UK lecturer jailed for helping murderers to escape

    
A university lecturer who helped her boyfriend and two others escape after they shot dead a rival drug dealer has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Rachel Kenehan, 35, assisted boyfriend Pierre Lewis, 21, along with Jemmikai Orlebar-Forbes, 20 and Isaac Boateng, 22, after they killed Jahmel Jones.

Kenehan, who taught at the London Metropolitan University, met Lewis through a prisoner mentoring scheme.

The three men were all jailed for life for the killing in Southampton.

Lewis was jailed for a minimum of 29 years, Orlebar-Forbes received a 31-year minimum term while Boateng must serve at least 30 years.

Jones, 23, was shot in the head in St Mary Street, Southampton, on April 20 and died later in hospital.

Kenehan, from Hewlett Road, London, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, one count of assisting an offender and three counts of perverting the course of justice.

During the trial, the jury heard Kenehan was lecturing in criminology when she began a relationship with Lewis after meeting him in jail in March 2012.

When he was released, the prosecution said, she began assisting him in the supply and transport of Class A drugs, utilising her knowledge of criminal behaviour gained in her studies.

After the shooting, Kenehan picked up the three defendants from Basingstoke, took them back to London and helped them destroy forensic evidence.

Det Supt Paul Barton, from Hampshire Police, said it was “a real surprise that someone who is intelligent, articulate and well brought up has got involved in this kind of criminality”.

“It sounds like a love story which has gone horribly wrong. She’s become infatuated with [Lewis],” he added.

A University of Essex spokeswoman said Kenehan, who was studying for a PhD at the university, had no teaching role and would be subject to procedures in line with the University’s Code of Student Conduct.

London Metropolitan University refused to comment.

During the trial the court heard how Jones had selected the St Mary’s area of Southampton to sell crack cocaine and heroin.

Orlebar-Forbes, Lewis and Boateng had also travelled from London to sell drugs and had become rivals to Jones.

They believed he had robbed them of drugs and sought retribution.

The prosecution described how an eyewitness saw Orlebar-Forbes fire two shots with a revolver in a flat in St Mary’s Street, one of which hit Jones in the head.

Lewis from Castlenau, Barnes, Orlebar-Forbes, 20, from Cloudesdale Road, and Isaac Boateng, 22, of Mill Farm Crescent in Hounslow, had denied murder.

Lewis, Orlebar-Forbes and Boateng had previously admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

BBC