London Street Gangs

Gangs in the dock: change or we'll keep coming after you

2012-02-01T11:35:00.001-08:00

Stark message: former gang member Jermaine Jones-Lawler asked youths at Wood Green court: "Is your life worth more than a postcode?"
EVENING STANDARD
Gangs in the dock: change or we'll keep coming after you

David Cohen

1 Feb 2012

The members of the Get Money Gang sat in the dock smirking and fidgeting.

These 10 Enfield teenagers, sporting bristling haircuts and suspected of GBH, robbery and carrying knives, blithely ignored the heavy police presence inside Wood Green crown court and joshed among themselves.

You would not have guessed from their menacing swagger that this was to be a defining moment in their lives. Yet within the next electrifying hour, their demeanour would become more sober as a stark choice was hammered home.

That choice was delivered by police officers, in front of a judge, at the first "gang call-in" ever held in England. It was this: change and we will help you change; carry on as you are and we will come after you. They would hear from former gang members and listen to the raw testimony of the mother of a murdered teenager.

To their credit, these 10 were the smart few in their crew of 50. They had been wise enough to accept a police invitation to attend this American-imported initiative, which was tried successfully in Glasgow in 2008, leading to a 50 per cent fall in violent crime among a 500-strong target group.

Four hours earlier, with timing that only heightened the urgency of the capital's gang problem, a teenager was stabbed after being chased into a barber's shop, yards from the court.

Yet while forensic science officers from Haringey cordoned off Lordship Lane to comb it for evidence, inside the court police were attempting something pre-emptive and proactive, never before tried in London.

The proceedings began bizarrely at 6.30pm, with some blaring Eminem-style rap mood music. A vigilant police officer removed the water decanter from the dock because "it could be used as a weapon".

Minutes later Judge Shaun Lyons entered and addressed the youths, mostly white and aged 13 to 19, telling them: "Listen very carefully to what you hear today. It may change your life."

First up was Chief Inspector Ian Kibblewhite of Enfield police. He had just begun his speech when he suddenly broke off. "Is it funny?" he shouted, glaring at a couple of sneering gang members. "You may think you belong to a big gang, you may be 50 people, even 100, but we have 32,000 in our gang. It's called the Metropolitan police."

He told them: "You have a straightforward decision. If you choose to change, everybody in this courtroom will help you. If you don't we will come after you. We know where you live, who your families are, where you go to school. And as the Stephen Lawrence case showed, we have long memories, 18 years long, and we will come after you until we get you."

Next came Frank Cross, former consultant surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, who showed gory photographs - including a man with a meat-cleaver embedded in his chest - to clinically illustrate the devastating impact of a knife on the human body.

But it was the brave testimony of a grieving mother that transfixed the court. Nicola Dyer's 16-year-old son Shakilus Townsend was stabbed to death by seven teenagers in a notorious south London honeytrap murder three years ago. The mother of five spoke of the devastation his death had wrought: "I still remember the comments at my son's funeral when people said, 'Oh, he's a soldier.' But there is nothing soldier-like about being run down like an animal in the street and stabbed and beaten to death.

"My younger ones, six and seven, have lots of questions about how their older brother died. His sister is so depressed she wants her life to end. Sometimes I can't sleep. The other day, I had a dream and my son was in trouble. My first thought when I woke was, 'He's okay, he's in his bed.' It took a bit of time to dawn: he hasn't slept in his bed for three years. He'll never sleep in his bed again."

Ms Dyer, 36, had to pause several times, breathing deeply to regain her composure and to deliver the final message she wanted the youths to hear. "You might think that because you carry a knife, you will be the one who kills, but you might be the one who is killed, and your family will go through the nightmare that we did."

Jermaine Jones-Lawler, 20, from east London, was one of three former gang members to give the boys a piece of his mind. But instead of addressing them from the centre of the court like the others, he stood inches from the bullet-proof glass wall of the dock, looked into their eyes and said: "I've sat where you sit, in cuffs. I was looking at seven years for GBH, robbery, carrying a knife. I stabbed people.

