Three teenagers lured a man to a beach by posing as a 16-year-old girl and beat him to death with rocks while calling him a ‘f***ing paedophile’, a court has heard.
The trio – a 16-year-old girl and two boys aged 15 and 16 – are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged with murdering Alexander Cashford, 49, in Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent, on August 10 last year.
Jurors heard today that Mr Cashford met his alleged killers at the Playtime Arcade on the seaside resort’s promenade and gave the girl his number on a business card.
The older boy saved it in his phone under the name ‘Pedo’ (sic) and the court heard the two swapped around 75 messages over the following two days, with Mr Cashford believing he was in contact with a girl named Sienna.
The first, sent from the boy’s phone to Mr Cashford, read: ‘Hi it’s the girl from the arcade but to let you know I am 16 if u care about that kind of thing.’
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He replied: ‘Whats’ your name? You’re rely pretty.’
Mr Cashford claimed to be 30, asked her if she liked champagne and said he wanted to kiss her, with ‘Sienna’ then suggesting they meet at her empty parents’ home and telling him to bring alcohol, the jury heard.
He travelled to meet the 16-year-old female defendant at around 7pm on August 10 at the seafront.
Just over an hour later he was dead.
Jurors heard yesterday that witnesses described seeing Mr Cashford lying lifeless in the mud while rocks were pelted at his head and body.
Prosecutor Kate Blumgart KC told them today that a post-mortem examination showed he had injuries to his face and head, bruises on his limbs and body, and a number of fractured ribs that had punctured his lung.
She said the two boys followed Mr Cashford and the girl as they walked along the promenade in the Isle of Sheppey village, before the 16-year-old boy hit him on the back of the head with a bottle.
Footage of the boys chasing Mr Cashford was played to the court.
The girl, who is filming, can be heard shouting ‘f***ing paedophile, I’m f***ing 16, get him’.
Jurors heard that moments before he was arrested, the older boy shared footage of the attack with three people, with the caption: ‘f***** pedo (sic) up lol’.
Ms Blumgart told them: ‘These three defendants did happen by chance to meet Mr Cashford. What happened thereafter however was not by chance.
‘They were so outraged by his interest in “Sienna” that they deliberately planned to meet him and to attack him.
‘This was a joint attack with each of them playing a vital part.’
The prosecutor said the two boys followed Mr Cashford and the girl ‘for a considerable distance – 850 metres’ during which time the older one ‘armed himself with a bottle that he subsequently used’.
‘He was later seen by witnesses throwing large rocks at Mr Cashford’s already seemingly lifeless body and head,’ she added.
‘This at the tail end of a vicious onslaught.’
The girl’s ‘unwavering enthusiasm for the venture can be heard in her shrieks in the video’, Ms Blumgart said, which the trio ‘undoubtedly planned to be evidence of their own successful hunt’.
All three teenagers deny murder.
Their trial continues tomorrow.
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