A 16-year-old who stabbed to death a 14-year-old schoolboy with Irish roots in London after he had looked at him "the wrong way" was sentenced to life at the Old Bailey today.
Joseph Chin, who the judge ruled could be named despite his age, had been part of a gang of up to 20 youths who had chased Martin Dinnegan in June 2007 after glances had been exchanged between two groups less than an hour earlier, the jury was told.
Kevron Williams (17), was sentenced to four years for attempting to cause grievous bodily harm during the attack.
Martin Dinnegan, of Holloway, north London, whose father James is from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, was attacked as he walked to a youth club in Holloway in June 2007. He was alone and unarmed when he was chased by the mob on bicycles and a moped.
Witnesses told the court how they had heard him plead for help before becoming trapped at the top of a road in Holloway, north London.
He was punched, kicked and stabbed in the back four times before being left dying in the street outside a chip shop a few hundred yards from his home.
Judge Brian Barker said: "There was no possible excuse or justification for this act. This was arrogant group behaviour.
"The result was the total unnecessary loss of life without any regard for the standards and rules we live by and without any regard for the victim, his family and friends."
Chin, who had denied murder, will serve a minimum of 12 years after being found guilty last month.
His legal team had argued he had acted in self defence, but the court heard Chin had an escalating record of violence, which began with him carrying a snooker ball in a sock three years earlier.
In an impact statement read to the court by her eldest son James, Martin's mother Lorraine said he had a "great sense of humour", whose smile lit up the house.