Among them is Ademola Adedeji, a rugby player who had met MPs in parliament because of his community work. His lawyer, Abigail Henry, said his legal team was in the process of drafting his appeal, which will allege the judge misled the jury in the eight-week trial. The appeal will also argue that conspiracy law, which came into force before smartphones and social media, applies too widely in the modern world. He will say that there must be a defense of “withdrawal”, where a conspirator withdraws from a plot long before it is actually carried out. A Law Commission report in 2009 explored whether such a defense should be introduced, but it was never incorporated into the statute. Adedeji was one of 10 young black men from Moston in north Manchester found guilty of plotting a violent conspiracy to avenge the death of their friend, John Soyoye, who was murdered in a knife attack on November 5, 2020. The convictions have sparked huge controversy in Manchester, with racial justice campaigners saying the teenagers were found “guilty by association”. Four of Adedeji’s co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced last week to 20 or 21 years in prison. A jury heard the four had carried out violent attacks and bragged about doing it in lyrics to drill rap tracks. Adedeji and five others were found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm and sentenced to eight years in prison. He and three of his school friends – Raymond Savi, Omolade Okoya and Azim Okunola – were convicted solely on the basis of text messages on the Telegram app that the prosecution said showed them helping to identify and identify targets for attack. None of the targets named in the chat were ever injured. All four will appeal either their sentences or convictions, or both, according to the Guardian. Okoya, a talented American football player who studied public service in college, has already appealed his conviction and will soon appeal his sentence, his legal team said. Adedeji was the only one of the accused to answer questions when he was arrested. He said he was devastated by Soyoye’s murder and admitted to participating in the incriminating Telegram chat in which he forwarded the zip code of one of Soyoye’s killers. In a letter to the judge, Mr Justice Goose, Adedeji claimed responsibility for the texts. He wrote: “I got into this situation due to the fact that I was overwhelmed by emotions. This was because someone I considered a younger brother had just been mercilessly taken away. John was someone I shared hopes and dreams with, someone I grew up with from the age of seven. I would train with him, play Fifa and do what normal kids would do. Although he took a different path to me, I am devastated that his life was taken. I was saddened to hear of his death, I was on anti-depressants to help me sleep. I felt like a part of me had been taken away. “This is no excuse for the text messages I sent, I was speaking from emotion and I absolutely did not mean a word I said. I’ve apologized many times and I didn’t mean those messages I sent and I didn’t want anything to happen.”
