Teens who lured man to beach to kill him sentenced to between five and seven years' custody

Teens who killed man with rocks and a bottle sentenced44 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJoshua AskewSouth EastKent PoliceCashford had multiple previous convictionsThree teenagers have been sentenced for killing a man they thought was a paedophile on a Kent beach. A girl, 16, and boy, 15, were found guilty of Alexander Cashford's manslaughter in Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent, in August 2025. Another boy, 16, previously pleaded guilty to the same offence. The girl and the 16-year-old boy were each given seven years in custody, while the younger boy was given five years.A trial heard they lured 49-year-old Cashford to the beach after he gave the girl his number in a chance encounter at an arcade two days before. The judge, Justice Cheema-Grubb, said the killing was an "appalling incident and senseless loss of life"."You decided to attack a man that none of you knew and two of you had never met," she said in her sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey."All he did was give a business card. He did not touch you. You could have thrown it away."The teenagers will all serve one half of their sentence and the remainder on licence.'Cruel, unnecessary and pointless'Prosecutors said Cashford was chased and hit with rocks and a bottle before he was found lying face down in the mud."This was a carefully pre-planned deliberate and violent attack on someone... who could not defend himself," said Natalie Smith, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)."Despite his best attempts to flee, he was relentlessly pursued and attacked, even when witnesses reported he was lying on the ground."Cashford, an electrician, had more than 30 external injuries on his body, the jury heard.During the sentencing at the Old Bailey, his parents said they were "crushed" by what had happened to their "kind, friendly and compassionate" son. They called his killing by the trio "cruel, unnecessary and pointless"....