Gabriel Charles, 20, has been locked up for life with a minimum of 28 years for the cold-blooded murder of Jesse Lloyd-Smith. Jesse was shot in the head in a Peckham alley near the Damilola Taylor Centre on July 10, 2024—just yards from his own home.
Execution-style killing planned to the last detail
Judge Patrick Field KC slammed the murder as a “planned and premeditated execution.” Charles didn’t act alone or on impulse, the court was told.
Jesse’s mother, Ty Lloyd-Smith, heard the gunfire from their flat nearby. Terrified, she ran out calling for Jesse only to find him bleeding on the ground. Her friend Jamie Burgess tried desperately to help before Jesse died in hospital the next day.
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Spent cartridges and bullets from a 9mm automatic pistol were recovered close to the scene, which CCTV captured in distant shots.
Justice for Peckham’s lost youth
Judge Field praised Jesse’s family for their “fortitude and quiet dignity” through the harrowing trial and condemned the “ignorant, unfeeling and disrespectful” behaviour of the defendants in court.
Charles’ deadly attack is the latest tragic chapter in Peckham’s troubled history, recalling the fatal stabbing of Damilola Taylor, 10, in 2000—near the same landmark that bears his name.
