Leicester crown court in the United Kingdom (UK) has jailed Richile Vangu and Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola for robbery and forcing partygoers to dance at knifepoint.
According to BBC, Steven Evans, the trial judge, on Monday, sentenced Vangu, a 20-year-old student, to 11 years’ imprisonment, while Akinrinola, a 19-year-old Nigerian student was jailed for seven years.
Evans said Vangu and Akinrinola had planned to force partygoers to take part in a dance for social media after threatening them with a knife at a gathering in North Kilworth, Leicestershire, on November 21, 2025.
The judge said Vangu recruited a group of men for the scheme, including Akinrinola.
He said the duo forced at least eight men into a bedroom before threatening them with a large knife while stealing designer clothes and an iPhone.
The BBC reported that Vangu forced each of the men to pay him £1,000, threatening to stab them in the leg if they refused, before forcing them to perform TikTok dances.
Vangu reportedly instructed some of the men who failed to transfer any money to come to a student accommodation on Bath Lane later that day.
When the men arrived at the student accommodation, Akinrinola forced some of them to do star jumps and high knees before repeatedly punching them.
Vangu was also said to have flogged some of the men with a belt, shot them in the head with a BB gun, and threatened to cut their dreadlocks if they failed to pay him.
He subsequently posted videos recorded at both the house party and the student accommodation on TikTok.
The judge held that although Akinrinola was “subservient” to Vangu, he played “an essential part” in the offences.
Vangu was convicted of four counts of robbery, 10 counts of blackmail and one count of actual bodily harm.
Akinrinola was convicted of nine counts of blackmail, four counts of robbery and two counts of actual bodily harm. He was acquitted of one count of blackmail.
