Four to stand trial on murder plot charge over Sasha Johnson shooting

Four men are to stand trial on a murder plot charge at London’s Old Bailey in March over the shooting of anti-racism activist, Sasha Johnson.

The 27-year-old was shot in the head during a house party in Peckham, southeast London, on 23 May.

Prince Dixon, 25, of Gravesend, Cameron Deriggs, 18, of Lewisham, and 19-year-old Troy Reid and 18-year-old Devonte Brown, both of Southwark, are all charged with conspiracy to murder.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday morning, Mr Justice Sweeney confirmed that he would oversee a six-week trial, set to commence on 7 March.

All four defendants are currently in custody. They have not yet entered formal pleas, but their lawyers indicated at a hearing on 25 June that they would deny the murder plot charges.

Ms Johnson had been attending a 30th birthday party at a house on Consort Road on the night she was injured.

A mother-of-two, Ms Johnson has an “activist and community support” role at the Taking The Initiative Party, and was a lead organiser during the vast Million People March through London during the wave of anti-racism protests in the summer of 2020.

Ms Johnson’s family said in June that she was “fighting for her life in hospital” and that, while she had undergone two operations to relieve pressure on her brain, it was “still going to be a number of weeks before we know the full extent of her injury”.