HUNTED DOWN
Chilling moment teen chased down and stabbed to death in front of horrified shoppers – as hired killer, 16, jailed
Mustafa staggered for 165 metres before collapsing
THIS is the chilling moment a teen was chased down and stabbed to death in front of horrified shoppers.
A 16-year-old hired killer has been jailed after Mustafa Momand was stabbed to death in broad daylight on the orders of a drug dealer.
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As he was walking towards the train station Mustafa was stabbed in the chest in front of horrified bystanders.
Chased by the knifeman, Mustafa ran through the busy streets of Brighton with his wound pouring blood.
After being followed for around 165 metres he collapsed in front of the train station and later died.
A court heard Mustafa had been murdered by a 16-year-old ordered to kill him over a £20,000 drug debt.
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The dealer's family was said to have links to ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The teenager denied murdering Mustafa but was unanimously found guilty by a jury following a two-week trial at Brighton Crown Court.
Due to the killer’s age, his identity was kept hidden during the trial under an anonymity order.
But today the judge lifted the order on sentencing and he can now be identified as Armin Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani of Southwick, Brighton.
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Sentencing him to 17 years in jail Mr Justice Adam Constable KC said the attack was ‘planned and pre-meditated and was not opportunistic and impulsive’.
He said: "In his remaining minutes, Mustafa ran for his life, unaware that the extremely severe injury inflicted on him had already brought that life to an end."
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The judge told him: "Having seen Mustafa fall, you made a gesture of some sort of triumph and turned on your heel and walked away."
The court heard Mustafa had been moved out of Brighton for his own safety in April last year.
He returned to the seaside city for a court appearance on October 5 but never made it back to the train station.
As he walked back to the train he was spotted by Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani who confronted him and plunged a large kitchen knife into his chest.
The court heard the knife was ‘rammed’ into Mustafa’s chest with a "force so severe" it broke through his breast bone and severed one of his pulmonary arteries.
Despite his injuries, Mustafa turned and fled down the busy road with blood pouring from his wound.
Shocked eyewitnesses saw him sprinting towards the train station being chased by another teenager,
They said he appeared to be "running for his life" while the alleged knifeman followed him yelling: "I'm going to f***ing get you".
After he collapsed he was rushed to hospital where surgeons performed emergency surgery and gave him 16 litres of blood.
He was later pronounced dead.
TRAGIC TEEN
Jurors heard how Mustafa was described as a "cheeky chap" and "one of the lads" by his youth worker.
He had moved to the UK from Afghanistan with his family in 2009 when he was three years old.
He settled well into his new life in Brighton and enjoyed school but in late 2021, when he was 15 years old, it became apparent he was dealing cannabis.
His mother found cannabis in his room along with a set of scales and confronted her son about it.
When Mustafa turned 16, things "got worse" and his behaviour changed.
His parents found weapons in his pockets and he went missing for days.
His drug dealing escalated to him having 30 bags of crack cocaine, £800 in cash and knuckle dusters hidden in his bedroom.
Mustafa’s dying moments were sprinting away from in fear
Nathan Rasiah KC
His general appearance suffered and he became unkempt and dirty. His parents complained to him about his attitude.
However he continued to deal drugs and managed to rack up a shared drug debt of around £20,000.
The gang he owed the money to started to threaten him.
In March 2023, a man called the family’s home and spoke to Mustafa’s father, Noor, demanding he pay his son’s debt.
He said he would only meet the man in a police station, the court heard.
A week later the same man phoned the family home and said: "Where is your motherf***** son."
Mustafa’s parents begged the police and local authority to do something and he was moved into social care in Croydon in April for his own safety.
He returned to Brighton on a shopping trip in September but was surrounded and jostled at the Churchill shopping centre by a gang of young men who only let him go because he was with his mother.
'COCKTAIL OF PROBLEMS'
Less than two weeks later, on October 5, Mustafa travelled from Croydon to Brighton Magistrates' Court for an appearance in relation to drug offences.
Nathan Rasiah KC, prosecuting, told the court: "The defendant travelled from Southwick to Brighton with a kitchen knife, gloves and a balaclava and without his mobile phone when Mustafa Momond was in Brighton.
"The defendant went out looking for Mustafa.
"The graphic evidence captured on CCTV showed the defendant chase after Mustafa following the stabbing when he fatally wounded him.
"Mustafa’s dying moments were sprinting away from the defendant in fear.";
In mitigation Balraj Bhatia KC, defending, said Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani had been born in Iran and had witnessed death on an almost daily basis.
He was said to have been severely disturbed by his early life and had suffered "a cocktail" of problems including poor mental health and low self-esteem.
The teen killer did not speak fluent English, self-harmed and had severe acne.
'DEVASTATING'
The attacker denied murdering Mustafa as well as two other separate incidents of threatening another person with a bladed article and threatening with an offensive weapon in July and August 2023.
He was sentenced to 17 years - reduced to 16 years and 160 days due to time served in custody.
For threatening a person with a bladed article he was sentenced to six months detention to run concurrently with the sentence for murder.
The judge said: "This tragic case serves as a stark reminder of the very real dangers that await young people dealing drugs.
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"Young lives spiral quickly into effective servitude for the financial benefit of others and become treated as expendable.
"Most clearly, it shows the devastating consequences of ever more frequent knife crime."
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