The mum of a murdered teen has slammed the prison service after her son’s killer posted a mocking video from prison saying ‘it could be worse, I could be dead’
Teacher Yemi Hughes’s son, Andre Aderemi, 19, was chased, beaten with a pole and stabbed 26 times on a housing estate Croydon in August 2016.
Mrs Hughes taught at the school that all three killers attended and one of the gang was even in her class.
Ali Zahawy, 22, was jailed for 22 years in 2017 after being found guilty of murder along with accomplice Rodney Mukasa.
The pair, along with Fabio Cela, chased down the teenager before stabbing and kicking him to death.
Cela, who Mrs Hughes had taught design technology at Shirley High School in Croydon, was convicted of manslaughter.
Now Zahawy has sent the video on Snapchat from his cell in Gartree prison in Leicestershire.
In the 13 second clip he can be heard saying: “Still f**cking locked up, boxed up.
“Could be worse, could be dead.”
The post was discovered by friends of Mrs Hughes who sent her the one clip but said there were others too distressing to forward on to her.
Now she is calling for stricter controls in prisons and an end to what she sees as a “slapdash” approach.
She said: “There needs to be better care for victims, families, better rehabilitation and tighter checks on what and who goes in and out of prisons.
“I want to make a difference to victims’ families, and I want them to know that once the perpetrator’s there, there is no contact with the outside world.
“I’m not expecting 24 hour lockdown with nothing, I’m not that crazy or twisted but a system that works, that’s not abused.
“It’s ridiculous that they are able to have phones smuggled into prisons. I have had contact from a lot of different families saying that they had been contacted by their sons’ killers.
“It’s not OK to be so slapdash about it.”
Mrs Hughes said: “It made me angry at first, it made me angry that he has that privilege that he can do that and listening to it, it sounds like he’s mocking my son.
“It was a total disrespect. The thing that gets me is that there was no remorse shown. At least the others showed some remorse during the trial but he didn’t.
“Then the emotions kicked in because it adds to your loss.
“I have had therapy and I have been able to deal with the loss but when you see this it brings how you feel flooding back.
“What they don’t realise is that for the victims’ families, even if they are convicted and given 20 years, we spend the next 20 years counting the time down until they are released – it doesn’t go away for us.
“When you see something like that it gives you the reality that this person is not even trying to be rehabilitated.”
A prison service spokesperson apologised to Mrs Hughes for the “distress the video has caused.”
He added: “We are undertaking cell searches and disciplinary action against Zahawy.
“We are spending an extra £100 million on prison security, and anyone found with a mobile phone in prison faces longer behind bars.”
Her son Andre was due to start a physiotherapy course after completing a BTEC sport qualification at John Ruskin College and earning his FA coaching badge at Crystal Palace.
Andre was murdered after he urged a girl, who was a good friend of his to break up with her “controlling”boyfriend, Cela.
Two weeks later, he was confronted by Cela, who had recruited Ali Zahawy and Rodney Mukasa to attack him.
A fourth youth, Jamell Lonergan pleaded guilty to manslaughter when the original jury could not decide on a verdict and was jailed for 10 years.