A convicted double murderer who gunned down a sleeping student and his aunt at their London flat has had his human rights breached due to the lengthy legal process leading to his conviction, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.
Obina Christopher Ezeoke, now 32, was eventually convicted in 2020 for the “cold, callous and brutal” murders of psychology student Bervil Kalikaka-Ekofo, 21, and his aunt Annie Ekofo, 53. The fatal shootings took place in September 2016 at the victims’ East Finchley home.
However, in a judgement delivered by the Strasbourg-based court, the ECHR found that Ezeoke’s right to a trial within a “reasonable time” — as enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights — had been violated due to the inordinate delay in reaching a verdict.
Ezeoke faced a staggering five trials before he was finally convicted, with judges noting that the repeated postponements and retrials — particularly the gap between the third and fourth trial — amounted to a breach of his civil liberties. The four-year legal odyssey, the court concluded, did not meet the standard of a timely criminal trial.
Despite the ruling, the ECHR rejected Ezeoke’s bid for compensation or early release from his life sentence, dismissing arguments that the eventual verdict was “unsafe” due to the prolonged proceedings. According to The Telegraph, judges agreed that while his rights had been breached, there were no grounds to overturn the final result of the fifth trial.
Ezeoke is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for what Judge Mrs Justice Cutts described as “cold, callous and brutal” killings. During sentencing at the Old Bailey, she acknowledged that she had considered a whole-life order but ultimately imposed a life sentence with a minimum tariff due to the defendant’s young age.
The court had heard that on 15 September 2016, Ezeoke entered the Ekofo family home in East Finchley through an unlocked door and used a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver to shoot Kalikaka-Ekofo in the back of the head as he slept. He then shot Ms Ekofo in the chest, killing her almost instantly.
The prosecution alleged that the murders were part of a gang-related revenge plot after footage of Ezeoke being attacked was circulated on Snapchat by rivals, including Ekofo’s son, Ryan Efey. The killings were said to be a deliberate act of retaliation.
The series of delays in securing a conviction became a legal saga in itself. The first trial was adjourned due to the presiding judge suffering a back injury, while the second and third trials both collapsed after juries failed to reach verdicts. A fourth trial was then postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before the fifth and final trial secured a conviction in 2020.
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In his ECHR complaint, Ezeoke claimed the extended delays compromised the quality of his defence and led to an “arguably unsafe” conviction. He had been held in a Category A high-security prison for the entirety of the legal process.
The Strasbourg judges accepted that two periods of delay were “problematic”, including the year-long gap between the third and fourth trials. However, they concluded that these delays, while unacceptable, did not alter the legitimacy of the final outcome.
The ruling has sparked political backlash, with Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick condemning the court’s judgement as another example of “judicial activism” by the Strasbourg body. “This is the latest extraordinary example,” he said. “It only seems to get worse.”
While the ECHR ruling will have no effect on Ezeoke’s sentence, it reignites long-standing debates around the UK’s relationship with the European human rights framework — particularly in high-profile criminal cases involving multiple trials and complex procedural delays.
