A killer who bragged about beating a teenager to death is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of murder.

James Danby, 27, and housemate Tony O’Toole, 30, attacked 18-year-old Luke Harwood on March 27 last year after a girl wrongly claimed he had raped her.

The young father was bundled into a car owned by Emma Hall, 21, who also shared the house in Crow Lane, Romford, and she drove them to Woodford Green, where the attack continued.

Danby then repeatedly stamped on the victim’s head, causing fatal injuries.

His body was hidden under a mattress in a stream near playing fields in Broadmead Road in Woodford Green.

Danby spent the following day bragging about the murder, boasting that the killing had promoted him into the ‘A-Team’ of crime.

But Hall tipped off the police the day after the murder after Danby announced he was going to return to the body to remove the hands and teeth.

Officers lay in wait at the scene and arrested the group as they returned with knives and wire cutters.

“His murder was quite extraordinarily callous and violent and brutal,” said prosecutor Simon Denison.

“His facial skeleton was crushed.

“They then concealed his body by covering it with a mattress and other items.”

Following the conviction, Detective Chief Inspector John Sandlin said: “The attack on Luke Harwood was unbelievably violent. The injuries he suffered were horrific. His face was unrecognisable.”

As well as being found guilty of murder, Hall and Danby were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice.

O’Toole was also convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Another man, Billy Duggan, 21, was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

The rape complaint against Harwood was dropped after the accuser was interviewed by police.