A ten year old died after being stabbed on his way home from school.

A ten year old died after being stabbed on his way home from school. Upsetting scenes Watch on iPlayer DAMILOLA: THE UNTOLD STORY [Newsreader] A ten year old died after being stabbed on his way home from school. [Tony Blair] There is shock and outrage right across the country. [Journalist] Never before has Peckham witnessed the scale of killing it's seen in the past four days. It was a consistent thing on my mind. Everyone's going to get stabbed. I'm next. Damilola was always full of energy. He was always running, skipping, jumping. Kicking a stone. Kicking something on the road. He was just always carefree, really. He just... Carefree little boy. Just... happy. Enjoying life. This brings back some memory of St Briavel's Court. Tunde Taylor Damilola's brother I think we were somewhere up there. My dad created a family unit that was the centre of that small community. And he was, for sure, the 'go-to' for a lot of people that moved from Nigeria, from Ghana. Damilola's parents had communicated with my parents that, "Oh, Damilola's in the school. We know that your children are there. Make sure that you look out for him." Damilola's first day in my class, My teacher, Mr. Bossiney, he was like, "Oh, Grace, there's a new guy called Damilola and he's from Nigeria. And obviously you're Nigerian. You understand the language and all of that stuff, so you can show him around." And that's how we were basically paired together. In my class, was mainly Nigerians, there were a few Jamaicans and then there were British people. It was the Jamaicans, it was the Caribbeans that would make fun of the Nigerians. At lunchtime, I would see Grace and Damilola a lot, and once I was done eating, you know, we were back outside to just, you know, muck about a little bit more. Damilola had a crush on Grace. He did, and I hated it. I hated it, I hated it. I don't know, that's my sister. Back up bro. [School bell rings] When you're leaving school, there were these older kids waiting for us, just right outside the school gates. You would expect for someone to try and take your stuff. There were these Jamaican brothers that bullied Damilola. They were about two years older than us. Them always wanted to just, like, punch him up a little bit, rough him up a little bit, you know, take his book bag, throw it somewhere, you know, and he's the type to just talk back or take off running. Ricky was the older of the two. Danny was 12 years old. They were very well-known for violent crime. People feared them. NOVEMBER 29TH 2000 On that night, myself, Damilola and Grace went to the local library. You could go after school and just be in a safe environment, pick up some books, use the computers that they had. Stuff that we didn't have in our house. Damilola was like running around and he was saying, oh- He was like ready to go but We had just got there so I was like, "No, why don't you wait for us?" But he left. When we left the library, he was outside. He was skipping around. Yeah, he was just like playing. I remember, specifically, saying to John, "Let's walk him to his house." And then he was just like, "No, it's okay. My auntie's waiting for me, so I'll be fine." He was going towards North Peckham Estate. So yeah, that's where we left him. Hmm... Yeah, that was it. Can you send an ambulance to Blake's Road It's a boy bleeding to death He's actually bleeding to death This boy is approximately about 12 years of age He has lost a hell of a lot of blood How's he done that? What's happened? We do not know sir. We've just come out and found him on the staircase He's tried to climb up it We approached the stairs and the stairwell was lit up. And you could very clearly see, going up the stairs, on every third or fourth step was, was a real thick pool of blood. And in each pool of blood there was a small footprint. And as I reached that landing, I looked up and I could see Damilola. You could see some blood coming from his lower left leg, and I remember his sock being sodden. Someone had cut his school trousers, around the area of his left knee. I'd never seen somebody stabbed on the inside of their knee, in the precise location of that major artery. My colleague had found Damilola's wound, and I remember distinctly saying, "If you have to, just apply as much pressure as you need to, to stop that blood." I then moved back up to his head and started to attempt, at least, to give him CPR. Is he still breathing? I don't know if he's actually stopped... has he stopped breathing? Yes. He has, yes No pulse. No pulse I remember going in through the A&E entrance, and then being shown where my mum was waiting, and then being shown where Damilola was. Our lives changed completely from that night. You could still see the flashing lights of the police officers' cars, like flashing in the estate. Like, you could tell that they were there. They had the presence. Coming in to ask us questions. They said that something had happened to Damilola, and erm... they had found out that we were one of the last people with him. But they were like, you know, that basically the guy's not around no more. That didn't make no sense to me. And then Grace started crying, screaming. A 10-year-old boy. Doesn't make any... It doesn't make any sense. I never heard those kind of cries and echoes in, in the house. Frightened out of my mind. Like, I didn't know kids could die. Within literally hours, the team was starting to get information from the house-to-house, that a gang called the Young Peckham Boys was involved. It was consistent with the behaviour that they'd been carrying out. Putting fear in people, threatening people, injuring people. So, this was in their playbook. After a number of days, we started to get a clear understanding that there was an altercation outside the school. Preddie boys, and the Young Peckham Boys were, erm, targeting Damilola because he was different and they wanted to, erm, ridicule him. When he got pushed, he pushed back. This morning at 6am, two black youths were arrested at addresses in the Southwark area, in connection with the murder of Damilola Taylor. 