Gang leader who set deadly honeytrap for 16-year-old can be released from jail

Danny McLean, along with five others, killed Shakilus Townsend in a cul-de-sac in south London after he was lured there by girlfriend Samantha Joseph.

Published Nov 30, 2022

Gang member Danny McLean, who lay in wait with five others armed with knives and baseball bats to kill a 16-year-old boy.

A jealous ex-boyfriend who led a masked and hooded gang to ambush and murder a 16-year-old boy in a honeytrap can be released from prison, the Parole Board has said.

Danny McLean, now 32, lay in wait with five others armed with baseball bats and knives to kill Shakilus Townsend in Thornton Heath, south London, in 2008.

The harrowing murder saw McLean’s ex-girlfriend Samantha Joseph, then 15, deliberately lead the lovestruck teenager into the deadly ambush, during which he was beaten and stabbed six times.

A neighbour chased the gang away and came to Shakilus’s aid as he lay dying.