Nwankwo, Hugo (2/2)

Hugo Nwankwo was convicted on 20 December 2012 at the Central Criminal Court of murder and violent disorder. He was 16 at the time of the offences.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years. Three of his seven co-defendants were also convicted of murder. 

A 17-year-old male was murdered in the early hours of 15 August 2011 at a private party in a club in Ilford. He died as a result of a single stab wound to the chest. It was the prosecution’s case at trial that the defendants had taken part in a joint enterprise to attack the victim or the victim’s friends. 

A joint enterprise arises where two or more people embark on the commission of an offence, and the law allows for multiple people to be charged with the same offence even though they may have played very different roles in the crime.  

An application for leave to appeal against conviction was refused in April 2014. The CCRC received an application for review of the sentence in February 2021 and a further application for review of the conviction in November 2021.    

On 23 May 2024, the CCRC referred Mr Nwankwo’s sentence to the Court of Appeal because days he had spent in custody on remand and on police bail before trial had not been credited. The Court reduced the sentence in July 2024. 

Following a detailed review, the CCRC decided that there was also a real possibility that Mr Nwankwo’s conviction would not be upheld and referred it to the Court of Appeal. This decision was based on new legal argument as well as new psychiatric evidence which would have assisted the jury in assessing Mr Nwankwo’s understanding and behaviour at the time of the offence. 

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 2025.