Teenager guilty of Matalan manager murder

A teenager who knifed a shop manager during a botched cash raid was found guilty of murder today.

Jamie Simpson, a 33-year-old originally from Derby, was stabbed by Kobina Essel after cashing up at a Matalan store in Hackney, east London.

Essel, 19, of east London, was convicted by an Old Bailey jury today of murdering Mr Simpson in March 2008.

Security guard Roy Williams, 31, of Edmonton, north London, alleged to have been the gang's "inside man", was cleared of murder.

Jurors were told today that they could return majority verdicts upon which 10 of them were agreed in relation to five other defendants, who all deny murder. It is their third day of deliberations.

Williams has already been found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to rob.

Two of the remaining defendants, Jammal Chambers, 18, of Poplar, east London, and Duane Owusu, 20, of Manor Park, east London, were also convicted of that charge.

The other three in the dock are Anthony Maina, 20, of Canning Town, east London, Simeon Jumah, 25, of Manor Park, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named. They had already admitted conspiracy to rob.

As today's verdicts were returned, the victim's parents, Lorna and Lambert Simpson, joined hands with two of their daughters who were in court with them.