Channel 4's documentary series The Digital Detectives has returned for a second series, examining the murder of 19-year-old Jaydon McFarlane and the fate of his killer, Osita Alagbaoso. The series follows detectives navigating investigations in a rapidly evolving technological world, with each episode focusing on a specific case within UK police forces.
In March 2020, McFarlane was fatally stabbed in broad daylight on a residential street in Ashford, Kent. The attacker wielded both a zombie knife and a kitchen knife. Detectives discovered that the victim and killer were former friends who had become members of rival gangs, involved in a dispute over counterfeit £20 notes used to buy cannabis. The incident culminated in a chase through a shopping centre.
Background of the murder
McFarlane was chased down a street and fatally stabbed after using three fake £20 notes to buy cannabis from Joseph Matimba. A teenage girl with McFarlane received a text from Matimba reading: "I suppose you lot think you're funny - you're going to regret it - karma." The murder resulted from a rivalry between two gangs in the Ashford area, with Kent Police confirming a series of violent incidents in the weeks before McFarlane's death.
Alagbaoso and Matimba swapped clothes in a local takeaway's toilets and hid the knives used in the attack. They were driven to Canterbury by a third man, Hassan Tejan. Kent Police linked Tejan's car to the offence, and he was stopped by armed police on his way back to Ashford and arrested. Police found fragments of the knife at the scene and two knives beneath Victoria Road bridge. Alagbaoso's DNA was found on two of the weapons.
Sentencing
Alagbaoso was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. He also received a concurrent sentence of four and a half years for stabbing another man in Ashford's Memorial Gardens in January 2020.
