FOUR youths have been found guilty of hunting down and stabbing a 17-year-old boy to death after a visit to Swindon despite jurors in their trial receiving an apparent death threat.

Two youths aged 14 and 17 along with Sanaa Ibrahim and Tre Morgan, both 18, were convicted of killing Jeremie Malenge in the street in Hackney, north east London, in January after returning from Swindon by train that day.

The six-week Old Bailey trial was halted after jurors reported seeing someone in the public gallery making a cut throat gesture in their direction while Ibrahim was giving evidence.

But they agreed to carry on and found all four defendants guilty of murder after deliberating for less than two hours. Ibrahim broke down as the verdicts came in.

They were all remanded in custody until sentencing on September 25.

On the night of the killing Ibrahim acted as the “inside woman” by flitting between the killers and their targets after travelling back from Swindon with Jeremie and his 17-year-old friend.

She also secretly texted and called her 17-year-old co-accused 36 times before the half-hour chase began, the court heard.

Jeremie, his friend and Ibrahim had arrived at Hackney Central at 11pm on January 6 at the exact time the three other defendants were seen running towards the station.

During the next 30 minutes, the three attackers hunted the two boys through the streets to carry out the deadly knife attack.

Even as the victim desperately ran for his life, Ibrahim was caught on CCTV meeting the killers face-to-face to pass on information, then coolly rejoining Jeremie and his friend.

They caught up with the pair in Homerton High Street, where the “sudden, brutal and terrifying” attack on Jeremie took place after his friend managed to get away.

Jeremie was stabbed multiple times and received a fatal 12.5cm wound through his ribs, piercing the heart. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray told jurors: “This was a vicious, unnecessary killing of a young man who did not deserve to be cut down on the streets of London.

“No excuse has been put forward for these actions and there can be no excuse.

“Instead the four defendants in their various ways either say ‘not me’ and then point the finger at each other or say that they were not there at all, despite the clearest evidence that they were.

“We say those attempts to shift the blame, including the lies and tortured explanations that two defendants put before you from that witness box, are designed to deflect you from the truth – that all four of them acted together to carry out the knife attack that killed Jeremie Malenge.”

Although she was not present at the time of the stabbing, Ibrahim was sitting just yards away and was with the killers minutes before and after.

She said Jeremie had been in Swindon to deal drugs and had forced her to go back to Hackney to steal drugs from her home.

She told jurors she saw the other three dropping bloody knives into a canal after Jeremie’s death.

Ibrahim, of Hackney, the two youths, and Morgan, of south west London, all denied murder.

The 17-year-old boy, who admitted manslaughter, was caught on CCTV carrying a large knife.

He had also been found guilty of wounding with intent after being involved in a knife attack in the same area on March 22 last year.

Afterwards Jeremie’s father said in a statement: “There is a massive hole in my heart since my lovely son was sadly murdered.

"Nothing will ever be the same again.”