Britain’s ‘most hated drill rapper’ Digga D has sparked fury by backing two violent criminals who shot dead an innocent mother outside a church.
Digga D, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, called for freedom for his friend Perry Allen-Thomas – who was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering 44-year-old Michelle Sadio.
Ms Sadio was gunned down outside the River of Life Pentecostal Church in Willesden, north London, on December 14, 2024.
She had been among around 100 mourners, including children as young as five, attending the wake for 80-year-old Dianne Boatong.
At around 9pm, guests were outside on the pavement when a stolen black Kia pulled up and shots were fired into the crowd.
Ms Sadio, a legal administrator, was hit and died at the scene.
Transport for London contractor Kenneth Amoah, 39, was hit in the back and paralysed below the waist, and self-employed Kadeem Francis, 32, was shot in the foot.
The intended target was said to have been a rapper called Trapstar Toxic, real name Adetokunbo Ajibola, 33, who was at the event.
Digga D (pictured), whose real name is Rhys Herbert, called for freedom his friend Perry Allen-Thomas who was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering 44-year-old Michelle Sadio
Ms Sadio was gunned down outside the River of Life Pentecostal Church in Willesden, north London , on December 14, 2024
After an Old Bailey trial, Perry Allen-Thomas, 27, and Amir Salem, 20, were found guilty of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Upon hearing the news, Digga D, 25, who was jailed last year for importing and supplying 99lbs of cannabis, commented on his pal’s conviction.
Alongside a picture of Allen-Thomas and broken heart emojis, he wrote: ‘f***ed up system’ and ‘3 my darg’.
One of his followers screenshotted the post and reposted it on X where people expressed outrage at his vile comments.
‘F***ed up system? Your bredrin killed a woman for nun. F***ed up mindset,’ one fumed.
Another said: ‘”F***ed up system” they killed an innocent woman. Digga D is a fool.’
Rapper Shaquille Sutherland, known as Lil Shak, 26, from Wembley, and Tahjin Sommersall, 19, from Feltham, west London, were cleared of wrongdoing during the trial.
The prosecution had alleged Mr Sommersall had been in the Kia with two other men, who fled the country after the incident.
At least four shots were fired, although it was not known who in the Kia pulled the trigger.
Allen-Thomas, from Wembley, north London, was said to have helped organise the shooting but ensured he was elsewhere at the time.
The Kia used in the attack had been stolen and was being driven with false number plates.
After the shooting, it was doused in petrol and set alight.
Salem, from Wembley, had bought some of the petrol used to set the fire, jurors heard.
On the night of the shooting, Salem was in contact with the Kia occupants and reported back to Allen-Thomas, jurors were told.
The weapon used in the shooting had been used twice before in the previous few months, and was said to be a ‘gang gun’.
It is unclear why Digga D feels the system that found two men guilty of murder is faulty in some way or why he feels his friend shouldn’t serve jail time for killing an innocent woman.
But it wouldn’t be the first time the words of the drill rapper from Ladbrook Grove in west London have made the public angry.
Digga, as he is called by his fans, has multiple convictions for gang-related crime and drugs with friends claiming he had earned up to £3million from rapping before he was jailed last year.
His use of rap songs and videos to goad rivals and glorify violence has seen him dubbed ‘London’s most hated rapper’ online due to the number of enemies he has.
Herbert, from west London, was even subject to an ultra-rare police order that controls his musical output because it was linked to violence.
Amir Salem (left), 20, and Perry Allen-Thomas (right), 27, were found guilty of murder and two counts of attempted murder
Digga, as he is called by his fans, has multiple convictions for gang-related crime and drugs with friends claiming he had earned up to £3million from rapping before he was jailed last year
On one occasion, he was almost blinded when stabbed in the eye by a rival during a previous spell in jail for a machete attack. On another occasion, someone tried to kill him by opening fire on him in his car.
In January last year, Digga D was jailed for three years and 11 months for selling 45 kilos of cannabis after helping import the illegal drug from the US.
