A FOOTBALLER who gunned down a woman at a christening party and then stabbed a pastor's daughter to death has been caged for at least 30 years.

Gravesend and Northfleet striker Roberto Malasi was only 16 when he shot Zainab Kalokoh, 33, in the head as she cradled a baby in a Peckham community centre.

Just 15 days later, he dragged 18-year-old student Ruth Okechukwu from a car in nearby Walworth and knifed her in the heart for "disrespecting" him.

The Old Bailey heard Malasi and three other teenagers, who are all illegal immigrants, burst into the Wood Dene Community Centre on August 27, 2005. They were wearing balaclavas and armed with guns.

Mrs Kalokoh was holding her six-month-old niece when she was hit by a single shot from Malasi's 9mm automatic pistol.

She had fled war-torn Sierra Leone in search of a better life.

While she lay dying on the floor, the gang made their way around the hall and told guests to hand over their wallets and mobile phones.

Nigerian brothers Timy and Diamond Babamuboni, who were 14 and 16 at the time, and Jude Odigie, then 15 but now 16, were all convicted of manslaughter, possession of a firearm and robbery while Malasi was found guilty of Mrs Kalohoh's murder.

Timy was also convicted of possession of ammunition without a licence.

RUTH OKECHUKWU

The court heard how two weeks after the shooting, Malasi attacked Ms Okechukwu in Red Lion Row, Walworth.

Malasi, now 18, was arrested after going to the police himself to complain his victim's family had tracked him down after her death and confronted him.

Keen football fan Ms Okechukwu was the daughter of a pastor from the Celestial Church, Peckham.

She had been studying sport science and hoped to become a therapist for a Premiership club.

On September 10, 2005, Malasi was making a call to a girlfriend and told her to make a group of friends in the background, including Miss Okechukwu, to "shut their mouths".

Ruth argued with Malasi and the following day he hunted her down, finding her sitting in a Ford Fiesta with a male friend.

He opened the door and stabbed her six times in the neck, arms and chest - severing a main artery to her heart.

Prosecutor David Malcolm told the court how the following day, Malasi went to the police and "complained he had been dragged from his room in Peckham, he stated, by people who were looking for the killer".

Mr Malcolm said: "He told police he had been beaten up but had got away and had run to the police station."

A sample of Miss Okechukwu's blood was found on Malasi's left trainer.

He was arrested and charged with her murder on September 21.

Friends who had gone with him to the scene of the murder later gave evidence against him and he pleaded guilty to the murder last month.

Malasi is the son of an illegal immigrant from Angola who had an asylum application rejected but was allowed to stay in the UK after appealing.

MR JUSTICE GROSS

Sentencing the gang, Mr Justice Gross recommended Diamond Babamuboni be deported.

He was unable to recommend the same for the other killers.

Malasi had previously been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK and the other two are too young.

But Mr Justice Gross said: "I would strongly urge the Home Office to consider or reconsider the position of each of you.

"Had it been within my power to do so, I would have unhesitatingly have concluded the continued presence of all the defendants is not in the best interests of this country."

He added a copy of his sentencing remarks would be sent to the head of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

Mr Justice Gross summed up: "On the verdicts of the jury, you four, quite possibly with others, set out to rob the guests attending the christening party.

"By cruel irony many of the guests at the party had come here to escape the violence of Sierra Leone.

"The firearms were loaded with live ammunition when you stormed the community centre.

"One or more shots were fired in the air, doubtless as part of the robbery and to terrify the guests.

"You, Malasi, then fired at head height into the crowd, fatally wounding Zainab Kalokoh.

"In the pandemonium which followed, you methodically scooped up belongings from the terrified party guests."

He told Malasi: "Almost incredibly, some 15 days later you murdered again.

"This killing was the more chilling, if that is possible, because it followed so closely the murder of Zainab Kalokoh."

PREVIOUS REPORT

Shortly after Mrs Kalokoh's murder, News Shopper reporter Sara Nelson spoke to her son Idris Kargbo, then nine.

Idris was living with his aunt in Hackney at the time of the shooting and was moved to be with his father Alieu in Dartford after the tragedy.

He said: "I am really missing my mum, I feel very upset and I can't eat or sleep.

"Every day I am crying and every day I think about her. I just want the police to find the people who did this and put them in jail."