The Devastating Murder Of Damilola Taylor.
Take a moment to think about how carefree and exciting life was at 10 years old, a grazed knee from falling in the playground or an argument with a friend were your biggest worries.
For 10-year-old Damilola Taylor his youth, future and life were ripped away from him on the 27th November 2000.
Early life:
On December 7th 1989 in Lagos Nigeria Damilola Taylor was born to parents Richard and Gloria Taylor. He had a two older siblings, Belly and Tunde, both a decade older than him as his parents longed to have other children but struggled to get pregnant, until Damilola came along as the prized baby of the family.
Damilola was described as a smiling, confident and charming young boy who loved to perform! His contagious smile made him nothing short of loveable and his father said he related very well to older people like an old soul trapped in a young body he was full of conversation for people his senior.
The Taylor family lived a good life in Nigeria, the children went to good schools and Richard had a high-ranking job as a civil servant, so he was earning good money. Unfortunately, Belly suffered with epilepsy for many years but in the year 2000 her epilepsy was getting severely worse so much so that medical attention was required to save her life. The treatment required was very expensive in Nigeria but fortunately Belly qualified for treatment in the UK on the NHS as she was born there.
Moving to London, UK
With Belly’s illness in mind the family made the move to South London, Peckham. Richard could not accompany them due to his civil duties and the family couldn’t wait so the four of them set off to London. It is quite chilling to mention here that the initial plan was for Damilola to stay with his father as he had settled well in his school, but Richard gave into his lovely son’s constant pleas to join the rest of his family.
The Peckham area had a longstanding history of unemployment, a high crime rate and was quite a poverty-stricken area, very different from their life in Nigeria. Nonetheless, housing was cheap so Tunde started part time work and Belly started her treatments with her mother Gloria accompanying her appointments.
Damilola started school and fit in exceptionally well, he played football with his classmates and bought his first pair of football boots in the first few weeks of moving. He expressed his love for UK school to his father instructing him not to bring him back because he was on the way to being perfect. He spoke of his dreams of becoming a doctor and curing epilepsy, he completed extra work in the library; even at 10 he showed passion and excitement for his future. Unfortunately, this made him a target and in November 2000 after being in London for a mere 2 months he became a target. He would spend his evenings in Peckham library after school and in the cold, dark November nights the older kids hanging around this area from a rival school (mainly white) would torment and intimidate Damilola along with other minority children. Shouting verbal racist abuse, calling him gay and mocking his accent as he walked home.
On November 26th 2000 Damilola informed his mother but was adamant for her not to get involved and refused to give any further details. She walked him to school the next day and like all mothers do a concerned Gloria spoke to the headteacher informing him about what was going on. Later that day Damilola still had not returned home and a panicked Gloria took to the streets, running and asking people at the library and his school if anyone had seen her son. When she was a few streets away from her own she was met with police cars, ambulances and a crime scene.
The Murder:
Police’s theory of events is as follows:
At around 16:50pm on November 27th Damilola left Peckham library he was 400 yards from his own housing estate when he was stopped by people who were trying to steal his silver coat and his refusal to comply resulted in violence. It is unknown what happened in those few minutes, what was said or done; but it ended with one boy grabbing a smashed bottle from the ground and stabbing a 10-year-old boy in the leg. The stab wound was 6cm deep and formed a twisted S-shaped stab wound. At this time Damilola could still move but without immediate attention the wound would be fatal.
