The grief-stricken mum of a murdered student has told for the first time how gangsters executed him for refusing to convert to Islam.
Heartbroken Ruth Marriott revealed how adoring son Adrian was given the chilling ultimatum, “convert or die” days before he was blasted five times in the head.
Detectives have vowed to hunt down the brutal killers of Adrian Marriott this week after a coroner sensationally ruled the student WAS murdered.
An inquest heard this week how gun gangsters The Muslim Boys blasted Adrian five times at close range just weeks before his 21st birthday.
Three members of the mob – whose sickening attempts to hijack Islam for criminal purposes have incensed law-abiding Muslims – were accused of plotting the murder after trying to convert Adrian, a member of the rival Peel Den Crew.
But Marcus Archer, Aaron Irving-Simpson and Marlon Stubbs, all 24, were found not guilty of conspiracy to murder at the Old Bailey after the prosecution offered no evidence.
Speaking at the Southwark Coroner’s Court hearing on Wednesday, mum Ruth Marriott tearfully revealed how she heard her son being gunned down as he took his dog for a walk.
Fighting back tears, she said: “We heard the shooting. We heard gunfire.
“The thought did strike me that Adrian could be involved, but it was a fleeting thought. Then we heard from police the following evening what had happened.
“Adrian was told on the Sunday prior to his death that he would be killed if he did not become a Muslim by the Wednesday, which was the day he died.”
Asked by coroner John Sampson whether Adrian had taken the threat seriously, she added: “I do not think he did.”
She revealed the last time she saw her son was the afternoon on the day before he was killed.
She said: “He was happy. He was pestering me to order something for him out of my catalogue.
“He liked music and football, but Adrian was very much a family man. He also loved his dog.
“They would go out together regularly to the park that he died in.”
Adrian was found in Barrington Road, Brixton.
A post-mortem revealed he died from multiple gun wounds to the head.
Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, Mr Sampson said: “He was found dead having clearly been subjected to an attack with a firearm. I’m going to conclude that he was unlawfully killed.”
Detective Sergeant John Stafford, of Operation Trident, reassured the inquest, Adrian’s murder was still under investigation.
He said: “It does indeed remain a live matter. We are effectively reviewing what happened at court and still keen to talk to witnesses.”
During the trial in September, the jury was told that Stubbs and Archer had professed to have a “missionary zeal” for converting people to Islam and had targeted Adrian, his sister Tara and her friend Jade Okai.
The two women had agreed to become Muslims, had made a declaration of faith and had been given hijabs, or headscarfs, the court was told.
But Adrian, of Swinford Gardens on the Angell Town Estate in Brixton, had fallen out with the men, claiming he was threatened and had had a £500 “tax” demanded from him.
After the three were acquitted of conspiracy to murder, Archer, of Croxted Road, Dulwich, was jailed for eight years for firearms offences he had admitted earlier.
Irving-Simpson, of Crawshay Court, Myatts Field Estate, Brixton, and Stubbs, of Ward Point, Kennington, denied murder.