Dec 19

Dec 19 Gavin Grant: The Footballer Jailed For Murder

Crippy Cooke

Stories

The Story of Gavin Grant: The Footballer Jailed For Life

Football can bring a person out of poverty and pull them away from a life of crime. However, Gavin Grant couldn’t quite leave behind what he tried to escape from.

But how did he end up behind bars? Sports writer Crippy Cooke tells the full story.

footballer Gavin Grant — Gavin Grant, the footballer jailed for murder. Credits: The Telegraph

Gavin Grant should have been celebrated for overcoming the odds as a non-league player who moved up to the Football League, but his professional career had an expiration date as soon as it began.

The 39-year-old committed a heinous crime one year before being headhunted by the Football League, so it was only a matter of time before the law caught up with him. The striker maintained a successful football career, despite being a killer - and he was eventually convicted in 2010.

Gavin Grant ended the life of a friend, as well as ruining his own, but what exactly happened? The Sporting Blog tells all….

Life in Stonebridge

Gavin Grant was born in Brent, a borough in North-West London, on March 27, 1984. He was raised in Stonebridge – a low-income estate that was known for high levels of gun crime.

The ward had the second-highest unemployment rate in late 2020, compared to other London wards – so the odds weren’t great for residents to climb the socio-economic ladder.

Grant grew up on the same street as drug dealers and violent gang members, so he was desensitised to gang activity at a very young age.

Some of his childhood friends fell into that life, but Grant continued to chase his dream of becoming a professional footballer. All he did was play football in the streets and he developed so much that he quickly excelled his peers.

A big opportunity came his way at the age of 14. Watford signed Grant as a schoolboy, but he was released at the age of 16 as they didn’t deem him good enough for a pro contract.

Grant wasn’t academic at school and put all his eggs into one basket while with the Hornets, so he entered adulthood without any academic qualifications.

He would work at Tesco to pay the bills, but his friends were earning £1,500 a week from selling drugs, so that proved too good to ignore for somebody on minimum wage.

Usual Suspects Gang

One of Grant’s childhood friends, Damien Williams, formed the Usual Suspects Gang (USG) as an arm of TOS (Thugs of Stonebridge) in the early 2000s.

Gareth Downie and Romaine Whyte, also good friends of Grant, joined the gang along with Leon Labastide (Playboy). Grant, without a club and much formal education, would make the same decision.

USG would sell drugs, rob people for money and have violent fights over territory. They were a stain on the community and Grant spiralled while a part of the gang.

He quickly learned that criminal enterprises are full of untrustworthy, deceptive and manipulative people, but Grant was seduced by the money it brought in.

However, his loyalty would be tested after Labastide was accused of burglarising Whyte’s residence. Playboy allegedly stole drugs and £20,000 while terrorising three women at the property.

Williams was believed to have ordered Grant and Downie to kill Labastide as retribution – their childhood friend of many years. But the pair didn’t blink.

Grant Commits Murder

In January 2004, Grant and Downie shot Labastide outside his mother’s home on the Stonebridge estate. Grant wouldn’t be charged for five years, however, and he was accused of another murder in between.

A man named Sean Cephanis allegedly posted threatening letters to the homes of TOS members, blaming them for Labastide’s death, so he became a target.

Roberto Parchment (Rufus), Darren Mathurin (Spydar) and Grant were part of a five-man TOS group that hunted down Cephanis while he was at a party with Jahmall Moore in 2005.

Cephanis left earlier, so they shot Moore instead. He didn’t die instantly, however, instead calling emergency services and telling them Rufus was to blame.

Spydar was also implicated after burning himself at the scene of the crime and being forced to go to hospital. But he testified against the group for a lenient sentence, and all were arrested, including Grant.

Grant would be cleared of Moore’s murder in 2007, but he was convicted of Labastide’s murder in 2010. The jury failed to reach a verdict in a 2009 trial, but a retrial resulted in Grant being found guilty.

The court heard Moore’s murder was part of tit-for-tat shootings on the estate and his death was linked to Labastide’s. Grant was given a life sentence - 25 years minimum in prison.

"Gavin Grant thought he had got away with murder. He carried on his footballing career while, all along, he had blood on his hands" - Detective Inspector Steve Horsley said.

Gavin Grant: A Man Living Two Separate Lives

Despite killing a man and being a part of the group that killed a rival one year later, Grant was still chasing his dream as a professional footballer.

The same year Moore died, Grant was playing for semi-pro outfit Tooting & Mitcham of the Isthmian League First Division (8th tier of English football).

He scored 10 goals in 16 league games and caught the eye of Barnsley, but it was Gillingham that gave him a contract until the end of the 2005/06 season.

Grant was released after struggling for playing time and Millwall came calling in May 2006. He wasn’t ready for first-team football, however, so they loaned him to Grays Athletic in 2007.

Grant was under investigation over Moore’s murder at the time and his loan was cut short after he was arrested for breaking his curfew.

Millwall made the controversial decision to keep Grant on the books and loaned him back to Grays for another year, before sending him to Stevenage Borough in 2008.

Grant was released by the Lions, but the Wycombe Wanderers deemed him worth a punt.

(2005) Tooting & Mitcham – 16 league appearances, 10 goals
(2005/06) Gillingham – 10 league appearances, 1 goal
(2006 - 2008) Millwall – 4 league appearances, 0 goals
(2007) Grays (loan) – 7 league appearances, 3 goals
(2007/08) Grays (loan) – 16 league appearances, 2 goals
(2008) Stevenage Borough – 14 league appearances, 7 goals
(2008 – 2010) Wycombe Wanderers – 10 league appearances, 0 goals
(2010) Bradford City – 11 league appearances, 0 goals

New manager Peter Taylor rated Grant highly, having signed him on loan while at Stevenage, but he only made 10 league appearances over two years.

Grant didn’t feature from October 2008 onwards and the real reason was hidden from the public - he had been re-charged with the murder offence. The verdict wouldn’t come until 2010.

Taylor signed Grant at Bradford on a non-contractual basis in February of the same year and played him while he awaited trial. When Grant was sentenced in July, court documents show he was still on Bradford’s books.

Grant had the world at his feet but he couldn’t escape his environment. Football could have provided him with the riches he chased while in a gang, but bad decision-making cost him a quarter of a century.

He won’t be eligible for release until 2035, when he’s 51 years of age.