The London Daily News

By News Editor Declan Wilkes 

Six teens have pled not guilty at the Old Bailey to beating and stabbing a 16-year-old to death. 

Shakilus Townsend was stabbed with an 18 inch kitchen knife and battered with a baseball bat in a broad daylight attack outside a block of flats on Beulah Crescent in Thornton Heath last July. 

'Honeytrap'

Cops believe he was lured by a teenage girl he knew to a street where he was ambushed and chased by a gang of up to eight masked youths armed to the teeth and stabbed him at least four times in his stomach and chest with two knives. 

One of the six accused is a girl. 

Shakilus, from Deptford, pleaded for his mother as he bled to death, according to witnesses. 

'Fallen soldier' - blade pictures 

Shocking pictures later emerged on Shakilus's Bebo social networking page showing him brandishing a blade. 

Pals on the site described Townsend as a gang member and was honoured as a ‘fallen soldier’.    

The accused 

Tyrell Ellis and Danny McLean, both 18 and from Thornton Heath, denied murder. 

Two youths aged 17, another aged 16, and the 16-year-old girl, also pleaded not guilty to murder. 

Another 17-year-old youth, who also appeared in court charged with the murder, has not yet entered a plea.  

The trial begins in April.