"A lot of my friends got killed. I know men in prison who cry themselves to sleep every night and are doing life for murder.

"You are lucky - I wish I had been given the chance you have today. I'm not going to lie and tell you leaving [the gang] is easy, cos it ain't. But if you don't, next time you hear these words you will be in prison, or dead, and we'll be leaning over your coffin and saying, 'What a waste.' First step to leave this bullsh*t life is to ask yourself: is your life worth more than a postcode?"

You could have heard a pin drop. A former member of the Hotbloods gang in Florida, Ashton Dacosta, 24, spoke. "I was making two-and-a-half grand a day selling class-A. If you messed with my gang, we kidnapped your mother, your little sister," he said. "One guy got shot and his brain landed on my lap. I saw 10 people die. Now I see all my dead friends every time I go to sleep. It's not about area codes. When people ask me where I'm from I say, 'My mum.' You're at a pivotal point. Make the change."

It was riveting stuff, a mix of carrot and stick. At the end, each of the youths was given a card with a number to call that would "change their life".

An Enfield council officer said: "Contact us and we will work with you, there are lots of groups waiting to help you." Judge Lyons sent them away with one thought. "When you leave tonight, you will be led through the cells and out onto the street, but next time you're in that dock, you may lose years of your life. You have heard. Now you have a choice to make. Go away and think about it."

So how had it gone? Were the police disappointed to have only got 10 attendees when in Strathclyde they got an average of 40 at each call-in? "No," said Enfield's borough commander, Chief Superintendent Simon Laurence. "The turnout was similar to the pilot in Scotland. We see this as the first step of several call-ins over coming months."

The Get Money Gang, he added, are one of two serious gangs in Enfield responsible for 30 to 40 per cent of violent crime in the borough.

Will it work? With 400 gangs in London, including 60 "high-harm" groups engaged in serious crime, borough commanders will be watching closely.

Meanwhile, in Enfield, the police are waiting by their phones, hoping the Get Money Gang make the right call.

Inspiring Changes – Gangs, riots and Racism: an event for all young people

2012-01-29T03:42:00.001-08:00

Click here to view full size

15th February 2012 4.30pm – 8.30pm: Youth Conference on Gangs, Riots and Racism:

A unique youth conference that will feature well-known local and national speakers who have either been involved in gangs before or are leading practitioners in the field. Our focus will be on sharing ‘stories of change’ to ‘Inspire Changes’. It is our belief that those who have experienced the challenges of growing up ‘on road’ understand the issues best and are in the most effective position to educate and empower youth facing similar challenges. The conference will is also be an opportunity for young people to contribute during several breakout sessions.

Facilitators and presenters that are already confirmed include:

Twilight Bey (Social Intervention and Gang Specialist, from South Central Los Angeles, worked with Bloods and Crips),
Robyn Travis (Author, poet. Formerly affiliated with Holly Street, Hackney)
Harun Miah and Abdul Hannan (Professionals in drug rehabilitation, formerly affiliated with Cannon Street Posse, Tower Hamlets)
Raymond Douglas (Director of Anti Youth Violence, Leading expert thinker and doer in field of gang crime prevention)
Sharif Cousins, Dylan Duffus and Shaba (founding members of New Day Foundation, and formerly affiliated with Burger Bar Boys and Johnsons Crew, Birmingham)
Udjal Kamrujzaman (Social work professional and long serving member of the Aasha team, formerly affiliated with the Brick Lane Massive, Tower Hamlets)
Dev Barrah (anti-racism campaigner and community activist with decades of experience, Director of Equa-Ed)
Abu Mu’min (Senior Manager of Osmani Trust, formerly one of the founders of Bengal Tigers gang, Tower Hamlets)

Please click here to register for this free event

“Radical overhaul” of police stop and search measures needed

2012-01-28T05:33:00.000-08:00

East London Lines
“Radical overhaul” of police stop and search measures needed
Written by Will Coldwell
Features, Features & People
Jan 28, 2012