14. 12. 2000 The Preddies were taken back to Peckham Police Station. They were processed, and then released straight back out into, into their own community. There was no evidence. They were back up to their usual tricks, and the intimidation had returned. There was days that I would cry myself to sleep, and I'll be crying, praying like, "I don't wanna die: I don't wanna die." Damilola dying was my first experience of death, and my first experience of murder. APRIL 2003 TWO AND A HALF YEARS SINCE DAMILOLA'S KILLING The examining forensic scientists were asked to conduct a really thorough examination. it turned out that blood that had come from Damilola was transferred onto one of the trainers. A blue trainer worn by one of the Preddie brothers. There was er, blood also that was transferred onto an item of clothing worn by one of the Preddies, and there was fibre transfer from the maroon school sweatshirt that Damilola was wearing that had found its way onto the Preddie brother's clothing. 25 JANUARY 2006 FIVE AND A HALF YEARS SINCE DAMILOLA'S KILLING Two teenagers have gone on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of the ten-year-old South London schoolboy, Damilola Taylor. We placed the Preddie brothers on trial for murder, with an alternative of manslaughter. The jury heard Damilola was stabbed, or jooked, by the Preddie brothers. They didn't seem to have access to a knife, so a beer bottle was partly smashed so that it presented jagged edges and that was thrust into Damilola's leg. Today, two brothers, aged 17 and 18 were cleared of his murder and assault, but the jury couldn't decide whether they were guilty of manslaughter. There were loud gasps around the court as the verdicts were read out. The brothers didn't react, just stood there with their hands by their sides. The jury couldn't determine whether the person who inflicted the blow intended their victim to die, or just be injured. Ultimately, they made a decision to find not guilty the Preddie brothers for murder. But the jury could not decide on manslaughter. There was nothing standing in the way of one more trial, and we were determined to give it another go. 23 JUNE 2006 SIX YEARS SINCE DAMILOLA'S KILLING The legal test was slightly different, with an indictment for manslaughter only. Essentially, we were presenting the same evidence. And I had an impression of two young men, quite disengaged from the process. Today, in court, the brothers received their punishment for manslaughter. Eight years' detention in a young offenders institution. I don't really think, in my opinion, the time they got, it was enough for the offence they had committed. It's taking someone's life. Erm... But then, can you bring the life back? After Damilola's death, it's almost like that, that line had been crossed between, children being regarded as sacrosanct, to a scenario whereby children are potentially now fighting and killing each other. There were scenarios of murders. Stabbings... of multiple people we knew. And then it advanced into more horrific things, shootings. It just progressed. And then you realise it, "Rah, we're from Peckham." You just start fixating on it. And then it feels like you're waiting in a line and it's, it's like a random thing or they just picks random individuals. One day you're with this guy in the same class, and then the next day, the person is gone. Michael Dosunmu, a committed Christian and son of Nigerian immigrants, is the third person to lose his life in Peckham over the last four days. Arsema Dawit was stabbed to death near Waterloo on Monday. 16-year-old Kiyan Prince, a youth team footballer, attacked outside the gates of his school Sam Ogunro. You know? Zac. Little Zac. Lyle Tulloch. He was a friend. And he was the most quiet, nice boy. Like, same, same as Damilola. It's like, why would anyone want to kill someone like him? I think that's when I became a bit numb. Like, anyone can die at this point. It was a consistent thing on my mind. I'm next. I was on a timer. I was on a timer. It was no B, no C options for me. Anyone that's known me since then knows I quickly found what I wanted to do soon after Damilola Taylor's death. Because at 10 years old, I got my scholarship to Theatre Peckham. I was in pursuit of this, from that moment forward, because of the reality of what could potentially happen. Damilola's legacy, to me, means being able to be unrealistic with your dreams. He wrote a poem. We used to recite it all the time at Oliver Goldsmith School. "I will travel far and wide to choose my destiny and remould the world. I know it is my destiny to defend the world, which I hope to achieve in my lifetime." Damilola didn't listen to the fear. He didn't. From that poem, he had plans. And he honestly came across as if he didn't care about the environment that he was. He was more so fixated on where he was going. So what's my excuse? 188 TEENAGERS LOST THEIR LIVES TO YOUTH VIOLENCE IN LONDON BETWEEN 2000 - 2010