Gang members who set upon and murdered a rival with baseball bats, knives and machetes have been given life sentences.

Tobi Animashan was 25 and trying to make a new life for himself when Jeremiah Lloyd Johnson, 23, Codie Goodensimms, 22, and Antoin Gray, 22, attacked him as he left work.

Tobi was stabbed to death as he left Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Distribution Centre in Anchor and Hope Lane on Sunday, September 11 last year.

Witnesses told the court how three cars full of young men were waiting outside the front gates and approached Tobi as he left at about 7.45pm that evening.

The men had a conversation with Tobi about working and whether he was still part of ‘Road Life’ before they attacked him, armed with knives, machetes and baseball bats, without warning.

Tobi was stabbed multiple times and suffered wounds to his heart and abdomen.

One of the attackers, armed with a knife, threatened members of the pubic before the gang left in the three cars.

Police officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and Tobi was taken to a south London hospital but died the following morning.

Johnson, from Leyton, and Goodensimms, of Fairthorn Road, were members of a gang based in Charton and Tobi had been a member of a rival gang from Thamesmead.

Tobi had left the Thamesmead gang, started work and was on a “new and positive path”.

Johnson, Goodensimms and Gray, of Troughton Road, were each handed a life sentence at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of murder.

They will each serve a minimum of 17 years.

London CPS reviewing lawyer Navnit Dosanjh said: “These three men lay in wait for Tobi Animashaun, among a group armed with weapons and with the clear intent of murdering him or causing him very serious injury.

“The prosecution case involved eyewitness accounts, CCTV, telephone call records, DNA and fingerprint evidence, and proved beyond reasonable doubt these men took part in the attack.

“Part of a chain from Johnson’s neck was found at the scene with his DNA on it, Gray was identified among the armed group by an eye-witness. 

"Goodensimms was identified as travelling to the murder scene with the other two men.

“This would have been an extremely disturbing attack for members of the public, some of whom were threatened with weapons when they tried to go to Mr Animashaun’s aid.”

“Three dangerous men will now spend a significant time behind bars. We hope these convictions bring some sense of comfort to Mr Animashaun’s family.”