Two teenagers have been found guilty of manslaughter after luring a man they thought was a paedophile to a beach where another teenager threw rocks at him.
A 16-year-old girl and two boys, 15 and 16, all denied murdering Alexander Cashford in Leysdown-on-Sea, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, on 10th August last year. The 16-year-old boy previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Woolwich Crown Court was told the teenagers believed Cashford, 49, was a paedophile after he met the girl by chance at an amusement arcade two days earlier and gave her his phone number.
Using the alias Sienna, the three teenagers had messaged Cashford and arranged to meet him by the sea wall.
Danny Robinson KC, defending the girl, told the court the texts started as a “big laugh” but might have become a wish to name and shame Cashford.
He said “It was a childish escapade that got out of hand very quickly with tragic consequences”.
Prosecutors said Cashford was chased and hit with rocks and a bottle before he was found lying face down in the mud.
A post-mortem examination showed injuries to his face and head, bruises on his limbs and body, alongside a number of fractured ribs that had punctured his lung.
The girl filmed the boys chasing Cashford as she shouted “get him”, the court heard. After he was arrested, the 16-year-old boy shared footage of the attack with three people.
What the jury did not hear is that when he died Mr Cashford was wearing an electronic ankle tag, having previously been convicted of stalking.
He appeared in court last year accused of following a 24-year-old woman home from her work and then visiting her house in the early hours of the morning, where he posted a chocolate bar and a letter through her door.
He visited the address first at 1.39am and then seven minutes later at 1.46am on 9th March.
Mr Cashford duly admitted a charge of stalking involving serious alarm and distress at North Kent Magistrates’ Court and was placed on a month’s curfew. He was also fitted with an electronic tag imposing a curfew at his home in Rainham, Kent, between 8pm and 6am. It was to remain in place until 16th September.
He died on 10th August, having arranged to meet the girl at 6.45pm so as not to breach that curfew.
At the time of his death, Mr Cashford was working as an electrician and had recently been carrying out work for his parents, with whom he had lived in Rainham for much of his life.
His three attackers were in Leysdown on holiday, having travelled there separately from their homes in London. The girl and the younger boy knew one another and had previously visited the resort on a number of occasions. While at the coast they had met the older boy, also a regular visitor.
The three teenagers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were acquitted of murder on Monday. They will be sentenced for manslaughter in April.
