Police are offering £10,000 reward for whereabouts of Lerone Boye pic: Metropolitan Police
Detectives are offering a £10,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of a convicted killer who has escaped from a Hackney secure mental health unit.
Lerone Boye, 27, absconded from the John Howard Centre in Homerton on October 16 and has not been seen since.
Boye is the second patient to escape from the Hackney unit in four months. A member of staff, mental health worker Dean Ablakwa, 29, was charged with conspiring to assist Boye’s escape.
The Ministry of Justice, the prison service and the East London NHS Foundation Trust decided to place Boye in the facility rather than prison, when he was convicted of murder in December 2012. Boye and three accomplices were found guilty last year of killing 17-year-old Kelvin Chibueze, from Croydon, in August 2011. He was sentenced to 28 years.
After being chased from a party at The Arteflex Club in Ilford, Chibueze was stabbed in a possible gang-related attack. He died in hospital after being found in a car park with multiple stab wounds.
At the time of trial, Judge John Bevan QC said: “We are still none the wiser as to the cause [of the murder], and whether or not it has to do with gang violence.”
Detective Sergeant Mark Romain, Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: “Kelvin Chibueze was ruthlessly attacked, chased and left to die…The violence used brutally ended a young man’s life and showed scant regard for the safety of others in this busy venue.”
Boye has links to Barking, Newham and Ilford. Scotland Yard intelligence suggests that he may be in the east London area.
The public have warned against approaching Boye, and the public are urged to call 999 or Crimestoppers anonymously, on 0800 555 111, if they have any information regarding his whereabouts.
Boye is a 5ft 10ins black man with a slim build. Distinctive features are a horseshoe shaped scar on his right cheek and a gold tooth. He was last seen wearing a grey/blue sweatshirt and grey jogging bottoms.
UPDATE November 27: Detectives are now offering £15,000 to anyone who can provide information on Boye’s whereabouts which leads to his arrest. Crimestoppers, who boosted the original reward by an additional £5,000, can be contacted on 0800 555 111, or via their website www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
