Emma Hall

Case record: Emma Hall

Status

Emma Hall was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years on April 23, 2013.

People

• Emma Hall (21) — defendant; vigilante gang leader.
• Luke Harwood (18) — victim; wrongly accused of rape; killed after a beating and stamping attack.
• James Danby (27) — defendant; led an attack against Luke Harwood and was convicted with Hall.
• Tony O’Toole (30) — defendant; convicted with Hall and Danby for aspects of the case.
• Billy Duggan (21) — convicted of perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice; received a two-year sentence suspended for two years.
• Jovan Roberts (28) — cleared of murder; discharged by the judge after being found not guilty of charges faced.
• Khalid Hassan (20) — cleared of murder; discharged by the judge after being found not guilty of charges faced.
• Charmaine Harwood — Luke Harwood’s sister.
• Hannah Page — Luke Harwood’s baby’s mother; Luke had been living with his son and her.
• Judge Paul Worsley QC — presided over sentencing.
• Prosecutor Simon Denison, QC — prosecutor at trial.

Timeline

• January 8, 2013 — The Old Bailey heard that Emma Hall led a vigilante gang that tortured an 18-year-old to death after he was accused of rape.
• February 11, 2013 — Emma Hall told jurors she had been in her car while Luke Harwood was led into a field and kicked to death.
• February 22, 2013 — James Danby told the court about events including that another defendant delivered the death blow; sentencing dates and trial details were discussed as the case proceeded.
• April 17, 2013 — The jury convicted multiple defendants of murder; Jovan Roberts was cleared of murder; discussion included the judge’s later sentencing.
• April 23, 2013 — Emma Hall received a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.
• April 24, 2013 — Judge Paul Worsley QC sentenced the defendants, including setting minimum terms.

Background

Luke Harwood had been wrongly accused of rape. A girl had claimed that Luke Harwood raped her two years earlier, and she pointed him out to the killers during a chance meeting. Her complaint to police had been dropped after she withdrew it once police found that her accusation was untrue. She later repeated her claims, and the accusation remained central to events leading to Luke Harwood’s death.

Luke Harwood had been living with his son and the baby’s mother, Hannah Page. He had argued with his girlfriend and asked to be rehoused by the Havering Council. On the night he died, Sunday, May 27 last year, he moved to a room in a council bungalow at Crow Lane, where Danby and the others lived.

The house was divided into seven bedsit rooms with five on the ground floor and two more in the loft. Behind the house were two more buildings not controlled by the council. Luke was described as 5ft 7ins tall and weighing just seven stone, and he had an eight-month-old son when he died. He had been one of a family of six children. Charmaine Harwood gave birth to a baby boy named Luke in his honour during jury deliberations.

The offence

Luke Harwood was attacked in his council house in Crow Lane, Romford on the day he moved in. After being led into a field and beaten, he was killed in a field/at the bank of a stream in Woodford Green, East London, after being taken to a lane or path out of view.

The attack involved punching, kicking and stamping over a period of some two hours. Luke’s face and head were described as severely injured; his facial injuries were described as leaving him looking like “the Elephant Man” and as having a “flattened” head. The killing was described as callous, violent and brutal.

After the beating, Luke’s body was hidden under an old mattress in a stream area, and his killers concealed his body by covering it with a mattress and other items. They also bought petrol and set fire to their bloody clothing. The group cleaned up bloodstains at the house.

The attackers were described as intending to mutilate Luke’s body to make identification more difficult by cutting off his fingers and removing his teeth, and knives and bolt cutters were described as being present for that purpose. The next evening, Hall drove others back to the spot.

Investigation and arrest

Emma Hall tipped off police. Officers were waiting at the scene when Hall and the others returned, and they were arrested as they arrived with knives and a pair of wire cutters.

Hall also called police from a phone box and said she wanted to “report a dead body,” giving the location of the stream and saying she would be there in twenty minutes.

Trial

Defences and denials

All the defendants denied murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent in the trial proceedings described in the record.

Hall, Danby and O’Toole, along with Duggan and Khalid Hassan, denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and other perverting-justice related allegations, with individual outcomes described below.

Emma Hall claimed she was sat in her car while Luke Harwood was led into a field and kicked to death. She said James Danby returned about 15 minutes later and confessed: “I’ve killed him, treacle.”

