TITLE: Group theory conjecture on hurwitz groups
QUESTION [11 upvotes]: Conjecture: Let $p$ be a prime.
Then the group 
$G := \langle a, b \ | \ a^2, b^3, (ab)^7, [a,b]^9, (([a,b]^4)b)^{2p} \rangle$ 
has a composition series of the form
${\rm PSL}(2,8) - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p - {\rm Z}_p$.
Is there any literature on this subject, and if not, how can this conjecture be proved?

REPLY [17 votes]: For some reason, people seem to be voting to close this, so I will give a quick reply. Your conjecture is true and it can be proved mainly by computer.
The group $G=\langle a,b \mid a^2, b^3, (ab)^7, [a,b]^9 \rangle$ has a homomorphism onto ${\rm PSL}(2,8)$. Let $K$ be the kernel. Then it can be shown that $K$ is nilpotent of class 2, with $|Z(K)|=2$ and $K/Z(K)$ free abelian of rank 7. The element $x:=([a,b]^4b)^2$ lies in $K$ and maps onto a generator of $K/Z(K)$. So factoring out the normal closure of $x^p$ in $G$ will result in an extension of an elementary abelian group of order $p^7$ by ${\rm PSL}(2,8)$.