Stop and search at Nottingh Hill Carnival Pic: belkus, flikr
Statistically, it shouldn’t take long to find somebody who has been subject of a police stop and search – one in 17 black people in Tower Hamlets have had this experience. Yet it was depressingly predictable when the first person asked admits that yes, he is one of them.
“It was demeaning,” said Francis Johnson, 27, a youth worker from Bethnal Green. “Looking back now, I suppose we did look intimidating. Walking round in a big group – just chilling and doing our thing, but with tracksuit and hoodies up … but you shouldn’t be searched because of just that”
His thoughts come just a week after new Met Chief Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, announced that there needs to be a “radical overhaul” of stop and search tactics, with new limits on Section 60 searches – when someone can be stopped without ‘reasonable suspicion’.
The reforms will include a 50 per cent reduction of the number of times senior officers can authorise section 60 searches, and will aim to focus on stopping people suspected of violent offences, rather than minor drug offences such as possession of cannabis.
Stop and search has been widely criticised in the past by organisations such as Open Society Justice, Human Rights Watch Liberty and Stopwatch, which have voiced concerns about the disproportionate use of stop and search against ethnic minorities.
The policy is considered to be one of the key causes of the 1981 Brixton Riots, and has been pointed to as one possible factor in the spread of riots across Britain 20 years later. Interviewees in the Guardian’s ‘Reading the Riots’ research [link] described regular and degrading searches, with one saying it made them feel “not part of this society”.
Met figures from Oct 2010-Oct 2011 show that black people in London can be up to eight times more likely to be searched than a white person. In Croydon, for example, more black people were searched month on month than white people, despite the population of white people in the borough being five times greater. The arrest rate from searches is shockingly low – in Hackney last year it was never higher than 10 per cent. There are similar figures across other boroughs.
Johnson, who’s mother comes from Cameroon and father from Jamaica, is surprisingly philosophical about his past experiences – he hasn’t been searched for some years now and seems to attribute this to positive changes in his life. Smartly dressed, well informed and evidently passionate about his work, which often goes unpaid, he is reluctant to point to prejudices in the police force as to the reason why he used to get hassled.
“Now that I look back on it, I was just acting up. No one likes to get stopped – its not nice, but at the same time you act up when it happens. There are times when I feel the police may abuse it, but there are times when I feel it’s necessary, but to define the two is a grey area.”
However, Kamaljeet Gill, a member of the pressure group StopWatch – part of the Runnymede Trust – is adamant that people like Johnson should not have to make excuses for the reasons why police target certain demographics.
“I don’t think we should require that communities change the way they dress or behave in order to avoid getting excessive attention from the police.
“Some young people we talk to accept it as part of their daily life and some become angry, but there’s no dichotomy between these two things – they’re both negative reactions and damaging to communities.
“A reduction in stop and search will help to reduce tension between communities and the police, but there’s other things to be done.”
Scrutiny of Section 60 searches is just one aspect of the problem. Under the police and criminal evidence act (PACE), officers are only required to have ‘reasonable suspicion’ when they search someone.
“In the past the grounds for ‘reasonable suspicion’ have been, shall we say, lax or generous,” explains Gill.
“We’ll have to remain vigilant that these measures are put in place – we need to properly use the regulatory measures that exist.”
Duwayne Brooks, a Lib Dem councillor for Lewisham and friend of the late Stephen Lawrence, has been vocal for years about the destructive nature of stop and search on communities. Not surprisingly he is very unforgiving of the police: “The fact is the police have been doing a shit job – we’ve known that for years, it’s a fact. But we’ve got to look at why it’s not working.
Whether Hogan Howe is sincere or not is irrelevant – we want our streets to be safe. But it should never be a skin colour issue.”
Like Gill, Brooks explains that proper monitoring is crucial to preventing future abuse of stop and search. He argues there should be local groups where people who have been searched can go to register their experiences;
“Every borough should have effective checks and monitoring. People in their own boroughs need to act. Without checks, police can do what they want.”
The impact of the proposals will depend on the motivation behind the reform; some might see them as a genuine effort from the police to engage with ethnic minority groups, others as simply a pragmatic response to the threat of expensive and humiliating legal challenges.
With no mention from the Met of improving the ethnic disproportionality surrounding the use of Section 60, and PACE searches still raising eyebrows, it is likely that it will be some time before finding someone in London who has been subject of a police stop and search becomes the time consuming endeavour you would hope it to be.