A brave Damilola, fighting for his life staggered to a stairwell of a nearby estate, he begins walking up the stairs losing so much blood, exhausted and in agonizing pain; when he is almost at the top he collapses. A man walking by sees the blood on the floor, distressed and confused he follows the trail of blood to the top of the stairwell and finds a helpless Damilola. He scoops him up in his arms trying to find where the blood was coming from as Damilola looks up at him and says what would be his last words “I’m okay”. Frantically the man called 999 “there’s a boy bleeding to death, he’s actually bleeding to death, he’s about 12 years old”. At this point around five people had gathered around after hearing the man’s shouts, all trying to stop the blood. It was apparent these were Damilola’s last moments as he began to fall in and out of consciousness. The paramedic team finally arrived but the bleeding had stopped, meaning his heart had stopped beating. At 17:30pm Damilola Taylor was pronounced dead at the hospital, dying before paramedics arrived. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/nov/29/ukcrime.nickhopkins
The Aftermath:
Whilst he was in a work meeting Richard received the call from his son Tunde that his 10-year-old son had been murdered. Upon hearing the news, he collapsed. Immediately after he made the journey from Nigeria to London, but the British press showed no signs of remorse or humanity. In all his grief and despair, he was followed by paparazzi and news reporters viciously, whilst experiencing every parent’s worst nightmare. The British press followed the family like flies and Richard couldn’t handle it, as much as he wanted to stay, he went back to Nigeria.
The investigation and trials
This case was of high priority to the police,thus there were 60 investigators assigned to the case.They traced his steps back to the library with CCTV footage depicting him playing outside with his friend; Star Wars actor John Boyega and his sister Grace showing them as the last people to see him alive. On his walk home there was little CCTV footage of him but the police found broken shards of glass with his blood near the estate. At this time DNA testing was in its infancy, as the police believed the murder was carried out by a young person it was very unlikely they would be in the database and they had no suspects. Police officers were stationed on every estate in Peckham leaving locals feeling constantly under constant surveillence. This tragedy came one year after the Stephen Lawrence enquiry was published so tensions were high between minorities and police at this time. For this reason, door-to-door enquiries ran by police were met with anomosity and a great unwillingness to co-operate making the investigation extremely difficult. The police arrested eleven young boys whom some became violent with police in their search for three young black males, between 11–15 years old.
In the Spring of 2001, five months after Damilola’s murder a 14 year old girl came forward as a witness resulting in the arrest of four young boys ages 11–16. The trial began on January 13th 2002, which the boys were described to treat like a school trip, they were yawning throughout court and using colouring books (highlighting their age). Eye-witness testimony is completely flawed as the 14 year old witness was the only thing tying the boys to the murder. The defence argued she was an unreliable witness as she had changed her story from seeing the boys walking near Damilola to seeing them stab him after hearing she could get the £50,000 reward money faster if she claimed she saw this. This suggests she was subconciously bribed and subdued as well as this she was rude in court and shouted at the defence for the way they spoke to her, which made it clear she was there for personal gain. Consequently they were let free but the police and Damilola’s family would not give up.
The case was given to someone else who went through all the leads, all new and old evidence leading to the 2005 arrest of three boys aged 16,17 and 19, who were in the original arrested 11. Their DNA was sent to be tested, they went through their belongings finding clothing that matched the description of the hooded boys they were originally looking for. They found Damilola’s blood on two of the boys shoes, Danny Preddie (17) and Ricky Preddie (16) and fibres of his jacket on Jihad’s (19) jacket. The trial was set for 2006 in which they all pleaded not guilty. The defence team argued the boys did not stab Damilola but pushed him and he fell onto the broken bottle. It is important to mention it isn’t widely believed as fact. Unfortunately it could not be proven either way as it is reasonable to believe it happened. Thus all were acquitted for murder and Jihad was cleared of all charges. Justice had to be served for this 10 year old victim, so in June 2006 the Preddie brothers were bought back for manslaughter charges. They were sentenced to eight years each as they has not taken weapons out that day so there was no intention to kill.
Both brothers were given early release in 2011 and Ricky Preddie (pictured below) re-offended continuously he was charged with GBH, dangerous driving, failing to stop and is currently serving a four year sentence for hitting a police officer with his car. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4288489/where-damilola-taylor-killers-danny-ricky-preddie-now/
Damilola Taylor Trust
Established in May 2001, by Richard Taylor the Damilola Taylor trust was set up to help young people from poverish areas and prevent knife crime by getting people involved in new hobbies and career programmes. Read more about it here: https://www.damilolataylortrust.co.uk/
