This is the face of Cyrus Pinnock, a violent teenage gang leader who was finally unmasked this week as his last trial came to a close.

The 19-year-old from Tooting was the leader of the G Block gang, believed to have been responsible for more than 100 robberies in Tooting and Wandsworth.

For legal reasons his identity has remained a secret until Friday (August 28), when he was convicted at Kingston Crown Court for a particularly bloody mugging which left the victim unconscious with a slashed head.

Reporting restrictions were lifted folowing a challenge from the Wandsworth Guardian.

Speaking outside of court, a police source said: “He is a young man who is violently out of control.

"He clearly gets a buzz out of inflicting violence on complete strangers.

“I don’t think he’s poverty-struck at all. He’s just into committing horrible acts of violent crime.”

Pinnock was found guilty this week of robbing and wounding Andrew White with three other assailants on October 13, 2007, near Garratt Lane.

Police believe he learned his trade from these other men, some of whom are convicted criminals, while he was living in Elliot Court, near Southside Shopping Centre.

In 2004 he moved with his mother to Tooting and formed his own street gang named after Gearing Close, where he lived, but kept strong links with the Wandsworth robbers.

He recruited seven other boys during football coaching sessions on Tooting Bec Common, one of whom was just 13 years old.

Together they went out at night in balaclavas and masks, armed with knives and mallets, mugging mainly young professionals between July and December 2007.

When they were arrested, police seized Pinnock’s computer and found internet conversations with fellow gang member, predicting that he would be on the news for attempted murder after a mugging in Wandsworth.

Andrew White was set upon by four youths on the corner of Iron Mill Road and Borrodaile road, where witnesses saw him being beaten with a metal bar and a knife.

The source added: “The violence was really severe. It resulted in him losing consciousness.

“They were striking a lifeless body. They robbed him of his wallet and they were trying to obtain his pin number, but he was unconscious.

“They left him for dead and ran off.”

Officers are now investigating Pinnock and his Wandsworth associates in relation to other unsolved crimes in the area.

Pinnock began to worship gang culture after living in the United States as a youngster.

Pinnock will be sentenced for robbery and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Monday, October 12.

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