Kumbay, Asif

Asif Kumbay was convicted of murder alongside his co-defendants, Aziz Miah and Kirush Nanthakumar, at the Old Bailey on 9 June 2008. All three had pleaded not guilty but all were convicted.

Messrs Miah and Kumbay (both aged 20 at trial) were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years. Mr Nanthakumar (aged 18 at trial) was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure with a minimum term of 14 years.

All three were also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, receiving concurrent sentences for those offences.

Messrs Nanthakumar, Miah and Kumbay, and one other co-defendant, were convicted on the basis of joint enterprise of the murder of Prabaskaran Kannan.

Mr Kannan was stabbed to death in the early hours of 15 June 2007 at Tooting, South London, during a fight between two rival groups of predominantly Sri Lankan/Tamil men. Two further co-defendants were acquitted of the murder.

The prosecution case was that all the defendants had acted together as parties to a joint enterprise and, in so doing, had jointly intended that death, or at least serious harm, would be caused. The defendants ran different defences although all denied any involvement in Mr Kannan’s death.

Messrs Nanthakumar, Kumbay and Miah all sought to appeal against their murder convictions. The appeals were heard and dismissed on 21 October 2009. All three applied to the CCRC for a review of their convictions in March 2011.

Having reviewed the case in detail, the CCRC decided to refer the murder convictions to the Court of Appeal because it considered that there was a real possibility the court would consider the convictions unsafe and quash them.

The referral was made on the basis of new evidence relating to who inflicted the fatal wounds on the victim which, had it been available at trial, might have led the jury come to different verdicts. The review primarily centred on a post-conviction admission by the fourth co-defendant that he had wielded the knife.

The witness’s new account was also broadly consistent with the defences advanced at trial by, in particular, Mr Miah and Mr Nanthakumar.

The CCRC considered there to be a cogent argument that this new evidence might have resulted in the jury being more ready to accept that the actions of the applicants were distinct and isolated from the fatal attack on the victim.

The CCRC referred the murder conviction in December 2014.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in July 2015.