To the outside world, John Soyoye was a young man who had the world at his feet. The 16-year-old was studying in college, and had a passion for music.
He was part of a loving family with two older brothers, one of whom was studying for a Masters degree. Born in Germany, John and his family made a home for themselves in Manchester.
They were looking forward to a bright and happy future together. But it was only after John was brutally murdered in the street that his mother began to learn of another side to her son's life, which she'd tragically been unaware of.
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Despite his age, he was regarded as the leader of a street gang. He was also an up and coming rapper, known by the nicknames 'Morsley' or 'MD'.
It was a gang that was not previously on GMP's radar, before his merciless slaying at the hands of a rival outfit. A crown court trial laid bare in grisly detail how young men affiliated with a gang called Representing the Danger (RTD) were willing to take to the streets, armed with machetes and knives, and murder a teenage boy.
A second trial revealed how their rivals sought to get revenge for John's killing. Their deadly animosity was seemingly over no more than geographical boundaries, and 'beef' fuelled via social media and drill music rap lyrics.
It is a depressingly familiar tale across Greater Manchester. Mohamoud Mohamed, 17, Sait Mboob, 18, and Abdul Hafidah, also 18, have all been stabbed to death in postcode based gang murders in recent years.
While those killings occurred in the south of the city, John Soyoye's murder concerned gangs to the north of town. His Moston based 'M40' outfit saw the Rochdale and Oldham based RTD as their fierce rivals.
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