00:00Three teenagers today were sentenced for the manslaughter of a man three times their age.
00:06Alexander Cashford, a 49-year-old from Minster, was killed in a planned attack on August 10th,
00:132025 at the Warden Bay Road area of Laysdown in Sheppey. It all started when the 16-year-old
00:20girl met Cashford by chance in an amusement arcade where he gave her his phone number.
00:26Using the fake female name Sienna, the girl, alongside a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old boy,
00:34arranged to meet him at the seawall over text. It was here that the two boys launched a brutal
00:40attack on Cashford. One boy hit him over the head with a bottle, with witnesses seeing rocks also
00:46being thrown. The court heard that the elder boy continued to chase Mr Cashford, accusing him of
00:53being a paedophile. Mr Cashford was eventually knocked unconscious and was pronounced dead
00:59just over an hour after he had met up with the group.
01:02We saw a crowd of people up in this abatement and someone getting resuscitated. Obviously,
01:08it's going to be failed. And then the ambulance never took off. And as night fell, it turned
01:15into a crime scene. Forensic tents went up. And obviously it was very sad and solemn.
01:22A post-mortem examination showed injuries to Cashford's face and head, bruises on his limbs
01:28and body, alongside a number of fractured ribs that had punctured his lung. The Crown Prosecution
01:34Service described it as a carefully pre-planned, deliberate and violent attack on someone who
01:41was not expecting it and could not have defended himself. While the girls' defence argued that the
01:47incident was simply a childish escapade that got out of control. The 16-year-old boy later
01:53pled guilty to manslaughter, whereas the two other teens were found guilty in court. All three denied
02:00his murder. Today, at their sentencing, which was filmed due to the high-profile nature of the case,
02:06they were punished for their actions. This is what the judge had to say.
02:11You are all young and you will still be young when you rejoin society. You did a terrible
02:17thing and you are each paying a price for it. But there is great potential for each of
02:23you to live a good and fulfilling life when you are released. It's up to you to choose how
02:28you will live. Chloe Brewster for KMTV in Sheppey.
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