with Cashford along the promenade before the two boys chased him, hitting him with rocks and a bottle. He was pursued relentlessly, even after falling to the ground, according to witness accounts cited in court.
Alexander Cashford was later found dead, face down in the mud. A post-mortem examination revealed extensive injuries including wounds to his face and head, bruises across his limbs and body, and fractured ribs which had punctured his lung.
During the attack, the girl filmed the boys chasing the victim while shouts of “fucking paedophile, I’m fucking 16, get him” were heard. After his arrest, the 16-year-old boy shared footage of the assault with three people, captioning it “fucked pedo up lol,” the trial was told.
Trial Arguments and Motive
In evidence, the older boy was asked if he initially felt he had “done the right thing” by attacking Cashford. “Yeah, kind of, yeah,” he replied, adding: “Because I feel like the police wouldn’t have done anything.”
Defence counsel Danny Robinson KC, representing the girl, argued that the texting had begun as a “big laugh” which may have turned “into a desire to expose him as someone who should be named and shamed.” He told the jury the attack was not an “organised plan to kill or cause anyone really serious harm,” but instead “a childish escapade that got out of hand very quickly with tragic consequences.” Both the girl and the 15-year-old boy told the court there was never a plan to attack Cashford.
This characterisation was strongly contested by the prosecution. Natalie Smith, a senior prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, stated: “This was a carefully pre-planned deliberate and violent attack on someone who was not expecting it and who could not defend himself.” She said the joint actions of the three had led to Cashford’s death, offering his family the “comfort of knowing that those responsible have been brought to justice.”
The three teenagers, who cannot be named due to their ages, are expected to be sentenced in April.
