Milton Keynes man is jailed for minimum of 30 years for murder

Lee Sopp wore a Crusader-style chainmail vest to protect himself when he stabbed Mohamud Hashi to protect his “turf” from Somalis in Milton Keynes, Luton Crown Court heard.

Mr Hashi, who was known as Snoop, bled to death in a wooded area in Fishermead near the city centre on December 11 last year.

Sopp, 25, shouted “Yo Snoop” before lunging and stabbing him in the thigh with what prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC described as a ‘fearsome’ Rider Stacked Bowie knife.

.Jailing him for life, with a minimum term of 30 years, Judge Mark Bishop said: “You were utterly ruthless in protecting your own financial interests.”

He told him: “Your aim was to ensure Mohamud Hashi did not deal drugs on the patch that you regarded as yours.”

The location of the killing is a place where drugs were regularly sold, the court heard.

When a search was carried out at Sopp's home in Daniels Welch, Coffee Hall, several weapons were found - including the knife that was used to kill Mr Hashi.

Sopp was wearing what Mr Trimmer described as the ‘Crusader-style chain mail’ with a cross on it that he had purchased online. When questioned on his arrest the next day he said: “I am wearing chainmail to protect myself from getting stabbed.”

He carried a Samurai sword around in a guitar case. The words “Sosa’s revenge” were inscribed on it.

The judge said Sopp used the sword to “regulate" his drugs business, from which he said he was earning £900 a day.

Opening the case, Mr Trimmer said: “His (Sopp’s) phone contained messages relating to the violence he had in mind in relation to Somalis. The crown say he armed himself specifically to go up against other drug dealers.“

On the day of the killing, Mohamud Hashi was picked up by his friend Abdullahi Koshin Musse.

CCTV showed them arriving in the car park of the shopping centre in Milton Keynes just before 2pm. At 2.47pm Mohamud Hashi received a call from a Lee Davis and they arranged to meet at the Skate Park bridge. Mr Davis went there with another homeless man, Joshua Morgan.

They went into the bushes to do the drug deal when Sopp arrived and, according to Joshua Morgan, shouted: “Yo snoop,” lunged and stabbed Mr Hashi in the groin area.

He said Sopp was jumping around “like a mad man” asking where the drugs were.

A woman who was on her way to collect her daughter from school passed over the Skate Park bridge and heard shouting in the bushes, seeing one man with a knife.

She found Mohamud Hashi face down and bleeding heavily. She called the police and ambulance crews were called, but he was pronounced dead at 16.41, having quickly bled to death.

Mr Trimmer said: “The cause of death was a single stab wound to his right thigh. “It entered his body for 12cm causing complete transection or cut of the right femoral vein and 80 per cent of the right femoral artery.”

Sopp returned to the murder scene between 16.57 and 16.58 that evening and recorded the emergency services activities. He spoke to the police and asked what happened.

In the witness box Sopp told the jury he had just given Mr Hashi a “little jab” with the knife to warn him off his drug dealing patch.

He agreed he had an interest in collecting weapons like crossbows, knuckle dusters, knives and swords.

“I just like weapons,” he told the jury.

He said he also had a chainmail stab vest telling the court: “As much as I like weapons, I like armour too, like stab proof vests. It was to protect myself.”

Sopp of denied murder but was convicted.

He was cleared of aggravated burglary and wounding Kerrie Clarke with intent at her home in Benbow Court, Shenley Church End on the day after the murder.

He had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Hashi, two charges of having an offence weapon (the Bowie knife and sword), possessing crack cocaine, possessing heroin and possessing criminal property. The judge passed concurrent sentences for those offences.

The judge ordered that £1,335 of the money seized from Sopp's address should be paid to Kerry Clarke as compensation for damage caused by Sopp at her home on the day of the arrest.

The remainder of the £13,000 that the police found is to be forfeited.