The family of 17-year old Marcel Addai who was ferociously stabbed to death by a gang in the street in Hoxton, had been making plans to take him out of the country to distance him from the gang culture in which he had become embroiled.

Mr Addai was chased and stabbed 14 times in St John’s Estate, Pitfield Street, Hoxton, on September 4 last year, and today at the Old Bailey four men were sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison between them for his murder.

A statement from Marcel’s grandfather Matthew, which was read out in court today described how his “first 15 years were without blemish” and how he was a “loving hard working boy”, but how the last two years had been different.

“As a family we were making plans to take him out of the country, but he was cruelly taken from us before it could materialise,” said Mr Addai senior, who described how his mother will sometimes wake up screaming in disbelief at her loss, and their “heart break” to see his nine-year-old sister’s distress.

“When she cries all we can do is try to occupy her mind with happy memories,” he said.

“His mother Philippa never got to say goodbye to her baby, we miss the way he used to smile.

“We have flash backs of seeing him lying in the mortuary.”

He continued: “His mother remembers when she first held him in her arms in hospital.

“She wonders if things could have been different had she not moved away to college, when she said goodbye for the last time she never thought that would be the last she would see her son alive, and now she wont get to hug him any more.

“His life and dreams have been cut short, and this has changed the lives of our family forever.”

Mr Addai was a member of the Hoxton Boys gang, who were embroiled in a fierce rivalry with the Fellows Court gang, of which Rogers, Adebayo and Jalloh were members.

The four gang members who were described as “remorseless and ruthless” by Her Honour Judge Poulet, had travelled to the estate in three cars - along with three other men who were acquitted of murder - before attacking Mr Addai and his friends, who had thrown a bottle in their direction.

Mr Addai tried to run away but was seen by a number of witnesses to fall to the ground before being kicked, punched and stabbed.

Rikell Rogers, 22, of Goldney Road, Maida Vale; Sodiq Adebayo, 23, of De Vere Gardens, Ilford and Sheku Jalloh, 23, of Crondall Court, St John’s Estate have been handed a minimum life term of 25 years for murder, after being found guilty by a jury’s majority verdict of 11-1.

Momar Faye, 18, of no fixed address, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after he was found guilty of murder by a majority verdict of 10-2, with a reduction in sentence because of his age.