Four jailed for their part in drugs gang at centre of fatal Plymouth acid attack
Danny Cahalane died in hospital after being attacked with sulphuric acid in February last year (2025)
Last updated 4 hours ago
Four people have been jailed for their roles in a drugs gang at the centre of an acid attack which killed a dealer in Plymouth after he ran up £120,000 in debts.
38-year-old Danny Cahalane died in hospital on 3rd May 2025, having suffered what've been described as 'horrific' injuries after being attacked with sulphuric acid in his home on Lipson Road on 21st February 2025.
During an 18-week trial, the court was told Cahalane had gambled away drug money, and was targeted because he owed over a hundred thousand pounds to another dealer.
At Winchester Crown Court yesterday (14th May), his former partner Paris Wilson, 35, of Plymouth, was convicted of his manslaughter along with Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, 23, of London.
Abdulrasheed Adedoja, 23, of Neasden, London, and Israel Augustus, 26, of Tottenham, London, were found guilty of murdering Mr Cahalane.
Two other defendants, Jude Hill, 43, of Plymouth, and Isanah Sungum, 22, of Edmonton, London, were found not guilty of murder or manslaughter on Thursday.
Wilson, Jean Mukuna, 24, and Arrone Mukuna, 25, both of Camden, London, were convicted of the attempted kidnapping of Mr Cahalane on January 19 2025, while Bakas-Sithole and Adedoja were cleared of the charge.
The same five defendants were discharged of an offence of attempted GBH.
Meanwhile, Sungum was found guilty of being part of an organised crime gang involved in the supply of drugs including enforcement of drug debts.
The jury returned the verdicts after 40 hours and 45 minutes of deliberations.
Today, Sungum, Jean Mukuna, Arrone Mukuna and Hill were jailed for their roles in the attack.
Jean Mukuna, 24, from Camden, London, has now been jailed for 52 months for being the driver in an attempted kidnap attempt of Mr Cahalane on January 19 2025, aimed at recouping his drug debts a month before the fatal attack.
The jail term for the student of contemporary music included the sentence for an offence of the possession of cocaine worth £1,760 with intent to supply.
His brother, Arrone Mukuna, 25, also from Camden, was sentenced to 16 months for his role as “back-up” in the attempted kidnap.
Sentencing them, the judge, Ms Justice Norton, told them: “This was an offence that required a high degree of planning, it required coordination to ensure everyone was in the right place at the right time.”
Isanah Sungum, 22, of Edmonton, London, was jailed for 26 months for being part of the organised crime gang involved in the supply of drugs by supplying a stolen car to the group and arranging transport.
And Jude Hill, 43, of Plymouth, who is the sister-in-law of Mr Cahalane, was sentenced to 32 months in prison after pleading guilty to the supply of cannabis.
The judge said that Hill denied being part of the organised crime gang but said she had “multiple close contacts” with it.
The judge added that she had a “management role” in supplying cannabis to the UK from Thailand where she lived part of the time.
Ms Justice Norton told her: “The volumes you were concerned in supplying were considerably more than street-dealing quantities.”
Augustus, Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole and Wilson are expected to be sentenced on June 8th.
The attack
Prosecutor Jo Martin KC outlined the motive behind the attack as Mr Cahalane's failure to repay a drug debt to a dealer amounting to approximately £120,000.
She said this dealer was a man called Ryan Kennedy – with the nickname of Frost – who operated between Thailand, Spain and Dubai and was currently believed to be in Dubai.
According to Ms Martin, Kennedy became furious over Mr Cahalane's accumulating debt and staged an attempted kidnapping on 19th January 2025 before organising the fatal attack.
Ms Martin said that Mr Cahalane had been able to speak to police from his hospital bed before he died from his injuries and told them that he had built up the debts after one of his junior drug dealers had run off without paying him.
He also said that he had lost more of the money through gambling.
Ms Martin said: “He said that he knew that the man behind the attack on him was called Ryan Kennedy, who had the nickname Frost.”
Ms Martin said that Mr Cahalane had split “acrimoniously” with his ex-wife, Wilson, by 2025, and she became Mr Kennedy’s “go-to contact in Plymouth to try to put pressure on Danny to pay up, and then, to get information about Danny’s whereabouts”.
She added: “Paris Wilson was seemingly happy to give up all that information on the understanding Frost would make her wealthy.”
"Extremely challenging"
Speaking after his death, Mr Cahalane’s family said in a tribute: “Danny was an outstanding father and son.”
Devon and Cornwall Police Detective Inspector Rachel Blanchard said: “The fatal attack on Danny, and the incident in Oreston, were both organised with the assistance of someone who knew him well.
“This was an extremely challenging investigation, with the evidence revealing a sophisticated and wide-reaching organised crime network operating in Plymouth, London and beyond.”