Thirty-year-old fitness instructor Jude Gayle was described by his family as a generous, family-focused individual who lived for his daughter, Serenity, and his partner, Rachel Goodchild. At the time of his death, Rachel was pregnant with their second child, a son named Juelz, whom Jude would sadly never meet.
On September 24th, 2017, Jude Gayle was ambushed around five forty p.m. on Dunbar Street, near Dunelm Grove, West Norwood, London as he returned from a corner shop with a bottle of ketchup and a lollipop for his two-year-old daughter. He had been preparing a Sunday lunch with his mother when he stepped out for the errand. In a vicious attack, Jude was stabbed multiple times by a group of up to four assailants in an alleyway on the Dunelm Estate. Paramedics and London’s Air Ambulance responded swiftly, but despite their efforts, Jude was pronounced dead at the scene by six thirty-nine p.m.
The Metropolitan Police’s Homicide and Major Crime Command launched an investigation immediately after the murder. CCTV footage later released by Scotland Yard captured Jude’s final moments, showing him on his brief shopping trip. The footage, combined with a £20,000 reward offered by the Metropolitan Police, aimed to encourage witnesses to break the “wall of silence” protecting the perpetrators. The murder took place in brought daylight in a residential area near a playground, a fact that shook the local community.
Within days, on September 29th, 2017, twenty-three-year-old Tarelle Bishop of Dunelm Grove was charged with murder and appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court. A second man, aged twenty-two, was arrested but later bailed. By October, two additional suspects, thirty-year-old Leon Bishop of East Dulwich, and thirty-year-old Shane Reece St Louis of Borough, were also charged. Another man, thirty-five-year-old Jonathon Haynes of Mitcham, was later added to the list of accused.
In April 2018, the four men stood trial at the Old Bailey for Jude’s murder. However, all were acquitted, leaving the case unsolved.
On the second and third anniversaries of Jude’s death, his family and the Metropolitan Police renewed their appeals for information, with the £20,000 reward still in place for evidence leading to a conviction. Despite the renewed media push, the murder of Jude Gayle is still unresolved as of 2025.
Crime Immemorial 