Singer’s cousin is jailed for robbery

The gangster cousin of singer Leona Lewis was jailed indefinitely — 14 years after he was convicted of one of London’s most notorious sex attacks. Adrian Henry was aged 14 when he was the leader of the teenage mob Venom, which gang-raped an Austrian tourist in King’s Cross and threw her in a canal. He was sentenced to 12 years in 1997 and on his release was involved in an armed robbery at Holloway and sent to prison. Only days after being freed in 2009 he broke into a sauna and massage parlour in Kentish Town, threatened the staff with a handgun and knife then stole their belongings and the takings. Henry, now 29, of Hornsey, and Terry Heywood, 35, of Croydon, pleaded guilty at Blackfriars crown court to five charges of robbery, one of attempted robbery and possession of a firearm. At the age of 14, Henry was already 6ft 1in tall and weighed more than 17 stone. He was dubbed Congo because of his massive, intimidating build and was close to Learco Chindamo, the killer of headmaster Philip Lawrence. He admitted rape only as the trial was due to start — but victim Alexandra Sablatnig, 33, was then forced to relive her horrifying ordeal in the witness box as other gang members pleaded not guilty. She was stripped, beaten and repeatedly raped on the canal towpath, then thrown naked into the water and left to drown. She swam to safety after the gang left and later picked out Henry as one of the rapists who had hurled her into the canal. Her husband blamed her for the attack and their marriage broke up. But a year after the trial she waived her right to anonymity as a sex attack victim to reveal she had found new love with a British policeman. Henry and seven other gang members were told by the Recorder of London Sir Lawrence Verney as he sentenced them at the Old Bailey: “You and they showed no mercy and you cannot expect that mercy will be shown to you.” But his time spent behind bars did nothing to dampen his lust for crime and violence. Soon after his release he carried out a robbery with two accomplices at a flat near Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. They broke in with their faces masked by balaclavas, attacked the three occupants and snatched £11,000 in cash, a Rolex watch and a mobile phone. When police arrived at the scene they found Henry hiding in a bush. He was sentenced to six years by Blackfriars crown court.