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Baby-faced woman, 21, faces life in jail after leading vigilante gang



A woman is facing a life sentence for leading a vigilante gang who tortured and brutally killed a teenager wrongly accused of rape.

Emma Hall, 21, of Romford, showed no emotion as she was found guilty of murdering Luke Harwood, 18, at the Old Bailey.


Her friends James Danby, 27, and Tony O’Toole, 30, were also convicted of murder.


Mr Harwood was savagely beaten to death in May last year after an 18-year-old girl pointed him out to Hall during a chance meeting and claimed she had been raped by him two years before.


She had made a complaint to police but the matter was dropped when she withdrew the allegation.

Police found no evidence that a rape had taken place.


The teenager and Hall were visiting friends at a house in Romford, Essex, where Mr Harwood was also staying.


He was beaten up in a room and dumped on wasteland in Woodford Green, east London.


Simon Denison QC, prosecuting, said: 'She told the others that he was the person she had told Hall about at the time who had raped her.


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'The men, over a prolonged period of time, severely beat him up by punching and kicking him to the head, so he was bleeding heavily from his injuries and his face was terribly swollen.'


Hall then drove Danby and O’Toole and Mr Harwood to a lane where he was taken to the bank of a stream and 'finished off'.




False accusation: Luke Harwood was just 18 when the gang attacked and murdered him

Mr Denison said: 'They killed him by punching and kicking him and stamping on his head many, many times.

'The bones in his face were crushed.'


The killers then bought petrol and set fire to their bloody clothing, before cleaning up bloodstains at the house.

The following evening, Hall drove them and another man to the spot where the body had been covered with a mattress and other rubbish.








Killers: James Danby and Tony O'Toole were also convicted of murder. They punched, kicked and stomped Luke Harwood to death


Billy Duggan was found guilty of perverting the course of justice


Mr Denison said: 'They had with them knives and a pair of bolt cutters that they were intending to use to mutilate his body to make it more difficult for him to be identified by cutting off his fingers and removing his teeth.'


But Hall had secretly tipped off police to divert guilt from herself, and officers were waiting for them when they arrived.


Mr Denison told the jury: 'His murder was quite extraordinarily callous, violent and brutal.'

Two years earlier, the teenage girl had claimed she was raped 'but when what she was saying was examined more closely by police, it was clear that she was not in fact saying that he had raped her', added Mr Denison.


Hall and Danby were also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting justice.


O’Toole was also found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice along with Danby.


Billy Duggan, 21, was found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice.


The defendants, who were all from Romford, were remanded in custody to be sentenced next week.


Jovan Roberts, 28, was cleared of murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and Khalid Hassan, 20, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert justice. They were discharged.






Grief: Caroline Harwood (left), the mother of victim Luke Harwood outside the Old Bailey today

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