‘It was a serious mistake he was not on that flight’: Grieving parents of man murdered by Jamaican criminal slam celebrities who spoke out to help block his planned deportation
- Ernesto Elliott was due to be aboard a Home Office charter flight in Dec 2020
- Just six months later he murdered a 35-year-old man in a horrific knife fight
The grieving parents of a man murdered by a Jamaican criminal have slammed celebrity campaigners who appealed against his deportation.
Godfrey and Grace Ago, from south-east London, said violent Ernesto Elliott should not have been free on Britain’s streets to kill their son, 35-year-old Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago.
And they hit out at celebrities such as supermodel Naomi Campbell, historian Professor David Olusoga, and actor Thandiwe Newton for their efforts to stop the deportation plane to Jamaica in December 2020, which was due to have their son’s killer on board.
Mr Ago, a 79-year-old former security guard who grew up in London, said: ‘The celebrities are on the wrong side here.’
Elliott, 45, was a serial offender with possession of an imitation firearm among his 17 previous convictions.
Ernesto Elliott, now 45 (L), was convicted of murder and jailed for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum sentence of 26 years. His son Nico, was jailed for 22 years
Ernesto Elliott, right, killed Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago in a gruesome knife fight in Greenwich
But following interventions by celebrities and Labour MPs, his lawyers lodged a last-minute challenge against deportation to his homeland, claiming it would breach his rights to be separated from his UK-based family, including son Nico who went on to be convicted alongside his father of the horrific knife murder of Mr Eyewu-Ago.
The victim’s mother, Mrs Ago, 64, said: ‘I wish he (Elliott) was not here to kill my son. I am very bitter about it. Nothing will bring Nathaniel back.’
Mr Ago added: ‘It was a serious tragedy for our family. He (Elliott) should not have been in the UK. If he had not been here, he wouldn’t have murdered my son.
‘He is a criminal, and should not be free to walk amongst men. It was a serious mistake he was not on that flight.
‘These celebrities – if such things had happened to their families as they did to ours, they would not be happy.’
Elliott was jailed for three years in 2018 for possession of a knife and an imitation firearm.
He was in breach of a suspended sentence and also had convictions for knife and drugs offences.
Under immigration laws brought in by Labour in 2007, the Home Secretary must make a deportation order against any foreign criminal jailed for 12 months or more.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell (left) and actress Thandiwe Newton (right) have made no comment since Elliott’s crime was revealed
Soul singer Beverley Knight (left) and historian David Olusoga have also said nothing of Elliott’s conviction
Possession and use of imitation firearms – as in Elliott’s case – is treated almost as seriously as functioning weapons because of the fear they instil.
Elliott and his 23-year-old son were jailed for life at the Old Bailey last month for the murder in Greenwich, south London, six months after Elliott was supposed to have been deported.
Campbell, Newton and Olusoga did not respond to questions from the Mail earlier this week.
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