Campaigner Richard Taylor, the father of Damilola Taylor who was killed in Peckham in 2000 aged ten, has died.
The trials that followed Damilola’s death gripped the nation for years, with his killers finally convicted in 2006.
Who was Damilola Taylor?
Damilola Taylor, born in Lagos, Nigeria, moved to the UK with his brother, sister and mother in the summer of 2000.
The family had moved to London in search of a better life and treatment for his sister Gbemi who had epilepsy.
At 4.41pm on November 27, 2000, he left Peckham Library having attended an after-school computer club.
These were his last moments. Soon after, he was discovered on a stairwell in a pool of his own blood on the North Peckham Estate.
He’d been slashed with a broken bottle which severed an artery in his left thigh. He was pronounced dead after being taken to King’s College Hospital.
A trail of blood from the wound in his leg led from the stairwell to Blakes Road where police believed the attack took place.
Relatedarticles
He was just ten days away from celebrating his 11th birthday when he was killed.
Who were his killers?
His killers, brothers Ricky and Danny Preddie, were aged twelve and thirteen at the time.
They were eventually convicted of manslaughter – but only six years later and after three trials.
The troubled youths, who had been in and out of children’s homes, were suspects from the outset.
But despite Operation Seale, a police investigation involving 120 officers, the brothers weren’t even prosecuted during the first trial due to a lack of forensic evidence.
What happened in court?
The first trial
Initially, a group of four people, which didn’t include the Preddie brothers, stood trial.
The four youths – one aged fourteen, two fifteen-year-old brothers and a sixteen-year-old – were charged with murder and assault with intent to rob in June 2001, seven months after Damilola was killed.
But the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a fourteen-year-old named ‘Witness Bromley’ whose accounts were deemed unreliable.
Meanwhile, the defence argued Damilola hadn’t been attacked but had fallen on a broken bottle and bled out.
The prosecution’s case collapsed. Two of the defendants were acquitted on the direction of the judge and the remaining pair were found ‘not guilty’ by the jury.
The second trial
The second trial in 2006 saw the Preddie brothers, now aged seventeen and sixteen, and Hassan Jihad, nineteen, charged with murder.
Forensic re-examinations had brought new evidence to light including a 9mm blood stain on Danny Preddie’s trainer containing fabric fibres from Damilola’s jumper.
Once again, the defence argued Damilola had fallen on the broken glass.
The jury cleared Jihad of all charges on April 3, 2006, but couldn’t decide whether to convict the Preddie brothers of lesser manslaughter charges.
The third trial
Two months later, in June 2006, a new trial began with the Preddies accused of manslaughter.
The defence argued forensic evidence could have come from contamination.
The brothers, who it emerged were meant to be under supervision at the time of the killing, were convicted of manslaughter.
They were sentenced to eight years in youth custody and given early release in 2010 and 2011.
Ricky Preddie, also known as Ricky Johnson, was later jailed for another four years in 2020 after running over a police officer.
What is Damilola Taylor’s Legacy?
After his death, parents Richard and Gloria set up the Damilola Taylor Trust in May 2001 to campaign against knife crime.
Through the charity, Richard toured schools sharing his heartache and persuading young people away from criminal careers.
The Damilola Taylor Centre opened in Peckham in 2002 and still has space for over 100 kids to enjoy sports and youth programmes.
Damilola’s mother Gloria died from a suspected heart attack in 2008, aged 58, after being diagnosed with high blood pressure soon after her son’s death.
In 2009, Richard Taylor was made anti-knife crime and youth violence envoy by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for his services to campaigning for youth charities.
In June last year, Southwark Council announced plans to establish a memorial to Damilola at the centre of the revamped Peckham Square.
The memorial will be just a five-minute walk from another sculpture erected in his memory at his former school, Oliver Goldsmith Primary School in Camberwell.
Richard Taylor died aged 75 following a long battle with prostate cancer, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, on Saturday, March 23, 2024.
