Four teenagers who hunted down and stabbed a 15-year-old schoolboy to death in the street during a “postcode war” have been jailed today.

The killers, then aged between 14 and 16, attacked Negus McLean as part of a long-running feud between two neighbouring gangs in north London.

Negus, a member of the Dem Africans from Edmonton, was targeted in revenge for the stabbing of a senior figure in the Get Money Gang from Enfield a week earlier.

On the morning of April 10, 2011 Negus tried to stop rumours spreading that he had stabbed the GMG member Kaos.

He told a friend on Blackberry Messenger: “Stop telling people i stabbed kaoz when I never. If I hear anyone say i did im gona bore thm up bmt'.

At around 5.30pm he went out on his bike with three other youths around the Edmonton area.

Less than two hours later the aspiring rapper and his younger brother were spotted by a “hunting posse” of seven hooded youths on bicycles.

CCTV cameras captured Negus being chased into Westminster Road, knocked to the ground and attacked in front of passers-by.

Prosecutor Simon Denison QC said: 'This was broad daylight, on a sunny Sunday evening, and there were many people who saw what happened or saw parts of it.

“Negus was first attacked and knocked to the ground by one of the group who was hitting him with a pole, he was then punched and kicked by a number of them when he was on the ground; and then at least one of them stabbed him repeatedly as Negus was lying helpless on the ground.”

When a woman tried to intervene and stop the attack, one of the attackers told her: “He stabbed my friend.”

Negus suffered three stab wounds to the chest and one to his left thigh and died in hospital at 10.10pm the same evening.

Billal Lariba, 18, of Mayall Close, Enfield was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years imprisonment and Brandon Hamilton, 18, of Broad Oak Avenue, Enfield was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment for murder and five years imprisonment for assault, to run concurrently.

Tershan Edwards, 19, of St Albans was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment and Travis Bowman, 16, from Enfield was sentenced to 12-and-a-half-years imprisonment.

Yasmin Latif, 17, of Enfield was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to a 12 months detention and training order.

Speaking after the verdict, Negus' mother Ingrid Adams said: “No words can truly express the way that I feel. No parent expects to bury their child before them. He would always tell me not to worry and he would look after me.

“It is unbelievable now that it's me visiting his grave. My beautiful son was taken 16 days before his 16th birthday. I was picking out his coffin for him on his 16th birthday.

"Negus was a very special person and when that special person is taken away it leaves a very large hole that will never be filled.

“He didn't get to finish school, there was no prom night for him. He won't get married or have the blessing of children. All this has been taken away, and for what?

“I have no feelings for those who took the life of my son. I am angry and hate what they have done. I do however pray that one day they will tell the truth not only for me and my family but for themselves.

“It seems these young boys have no respect for life, not even their own. You can see why they seem to have shown no remorse for what they have done. Maybe one day they will become parents, they will think about what they have done and the hurt they have caused.

“I have told my children to forgive but never, never forget.”