Teens awaiting sentence for killing schoolboy

The brothers, Danny and Ricky Preddie, have been convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey and will be sentenced later this month. Damilola’s parents, Richard and Gloria, had waited six years and endured three trials before seeing their son’s killers brought to justice.

Richard Taylor, a Nigerian, had worked for some time in Britain as a civilian in the Ministry of Defence. His wife, Gloria, lived here in the 1970s and 1980s.

They both felt it would be a good place for Damilola to grow up. He arrived in London from Nigeria with his mother in August 2000 and moved in with an aunt on the Peckham Estate in South London.

He was enrolled at a school a few minutes’ walk from his home and soon impressed his teachers with his outgoing character. He was determined to do well, making full use of computers which he did not have in Nigeria. On the day he was killed, just ten days before his 11th birthday, he was on his way home from a computer class at the local library.

As he merrily walked home, he was suddenly surrounded by a group of youths. He had no money, mobile phone or other valuables, so the thugs decided to take his winter jacket instead and stab him “to teach him a lesson.” Just a few weeks earlier, Danny Preddie, the younger of the two brothers, had punched Damilola in an attempted robbery near the same spot.

This time, however, the elder brother, Ricky, slammed a broken beer bottle into Damilola’s left thigh, twisted it and wrenched it out. The gang then ran off. The young boy staggered 100 yards, managing to struggle up a stairwell before collapsing a short distance from his home. He was found, barely conscious, by a workman who followed the trail of blood. But it was too late. The attack had severed an artery and the boy bled to death.

The Old Bailey heard that the brothers were untamed monsters, even before reaching their teens. Left wild to roam the streets of South East London, they terrorised their neighbourhood.

They turned their “home turf” into a grotesque urban jungle into which Damilola stepped innocently. They were members of two huge gangs and bragged that this made them untouchable.

They were often high on marijuana and committed violent street robberies to grab money to buy more drugs. They wielded baseball bats and knives and fleeced terrified commuters of cash, mobile phones and watches by steaming through trains with other gang members.

Desspite their age and size, they could not be controlled by the police, social services or courts.

They were often seen swaggering out of youth courts after receiving lenient sentences or seeing their cases fall apart on a technicality.

When they were given bail, they breached it. On the few occasions they were locked up, they re-offended soon after release.

They were among a five-strong mob who tried to rape a girl of 11. When her mother went to the police, they petrol-bombed her home and forced the girl out of school by setting cronies on her. They escaped trial when a judge said the high court could not hear the case. He explained that a youth court should have taken it on but he had no power to refer it back.

Five months before Damilola died, Danny used a baseball bat to rob a 13-year-old boy. He was convicted of assault with intent to rob.

At the time of the young Nigerian’s death, Danny was on bail on robbery charges. Hours before the attack on Damilola, he was hauled into court for breaching a curfew but, astonishingly, he slipped away to take part in the stabbing.

Damilola’s death prompted a massive investigation by the Metropolitan Police. In 2002, four youths went on trial for his murder at the Old Bailey but they were all cleared. Scotland Yard then ordered a second investigation. This time, crucial blood spots and other clues were uncovered for the first time.

The Preddie brothers and nine other youths had been arrested during the first investigation but because forensic clues were missed, they were all released. The brothers were re-arrested last year but were cleared of murder and assault at a trial in April.

The jury could not agree on manslaughter and a retrial was ordered. It was this retrial, which began in June, that ended in last week’s guilty verdict.

After the verdict, the Home Office announced an independent review into why forensic clues that eventually nailed the killers were first missed.

Hundreds of cases may now be re-examined amid fears that the Forensic Science Service made similar blunders, allowing other killers to go free.

Conviction of the brothers for Damilola’s manslaughter has come after two police investigations and three trials costing ?20 million. His grief-stricken parents, Richard and Gloria, kept their dignity and resolve throughout the police investigations and the three traumatic trials. They had to hear three times in harrowing details how their’s son’s life ended in a filthy stairwell on a run-down estate in south London.

Commander Dave Johnston, head of the Metropolitan Police homicide and serious crime division, paid tribute to Damilola’s family.

He said, “Throughout the six years since their son died, the Metropolitan Police have been supported by them. Gloria and Richard Taylor impress all they meet with their dignity and fortitude. Their patience has been rewarded. This has been a long journey for justice.”

As for the Preddie brothers, their grim march to infamy began in Spanish Town, Jamaica, where their father, Alfred, was born. He emigrated to Britain in 1966 and became a womanising shopkeeper.

He sired countless children, with Ricky and Danny being born to a fiery woman of Jamaican origin. Left mostly to their own devices, this is how they have ended up, awaiting sentencing for the manslaughter of little Damilola Taylor.