A dog walker heard a teenage girl yelling ‘You’re a paedo’ at a 49-year-old man who was chased and beaten to death by the seafront, a court was told.
Electrician Alexander Cashford was allegedly ambushed by a 16-year-old girl and two boys, 15 and 16, after he gave the girl his phone number and arranged to meet her on the Isle of Sheppey last August.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that the teenagers, all of whom deny murder and cannot be named, were seen by a number of witnesses attacking Mr Cashford with rocks and calling him a ‘paedo‘.
The 16-year-old boy, who admits manslaughter, is said to have stalked Mr Cashford and the girl for 850 metres as they walked along the promenade together.
Footage filmed by the girl and shown in court shows the boy catching up with Mr Cashford and striking him across the back of the head with an empty glass bottle.
The 16-year-old boy was seen hurling ‘large rocks at Mr Cashford’s already seemingly lifeless body and head’, Prosecutor Kate Blumgart KC told jurors.
The victim was later found dead with multiple injuries.
Ewelina Wypych was walking her dog on the beach that evening when she saw people running along the seafront.
Alexander Cashford, 49, was beaten to death with rocks in Leysdown-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey on August 10, 2025
The 16-year-old boy was filmed smacking Mr Cashford on the back of the head with an empty glass bottle
She told the court: ‘All of a sudden three males started running, just racing each other.
‘One of the males fell over.’
She said that at first she thought they were a family.
‘It was just racing, I didn’t think much of it. Two of the men got close to us. I didn’t know what to do.’
She said that one of the men then asked for help.
‘He said ‘Help, help’, twice.’
‘What kind of voice?’, asked Kate Blumgart KC, prosecuting.
Ms Wypch replied: ‘It wasn’t shouting, he just said ‘Help, help’. We were the closest so I assumed [it was addressed] to us.’
‘Did you reply?’, asked Ms Blumgart.
‘No I didn’t say anything’, said Ms Wypych.
The two boys appear to chase Mr Cashford down the promenade, when a witness heard him shouting for help
Police search the area around Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent, in the aftermath of the incident
She also said that she heard a girl shouting ‘You’re a paedo’.
She continued: ‘When I got home I could hear a helicopter. I could hear that something had happened… It was obvious that paramedics were performing CPR on someone.’
A post-mortem examination showed Mr Cashford sustained injuries to his face and head, bruises on his limbs and body, and a number of fractured ribs that had punctured his lung.
Another witness on holiday in the area described seeing the 16-year-old boy ‘smirking like he had just won the candy out of the candy shop’ after the fatal assault.
He allegedly shared footage of the attack with three people, with the caption: ‘f****d pedo (sic) up lol’.
Mr Cashford had met the girl by chance at an arcade in the seaside resort two days earlier, on Friday, August 8, Ms Blumgart previously told the court.
He gave her a business card that had his phone number on it.
The 16-year-old boy saved it in his own phone as ‘pedo’ (sic) and over the next two days around 75 messages were exchanged, with Mr Cashford believing he was talking to a 16-year-old girl called Sienna.
He claimed to be 30, asked her if she liked champagne and said he wanted to kiss her.
‘Sienna’ then suggested they meet at her parents’ empty home and told him to bring alcohol, the jury heard.
Mr Cashford met the 16-year-old girl by the sea wall in Leysdown-on-Sea at around 7pm on Sunday, August 10, and just over an hour later he was pronounced dead, the court was told.
Ms Blumgart told the court: ‘These three defendants did happen by chance to meet Mr Cashford. What happened thereafter, however, was not by chance.
‘They were so outraged by his interest in “Sienna” that they deliberately planned to attack him.
‘This was a joint attack with each of them playing a vital part.’
She said that a witness saw the 16-year-old boy throwing rocks towards Mr Cashford, describing the first throw as ‘like a lob’, ‘frantic’ and with ‘a lot of power around it’.
She said that after a later throw, ‘Mr Cashford did not react at all, he was lying face down in the mud.’
The 16-year-old admits manslaughter but denies murder, while the other boy and the girl deny murder and manslaughter.
The trial continues.
