Robber jailed for 14 years after stabbing two men then pushing girl, 18, from a fourth-four balcony

A robber who stabbed two men and pushed a girl, 18, from a fourth floor balcony when she rejected his advances at a ‘pre-trial party’ was jailed for 14 years today.

A fight broke out at a flat in the luxury Empire Square block in Southwark, south London, when a rival group of men turned up and Ali Yusuf, 20, armed himself with a blade from the kitchen.

Ali was on bail ahead of his trial for raiding a mobile phone shop in May 2018 on Holloway Road, north London when £30,469 worth of smart phones were taken. 

On 3 August 2019 he rented flat 50 at the block, twelve days before his trial at Blackfriars Crown Court was due to start.

Guests started arriving shortly after midnight and he began harassing his victim at the event, pulling her wig off and putting her hands through the rips in her jeans. 

After the fight broke out, Ali stabbed two men then pushed the screaming teenager from the balcony. 

She suffering fractures to her neck, back and pelvis and was confined to a wheelchair for several weeks, but has since made a ‘miraculous recovery.’

Ali walked past her as she lay on ground, covering his face with his t-shirt in an effort to escape but he was arrested at the scene.

Judge Nicholas Ainley told Ali: ‘This was going to be a pre-trial party and some girls came along after midnight.

‘You did not know the victim and she did not know you. There was some sort of argument between you when you snatched off the wig she was wearing. You had obviously been drinking.

‘A group of young men arrived and these were young men who were obviously in a different group to yourself. The atmosphere very quickly turned violent.

‘You then got a knife, from it would appear, the kitchen.

‘There was a chase down the corridor outside the flat. She ran off. Some these young men had run off. You managed to get hold of a couple of them at the end of the corridor and you stabbed them.

‘She had run away. She had run round the corridor where these two men were stabbed. She was hoping to go down the lift. What you did was run up to her, and as I have said, she was small and slight, she had no weapon and she was no threat to you.

‘You caught up with her and you threw her over the balcony. She dropped down a light well and 50 feet to the ground.

‘I formed the view in this case it was a miracle she survived at all, still more miraculous she has made the recovery she has.’

In a pre-sentence report a probation officer stated: ‘His behaviour on that night is indicative of a violent rampage in which he was determined to inflict harm on others around him.’

Snapchat footage obtained by police revealed Ali harassing the victim as she arrived at the party by placing his hands onto her thigh through the rip in her jeans with his other hand around her throat saying: ‘This is what I do in the bedroom’.

But the court heard Ali maintains his innocence.

Ali, from Lambeth, was convicted of grievous bodily harm, affray and possession of an offensive weapon following a trial at Croydon Crown Court.

He was jailed for ten years for grievous bodily harm and given a four year consecutive sentence for the robbery. A concurrent sentence of two years was passed for the affray and no separate penalty for the possession of an offensive weapon.