Hall told jurors: “He said he stamped on Luke’s head 20 times until it popped.”
Hall said: “I was shocked. First of all I didn’t believe it. I just felt like my heart stopped.”
Hall also said: “I was scared, I was shaking all over, I couldn’t even speak properly.”

Hall said she had been too scared to phone the police. She said Danby ordered her to take him, Luke and Tony O’Toole to Epping Forest, and later directed them to Woodford Green. Hall told jurors she waited in the car while Danby, Luke and O’Toole walked off down a path and she thought Luke was going to be dropped off somewhere, saying: “No not at all.”

Danby described how he said Tony O’Toole kicked and stamped on Luke Harwood’s head and that Tony O’Toole delivered the death blow. Danby said:

“Suddenly and unexpectedly Tony O’Toole kicked and stamped on Luke Harwood’s head,”

Danby denied an intention claim put to him, stating:

“No, my intention was not,”

Danby denied elbowing Luke in the face on the way to the field and attacking him there. He said a claimed account was fabricated, stating:

“That account we have quite clearly seen, is fabricated,”

Danby was said to have discussed the killing with his mother by phone. Danby was quoted:

“No-one will grass me because they are all in it with me.”
“What do you reckon, should I cut off his fingers and scatter them or cut off his fingers and burn them.”

Danby also said in response to a claim about his words that:

“I didn’t say that. It’s a ridiculous notion,”

Trial prosecution assertions and evidence described

The prosecutor Simon Denison, QC, said that within a very few hours of photographs being taken Luke Harwood was dead. The prosecutor said the men “severely beat him up by punching and kicking him to the head” so he was bleeding heavily and his face was terribly swollen.

The prosecutor stated Hall “cackled throughout the two-hour assault.” The prosecutor also described that after the killing and dumping, the attackers were “laughing and joking.”

Prosecutor Simon Denison, QC, said:

“His murder was quite extraordinarily callous, violent and brutal.”
“His facial skeleton was crushed.”
“They then concealed his body by covering it with a mattress and other items.”
“They killed him by punching and kicking him and stamping on his head many, many times. The bones in his face were crushed.”

The record described that Hall was told about the rape claim and said:

“I’m going to ****ing kill him.”

The record also described Danby attempting to choke Luke Harwood and stamping on his head 20 times.

O’Toole described being shocked and said:

“It’s something a monster would do,”

Danby was said to have confessed to Hall during the journey when Hall drove Danby, O’Toole and Luke Harwood’s killers from the house to a lane, with Danby quoting:

“I killed him, treacle.”

In another described quotation, Hall told jurors:

“He said he stamped on Luke’s head 20 times until it popped.”

Sentencing

Judge Paul Worsley QC sentenced the defendants, and the court heard that Luke Harwood was “only 18” when he was brutally murdered, and that he had a pregnant girlfriend and a young child.

Judge Paul Worsley QC said:

“Luke Harwood was only 18 when he was brutally murdered. He had a pregnant girlfriend and a young child. He was subjected to beating, punching and kicking for a period of some two hours, which left footmarks on his skull and head such that he had the appearance of the Elephant Man.”
“He was a vulnerable victim. He weighed only seven stone, was 18 and no match for any of you, let alone a joint group attack. He was completely at your mercy – he had been rendered completely helpless.”

The judge jailed James Danby for a minimum of 25 years and called him a “controlling, manipulative and dangerous individual” who “has shown no sign of remorse”.

The judge jailed Tony O’Toole for a minimum of 17 years and jailed Emma Hall for a minimum of 15 years.

Outcome

Convictions and acquittals (as described)

• Emma Hall was convicted by a jury of murder, and she was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting justice. Hall was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice, but cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
• James Danby was convicted of murder and also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
• Tony O’Toole was convicted of murder and perverting the course of justice, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice; he was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm.
• Billy Duggan (21) was convicted of perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and received a two-year sentence suspended for two years.
• Jovan Roberts (28) was cleared of murder and was discharged by the judge after being found not guilty of the charges faced.
• Khalid Hassan (20) was cleared of murder and was discharged by the judge after being found not guilty of the charges faced.

The jury spent ten days deliberating.

Aftermath

Luke Harwood’s family said:

“He should still be alive to share his life with us and to be a father to his son, as well as his daughter whom he never met.”
“He was falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit and killed in the most violent way. His murderers took away his life for no reason, leaving his family with no chance to say goodbye.”