Williams, Dale

Lerone Boye, Dale Williams and Roger Damali were convicted on 22 November 2012 at the Central Criminal Court of murder and violent disorder.  

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. 

All three defendants received a sentence of life imprisonment with minimum terms of 28 years (Mr Boye), 26 years (Mr Williams) and 23 years (Mr Damali). 

However, each defendant spent time in custody whilst on remand which was not deducted from their sentence. This issue was not raised at the time of sentencing. 

Indeterminate sentences are an exception to section 240ZA of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and therefore time spent in custody whilst on remand cannot be deducted administratively by the prison if it is not addressed at the time of sentence. 

On 18 July 2024, following a referral from the CCRC, the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of Hugo Nwankwo-Ekeh, another co-defendant in the case, to reflect the number of days served on remand. 

As a result of this judgment, the CCRC identified that similar circumstances applied to Mr Nwankwo-Ekeh’s co-defendants.  The CCRC wrote to the defendants in December 2024 and applications were subsequently received from all three.   

The CCRC took into account the passage of time between the sentence hearing and this issue being raised but considered that there was a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would find that in the circumstances of the case, any delay could not be attributed to the defendants. 

Consequently, there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would correct the legal error and deduct the time spent on remand by each defendant from their minimum term. This was: 434 days (Mr Boye), 483 days (Mr Williams) and 295 days (Mr Damali). 

In addition, there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would deduct a further four days from Mr Williams’ sentence to reflect time spent on police bail under a non-qualifying curfew, as it did for Mr Nwankwo-Ekeh. 

The CCRC referred the sentence in March 2025.