Women washed bloodstained clothes after Beckenham murder

Godfrey Madondo, 20, murdered 19-year-old Jeremiah Sewell following a “chance meeting” in Beckenham Place Park early on July 16 last year. 

After the murder, Khelsi Johnson-Davies and Leah Simmonds together cleaned and threw away Madondo’s bloodstained clothes, a court previously heard. 

In July, Madondo was jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years. 

Jeremiah Sewell was 19 when he was murdered (Image: Met Police)

Johnson-Davies was found guilty of perverting the course of justice while Simmonds had admitted the charge. 

On Friday (November 10) Johnson-Davies, 21, of Barset Road in Nunhead and Simmonds, 20, of Hamilton Road in Gipsy Hill, appeared at the Old Bailey for sentencing. 

Johnson-Davies was sentenced to 14 months in prison, while Simmonds received a nine-month sentence, court staff confirmed. 

Prosecutor Alan Kent KC previously told jurors the motive for the murder “appears to be simply because the deceased came from Beckenham” and the defendant and his friends were from Peckham, in south London. 

Madondo was jailed for life (Image: Met Police)

Mr Kent said: “It was a chance meeting, in the early hours of the morning, in an otherwise deserted car park in the middle of a public park.” 

Jeremiah had met up with a group which ended up in Beckenham Place Park at 4am. 

They were inhaling laughing gas from balloons, playing music and swapping places in their cars, jurors heard. 

At 4.25am, the defendants arrived in a black Astra and Madondo got out of the front passenger seat wearing a balaclava and approached the victim’s car. 

Someone heard the question: “What ends you with?” 

The victim replied: “I’m a B boy.” 

Within seconds, he was stabbed twice in the neck and also received a superficial cut to the shoulder. 

Mr Sewell was driven to Lewisham Hospital where he died at 5.36am. 

Madondo fled the scene but was arrested the next day and declined to answer questions in a police interview. 

At a previous hearing the court was told that Johnson-Davies was arrested at her home on July 19 last year, and a grey balaclava with Madondo’s DNA on it was seized. 

An examination of her phone led to “incriminating” conversations with Simmonds in which she advised her to wash Madondo’s bloodstained clothes at “90 degrees”. 

Following Simmonds’ arrest, communal bins near her home were searched and a bin bag containing Madondo’s grey hoodie and jogging bottoms was recovered. 

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Wood, from Scotland Yard, said after the conviction: “Jeremiah’s murder was an utterly senseless and barbaric act – the speed in which the situation escalated, and the fact that Jeremiah was sitting defenceless in the back of a car, offering no threat to Madondo, makes it all the more futile. 

“From the outset, Madondo has not made any attempt to explain why he attacked Jeremiah, let alone accept responsibility for his actions. 

“They have left Jeremiah’s family wondering why their loved one was viciously attacked – when he could have provided answers; he has taken the coward’s option and kept quiet. 

“Madondo was supported by Johnson-Davies and Simmonds who attempted to dispose of evidence in a futile attempt to cover his murderous tracks. 

“Nothing will undo the catastrophic consequences of that night, but I hope the conviction of these three people will at least give Jeremiah’s family and friends some sense that justice has been served.” 

A fourth defendant, Kadjo Kadio, 19, from Romford, was cleared of murder and an alternative offence of manslaughter.