He was arrested after police launched a raid on his property in Bracebridge Heath near Lincoln in the early hours of February 21 last year – while he was broadcasting live on Instagram.
He pleaded guilty last May to importing 3.6 kilos of cannabis in June and July 2023 and a further charge of supplying cannabis.
At his sentencing in January Judge Simon Hirst decided on the level of Herbert’s drug dealing after hearing two days of evidence, because the prosecution did not accept the basis of his pleas.
Judge Hirst said he was satisfied Herbert had played a significant role in selling cannabis for a commercial profit and jailed him for just under four years. However, he was released early in October 2025.
The court heard Herbert had six previous convictions for 13 offences, including possessing an offensive weapon and violent disorder for which he was sentenced to 30 months’ youth detention in March 2020.
Herbert told a hearing he began smoking cannabis from the age of 12 and used the drug throughout his teenage years to ‘help with his frequent migraines’.
He claimed it was ‘a benefit’ to buy his cannabis in bulk as he could afford it and it proved cheaper.
The musician said buying in bulk also reduced the chance of him coming to the attention of the police as he was often stopped both in London and elsewhere in the country.
He said he also obtained bags of cannabis to use in the video for his hit song I’m From.
The rapper, pictured, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, was found guilty last May of importing 3.6 kilos of cannabis in June and July 2023 and a further charge of supplying cannabis
Mobile phone footage of the star handling a bag of cannabis and allegedly complaining about the poor quality was also played in court.
A number of photographs also showed Herbert handling large amounts of cash, the court was told.
In May 2025, Digga D was convicted of driving a £200,000-plus Lamborghini without insurance close to Piccadilly Circus.
He was prosecuted over the incident in 2023 while languishing in HMP Brixton for his drug offences.
He was previously jailed for two and a half years for his part in a machete brawl in front of shoppers in central London and was released in May 2020.
Anti-knife campaigners also criticised the BBC for producing a documentary about a violent rapper in which he complains about his struggle to make music that glorifies gang attacks.
BBC promotional material for the programme at the time stated: ‘Police say they target drill because it promotes and causes violence, but the genre’s supporters call this censorship and say that the art simply reflects real life. Digga’s situation, and his ongoing story, embodies this dilemma.’
A Metropolitan Police order even banned him rapping about rivals or specific attacks, although he can refer to violence generally.
His supporters said he was being censored.
But he had hidden apparent coded references to attacks in songs, and the name of his group, The Conspiracy Gang Members, is thought to be a ‘tribute’ to members of his 1011 drill gang arrested in 2018 on their way to attack rivals.
In 2018, five members of the 1011 gang, including Digga D, were jailed and banned from making violent videos after they were caught with machetes and baseball bats on the way to attack a rival gang in 2017.
They had got in a black car and drove towards the postcode area of their rivals, the ’12 World Gang’ from Shepherd’s Bush, intent on revenge.
But police swooped and found they were carrying deadly weapons.
A judge banned the five young men from mentioning death or injury in their songs or on social media and ordered them to inform police before they record or perform songs.
In 2019, cyber criminals broke into the Metropolitan Police Twitter account and posted tweets calling for the release of Digga D from jail.
In a now-deleted tweet the hackers wrote: ‘FREE DIGGA D ON FOENEM GANG.’
The account, which is normally only used to update the public on ongoing policing matters, had posted tweets that said: ‘‘F*** the police’ and ‘What you gonna do… phone the police?’
In one video viewed nearly three million times, on YouTube Digga D boasted about having to bleach his knife after using it to attack someone.
His songs are also explicit about sex as well as gang rivalries in London.
The lyrics in his songs are often degrading toward women as he brags about treating them poorly and with little to no respect.
He is so hated that rival gang The Harrow Road Boys (HRB) hatched a plot, which they were later jailed over, to shoot him.
The group attempted to hunt down the controversial artist, who was part of the Ladbroke Grove–based CGM (Cherish God More) gang, as part of a tit–for–tat postcode war in west London in 2022 and 2023.
