A social media feud between would-be gangsters in Britain led to the murder of Lyrico Steede, a 17-year-old Bermudian student fatally stabbed last year in Nottingham.

Nottingham Police traced the killing on the night of February 13 to a squabble over respect amplified by YouTube rap videos.

The groups’ rivalry was fuelled by lyrics for drill music, a brand of hip-hop known for violent lyrics about street life and crime.

Detective Chief Inspector Hayley Williams, the lead investigator into the killing, told the Nottingham Post there had been bad blood between Mr Steede and his friends and a group of teens around the area of Sneinton and Radford in Nottingham.

Last month, a jury found Kasharn Campbell, 19, and Christian Jameson, 18, guilty of murder, and a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, guilty of manslaughter, along with Remmell Campbell-Miller, 18.

Police called Campbell the ringleader and said he came to a park in Stock Well, to which Mr Steede had been lured to meet a girl, with Jameson, Campbell-Miller and the 17-year-old boy.

Mr Steede, who was stabbed 18 times, died in hospital five days after the attack.

Mobile phone evidence was used to track the suspects, Ms Williams said. Mr Steede’s old phone held a Snapchat video apparently showing two of the defendants being chased.

In a drill video posted online in November 2017, Mr Steede and friends appeared to mock the rival group.

Ms Williams called the groups “kids that are wanting to be gangsters” and said police were aware of earlier tit-for-tat skirmishes between them, characterised by a “knife culture”.

Campbell and his gang were said to have posted a video two days after the murder that included references to Mr Steede’s killing.

The five are to be sentenced this month.

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