A man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of a 15-year-old boy and the attempted murder of another man, which occurred in a London park prior to the Notting Hill Carnival. Aderahman Boumzough, 25, received the sentence at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty of the crimes.
Boumzough was convicted of murdering Rene Graham and attempting to murder another man on July 21, 2024. CCTV footage showed Boumzough, who has no fixed address, pulling a handgun in Emslie Horniman's Pleasance park, also known as Teletubbies Park, and shooting Rene Graham in the chest. The footage also captured Boumzough chasing and attempting to shoot a second individual in a busy street, but the firearm jammed, and he fled the scene.
Boumzough was arrested and charged over a year later, on September 2, 2025. During sentencing, Judge Simon James highlighted that Rene, at 15 years old, "should have had his whole life to realise his dreams and aspirations." The judge stated that Rene's family eloquently conveyed "the agony of every parent's worst nightmare," echoing Rene's mother's sentiment that "no mother should ever have to stand in a court and speak about the violent death of her son."
The judge described Boumzough's actions as "callous and cold-blooded conduct in gunning down and killing an unarmed and defenceless teenager in what amounted to a premeditated public execution." The court heard that Boumzough offered no explanation or motive for the violence and showed no remorse. Evidence on his phone, including rap lyrics about the gun jamming, suggested he was "proud and boastful" about the incident.
The shooting occurred during an event preceding the annual Notting Hill Carnival and has been linked by locals to a violent postcode war between rival gangs, the Ladbroke Grove Boys and the Harrow Road Boys. The incident took place in Hazlewood Crescent, near the boundary of the W10 and W9 postcodes.
Rene's mother, Janay John-Francois, had previously made a public appeal for information, with Crimestoppers offering a £20,000 reward. In a statement released by the Met Police, she described her "profound grief" and the "emptiness and heartbreak" of losing her son, urging the public to "stand with me through the darkest of times."