Shropshire Star

Guilty: Telford man faces life in prison for murdering drug dealer

A Telford man faces a life sentence after being found guilty of murdering a drug dealer who was stabbed in the heart.

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Unemployed Bernard Ampaw, 19, rounded on one of his co-accused and punched him during a scuffle which broke out in the dock at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

He had been convicted of the murder of Francis Ntena Nsiangangu, a trainee painter and decorator, of Brentwood, Essex.

Mr Nsiangangu, 31, known as Casper, was discovered injured in Tower Hill, Brentwood, and after getting help ran after his attacker before collapsing on the ground where he died.

In addition to the murder the jury also found Ampaw guilty of robbing the 31-year-old victim of a rucksack on September 27 last year.

When he returns to court Ampaw, of Wombridge Road, Telford, will receive an automatic life sentence.

Judge Charles Gratwicke, who described it as a "callous murder", must set a minimum term that Ampaw has to serve behind bars before he can apply for parole.

A second man, student Clive Mundoma, 19, of High Street, Brentwood, was also found guilty of robbing the victim of the rucksack.

He will be sentenced on the same date as Ampaw. Mundoma was cleared of murder along with Wilson Carlos Lourenco, 20, a sales representative, of Cheviot Drive, Chelmsford, who was also found not guilty of robbery.

Officers carried out arrests at an address in North Road, Wolverhampton, in a joint operation between West Midlands Police and Essex Police last October, after Mundoma had been charged with the offence.

Karim Khalil QC, prosecuting, told the court: "This case involves the violent robbing and killing by stabbing of Francis Nsiangangu.

"He was stabbed to death in a street not very far away from his flat during the course of, or just after, doing a cannabis deal involving these defendants.

"They have given varying accounts of their own actions and the behaviour of one another that night and it won't surprise you to learn that their stories are not consistent."

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