Two cleared of drive-by gang shooting of teen girl

A rapper and his friend have been cleared of murdering a 17-year-old girl in a drive-by gang shooting in north London after four trials at the Old Bailey.

Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was fatally shot in the street as she danced and socialised with friends in Tottenham on the evening of Easter Monday on 2 April 2018.

Rapper Marcus La Croix, 38, from Hackney, was cleared of her murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life following a retrial earlier this year, it can now be reported.

Melbourne-Blake's family have sat through a total of four Old Bailey trials – two each for Clarke and La Croix, also known as Bobby Slater.

On 19 May, Tanesha's mother left the court in tears after the verdicts were delivered by the jury which deliberated for 13 hours and 34 minutes.

Last week, another jury was discharged after it failed to reach verdicts in the retrial of co-accused Michael Clarke, 37, from Luton.

On Friday, the prosecution offered no evidence and Clarke was formally acquitted of Tanesha's murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The outcomes can only now be reported after Judge Mark Dennis KC lifted reporting restrictions at the conclusion of proceedings.

Previously, the court had heard how the teenage girl had been with a group of friends playing "penny up" against a garden wall, dancing and socialising before a car pulled up and shots were fired from an open tinted window.

She had shouted "duck" then screamed "I've been shot" and called for her mother as she collapsed and died at the scene.

Jurors were told the killing came at the peak of tit-for-tat violence between two neighbouring gangs in north London and an incident the day before when La Croix was beaten up and footage shared on social media.

Tanesha Melbourne-Blake did not associate with gangs and so may not have been the intended target, the court heard.

Her boyfriend had said: "I have no idea why this happened to Tanesha.

"We do not hang around in any gangs and have no issues with anyone. Tanesha doesn't even go to parties."

A month after the shooting, a street cleaner recovered the gun wrapped in a towel dumped in a grassy area nearby.

Examination of a bullet recovered from Tanesha's body found it was fired from the same gun used in the mistaken identity fatal shooting of Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, in Walthamstow, east London, in March 2018.

The court heard the shooting came amid "longstanding enmity" and territorial rivalry between criminal gangs operating in north London.

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