Bolton teen took part in two stabbings months apart

Ryan Mbella Ngongue, 19, stabbed a man in the neck 13 times with an improvised knife while serving a sentence at HM Young Offenders Institution Werrington in Stoke on January 25 last year.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Mbella Ngongue had been serving on the “Bravo Wing” when he and several other inmates attacked their victim.

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, said: “The defendant played a leading role in a directed attack by him on another prisoner, which triggered violence between a number of different inmates.

“Improvised stabbing weapons ‘shivs’ or ‘shanks’ were used by four of them, including the defendant.

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Phil Taylor)

“Of three weapons which were recovered from others, two were adapted from plastic cutlery and one from a pen with an enhanced grip and a metal point.

“From the CCTV it can be seen that the item wielded by the defendant had a significant blade, no other description of it is available and it was not recovered from him.”

Mr Blackshaw told the court how Mbella Ngongue came up to his victim from behind before stabbing him repeatedly in the neck, leaving him with 13 stab wounds.

He said that on being taken back to his cell by the guards Mbella Ngongue said “obviously just crashed it on my n**** innit” but gave no further explanation of why he had attacked the man.

Mr Blackshaw said on searching his cell, the officers could not find the makeshift knife while Mbella Ngongue appeared to laugh and say: “it’s not here” and something like “it’s gone”.

He said there was no evidence that the defendant was interviewed but that a statement from the prison governor spoke of the vital need to protect order.

But just months later, after having finished his sentence at the young offenders’ institute, Mbella Ngongue was then involved in another stabbing incident, this time back in Bolton.

He was one of around 12 people, all dressed in black and masked up, some of them on e-bikes, who launched the attack on Hudson Close, Daubhill on July 28 last year.

Before going into their victims house the group of men called out his name and shouted something that Mr Blackshaw said sounded like “you’re finished, you!”

Before going into the house Mbella Ngongue said something sounding like “where is my shank man?” and was handed a knife.

The man picked up a metal gate and tried to defend himself but was attacked by a group of four other men, including Mbella Ngongue and was left with several stab wounds.

The attackers all the fled the scene but Mbella Ngongue was recognised on CCTV footage by a police officer who had had dealing with him.

Mbella Ngongue was arrested at his home on Rosamond Street, Daubhill on August 14 that year.

Mr Blackshaw said that the victim had not provided any statement out of “fear of reprisals” but said that the incident had clearly been an “organised, coordinated group attack”.

Mbella Ngongue pleaded guilty to violent disorder and possession of an unauthorised weapon in prison in connection with the young offenders institution attack.

For the Bolton knife attack, he confessed to a section 18 assault and possession of a bladed article.

Oliver Jarvis, defending, said the 19-year-old had earned credit for his guilty plea but said he had been given no instructions on why the young man had committed his crimes.

He said that Mbella Ngongue had made “bad choices, exposed to peer influence.”

Mr Jarvis said the defendant was an “impulsive young man, who acts without thinking about the consequences.”

The Honorary Recorder for Bolton Judge Nicholas Clarke KC ordered that Mbella Ngongue be brought back to court to be sentenced on Wednesday April 13.