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Legal
Online rap video used to threaten eyewitnesses to murder
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 30 November 2009
Two aspiring rappers from West London have been jailed for releasing a song on the internet designed to scare off witnesses to a murder from coming forward with evidence.
Ishmael McLean and Rowan Simon were found guilty of perverting the course of justice last week for posting a rap and video on YouTube relating to the murder last year of one Jason Johnson. Prosecutors claimed the message of the rap video was that anyone who spoke to police about the murder could be shot. McLean got four years for his role in creating the rap, while Simon was jailed for 30 months.
Oliver Glasgow, speaking for the prosecution, told the court McLean and Simon were among eight people arrested in connection to Johnson’s death. They were not prosecuted, but after apparently hearing that an unknown eyewitness had spoken to the police, they posted the rap online, and promoted it via MySpace and Facebook.
Glasgow said: “[The rap’s] connection to this case and its chilling message were immediately obvious to the officers. The video had but one purpose – to threaten any witness to this incident to frighten them to such an extent that they would refuse to co-operate with the police. They made it clear exactly what it was they wanted to do to them. Namely, kill them or to use their own words, ‘I can’t wait for the snitch to drop, I still show up at his wake just to see him off'”.
