'Girl executed by Yardie hitman'

A seven-year-old girl was shot in the back and killed as she ran away to stop her identifying her father's killer.

Toni-Ann Byfield was executed by what police believe was a Yardie hitman who had just killed her father Bertram Byfield, a 41-year-old convicted crack dealer.

Toni-Ann, who had just arrived in the UK from Jamaica, became the youngest victim of Yardie gang violence in London, police said.

Detective chief superintendent John Coles, head of Operation Trident which investigates black on black gun crime, said: "Mr Byfield was shot several times and his daughter once in the back, I assume that she was trying to run away from the gunman."

Mr Coles, a hardened detective, looked visibly moved as he went on: "It is without doubt the most evil and despicable crime I have come across in all my service and it shows the lengths some people will go to to protect their identity after committing a murder."

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