Man sentenced to 13 years for ‘brutal killing’ of Croydon teen

Romario Gordon was today sentenced at the Old Bailey to 13 years in prison for his part in the killing of 16-year-old Camron Smith in front of his mother, in July 2021.

The jury at his trial at the Central Criminal Courtr was told that Gordon was a member of a Thornton Heath drugs gang who went out “hunting as a pack”, armed with weapons including a zombie knife, and pursued the teenager into a bedroom of his own home on Shirley’s Shrublands Estate.

Gordon, then aged 17, evaded arrest for two years by taking a flight to The Gambia in the aftermath of what the police described as a “brutal killing”.

Gordon was seen on CCTV fleeing from the stolen taxi and disposing of a large machete in an adjacent road.

Despite the Metropolitan Police issuing an international arrest warrant for Gordon, he was not taken into custody until his return to Britain in August 2023.

The jury found Gordon guilty of manslaughter at his trial in September.

Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Townsend, from Specialist Crime South, said: “Camron was just 16 when his life was brutally ended in a frenzied attack in his own home. Our thoughts are with Camron’s friends and family.

“Today’s sentencing marks the culmination of a complex and lengthy investigation. I hope it brings a measure of closure for all involved.”

Police were called to an address in Bracken Avenue, Shirley, at 12.48am on Thursday, July 1, 2021. Officers and an ambulance crew treated Smith at the scene for stab wounds, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Gordon and his fellow gang members were linked to the attack by DNA recovered by forensic officers inside a stolen minicab.

The group had called the cab to Fieldend Road, Streatham, earlier in the evening. When the taxi arrived, the group held a knife to the driver’s throat, and made off with his car, eventually abandoning it on Hastings Road, Lower Addiscombe..

The subsequent movements of the group were captured on CCTV recovered by investigators. The group were armed with knives, and were looking for people that they associated with the stabbing of one of their friends in Pawson’s Road earlier on June 30.

The gang entered three homes in Croydon. The first was not occupied by the person they were looking for, and the occupier awoke to find a masked male in her bedroom.

The group gained access to the second address they visited but left within seconds and so moved on to the third address, where they kicked down the door to Camron Smith’s home.

“They chased the victim into his mother’s bedroom, where they killed him,” the police said today.

Through flight records, investigators established that Gordon had fled to The Gambia via Heathrow Airport on Saturday July 3.

Gordon, now 22, is the sixth person from the same gang to be convicted in connection with the killing of Camron Smith.

James Olanipekun, from Croydon, was jailed for eight years for manslaughter and robbery following a trial in February 2023. Another boy, from Coulsdon, aged 16 at the time of his trial, was jailed for 18 months for robbery following a trial in July 2022.

Romain La Pierre and Jordan Tcheuko were tried at the Old Bailey in October 2023, where they were found guilty.

La Pierre was described by the judge at his trial as “a brutal and callous killer”, as he jailed him for life with a minimum of 28 years’ imprisonment for murder and robbery.

LaPierre had previous convictions for carrying knives, including a Samurai sword, machete and hunting knife. The court was told it was La Pierre who used the zombie knife, plunging it into his victim’s stomach.

Tcheuko was sentenced to 14 years in prison for manslaughter.

Another of the same gang of drug-dealers, Sako Amoniba-Burnley, from Norbury, was found guilty of robbery and jailed for seven years.

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