Woman shouts 'I'm innocent' as she is found guilty of murdering Sheffield man killed in park stabbing

24-year-old Sacad Ali lost his life in a fatal knife attack carried out at Ponderosa Park in the Netherthorpe area of Sheffield in the early hours of March 9, 2024, despite the best efforts of medics, police and residents who attempted to come to his aid. 

Two teenage boys, Male A and Male B - neither of whom can be identified for legal reasons - have pleaded guilty to Mr Ali’s murder.

Rebecca Moore has been on trial at Sheffield Crown Court for the last three weeks accused of Mr Ali’s murder, after denying the offence at an earlier hearing.

A jury of seven women and five men have this afternoon (Monday, November 11, 2024) found 25-year-old Moore guilty of Mr Ali’s murder.

While Moore initially appeared emotionless as the verdict was read out, she began shouting: “I didn’t even do it,” as arrangements for her sentencing hearing were being discussed.

Moore, of no fixed abode, then began to sob and continued to claim she is ‘innocent,’ as The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told her she would receive a life sentence.

“You have been convicted by the jury of murder...the sentence I will pass upon you is mandatory. It is life imprisonment. The issue I have to determine is the minimum term,” Judge Richardson told Moore, who continued to protest her innocence from the dock until she was escorted out of court by security guards.

Moore was remanded into custody until her sentencing hearing later this month.

The jury were sent out to deliberate this morning, and it took them just three hours and 19 minutes to return the unanimous verdict.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, thanked the jury for their service, and told them: “Thank you very much for the public duty you have performed.”

He also acknowledged it had been a ‘difficult’ case upon which to serve as a juror.

Get Sheffield’s biggest stories as they’re happening - sign up for the new breaking newsletter

“It was Rebecca Moore that lured Mr Ali out of a flat under the promise of sexual favours, he was then attacked and stabbed,” said Simon Kealey KC, as he outlined the prosecution’s case against Moore on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

He told the jury that the issue for them to decide upon is whether Moore was ‘part of’ the fatal attack upon Mr Ali, and whether she ‘shared an intention to cause him either really serious harm or to kill him’.

Moving to the motive, Mr Kealey said the ‘short answer’ for why Sacad was attacked was ‘drugs’ and the fact that Ms Moore, Male A and Male B believed Mr Ali was dealing crack cocaine ‘on their patch’. 

All three defendants are alleged to have had involvement in a Sheffield drugs phone line, known as the ‘Frank’ line, through which users would request drugs that had been supplied to the defendants from those ‘higher in the chain’.  

“It’s clear from what Rebecca Moore was later to say that she knew - and in all likelihood so did Male A and Male B - that Sacad Ali was involved in dealing drugs,” Mr Kealey said.