Trio convicted of teenager's murder due to GPS tag

Three men have been found guilty of stabbing a teenager to death in a park after being caught at the scene of the crime by an ankle tag.

Daniel Matos, 23, Keith Preddie, 34, and Joshua Cowley, 29, were found guilty on Friday of murdering 19-year-old Tyler Donnelly in Feltham, west London.

They were convicted after an Old Bailey jury in a retrial deliberated for 46 hours and 28 minutes.

Jurors heard that a GPS tag fitted to Matos enabled police to track his movements as he and the other two defendants cycled to the scene of the attack in Hanworth Park, two of them armed with large knives.

Donnelly had also cycled there in his role as a runner for a local drug-dealing business operated from a phone number called the "John line".

Instead of meeting his customers, he was set on and fatally attacked on 24 January 2024.

His body was found the next day in thick grass near his discarded bicycle.

He was still carrying nearly 30 packages of heroin and crack cocaine, a large knife in a leather sheath tucked into the waistband of his trousers and £300 in cash.

Matos's DNA was also identified on an unlit cigarette beside the body and he had the victim's blood on the sleeve of his hoodie, the Old Bailey was told.

Previously, prosecutor Julian Evans KC said the killing came against the background of drug dealing and the "inherent" danger it posed.

Shortly beforehand, two people had used the "John line" to order drugs and gone to the park expecting to meet Donnelly.

Instead they encountered Preddie, who one of them knew as P, along with the two others in face coverings or balaclavas and carrying knives.

The men appeared "hyped" and when asked to leave the park, the drug users did as they were told, jurors heard.

The "sustained and targeted" attack on Donnelly took five minutes and was not caught on camera or witnessed by anyone, jurors were told.

The victim was stabbed several times, with a fatal injury to the neck.

Det Ch Insp Brian Howie, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "Tyler's family have had to sit in court and listen to every harrowing detail of how he was stabbed and left to die alone.

"Each of the defendants had their role to play and committed acts of horrific violence.

"My team worked tirelessly over many months, painstakingly gathering evidence to ensure that the three men were brought to justice."

Sentencing will take place at the same court on 17 March.

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