Man wounded in shooting near Crystal Palace

2012-01-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon
Man wounded in shooting near Crystal Palace
5:46pm Saturday 28th January 2012 in

By Rachel Blundy »

Police are investigating after a man was shot near Crystal Palace Park during the early hours of this morning.

The incident happened in Jasper Road on the border with Gipsy Hill at about 6.30am.

Officers were called to the scene but found no signs of a shooting.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said they were later informed that a man was being treated for gunshot wounds at a south London hospital, but his condition was not thought to be life-threatening.

No arrests have been made.

WOODFORD GREEN/ CHINGFORD: Drug raid gang jailed

2012-01-28T05:17:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon 28/01/12

WOODFORD GREEN/ CHINGFORD: Drug raid gang jailed
A GANG of four men who were convicted of conspiracy to rob £5million worth of drugs from a safe house have been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.

Mark Bines
Kevin Hunter, 18, of Churchwood Terrace in Chingford, and Mark Bines, 28, of The Rodings, Snakes Lane East in Woodford Green, were among the gang who were caught en route to an address in Galleywood, Essex on July 6 last year.

The men, who were heading for the safe house in two vans, were stopped by police in Margretting Road, Galleywood.

A search of the vehicles uncovered a loaded gun, hammers, handcuffs, balaclavas and masks.

An address linked to Bines was later searched and found to contain £5,000 in cash and a computer containing images of the safe house which the gang planned to rob.

On raiding the property in Galleywood, police found 1,000kg of cannabis and 50kg of amphetamine as well as drug-making paraphernalia.

The occupant David Fearn, 56, was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply controlled drugs receiving four years in prison.

All four men were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (Friday).

Bines, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, was sentenced to eight years.

Hunter, who was found guilty of conspiracy to rob and possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence, was jailed for 10 years.

Two other men Aaron Morris, 22, of Fawe Street in Tower Hamlets, and Mark Morris, 37, of East India Dock Road in Tower Hamlets, were both sentenced to eight years for conspiracy to rob and supply drugs.

Speaking after the men were sentenced, Detective Inspector Bruce South said: “I believe these individuals were intent on committing a violent robbery at the safe house and have no doubt that had it not been for the intervention of officers we could have seen a very different set of circumstances unfold.”

Police misconduct hearing into alleged Tottenham drug raid assaults by Enfield Crime Squad could be public

2012-01-27T05:26:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon27/1/12
Police misconduct hearing into alleged Tottenham drug raid assaults by Enfield Crime Squad could be public
By David Hardiman »
Police officers accused of assault during a drugs raid on a Tottenham house may face a misconduct hearing in public.

The alleged assault involved three Enfield Crime Squad officers and took place during a raid in Brantwood Road on November 4, 2008.

Now the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is consulting with the officers and witnesses on whether the hearing should be public.

If granted, it would become only the second time a misconduct hearing has been held in public, and can only be done if the IPCC rules it is an exceptional case in the public interest.

The allegations emerged from an internal investigation into misconduct at Edmonton Police Station, where the crime squad is based.

Five PCs from the squad were reprimanded and a detective sergeant was demoted in November after a separate misconduct hearing found that they used baseball bats and a pick axe handle, which is against Metropolitan Police regulations, during a stop on a suspected stolen car in Edmonton on June 3, 2008.

In total, 16 officers and one member of police staff were investigated, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided in December 2010 there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

Reggae stair paid for drug mules' travel, court hears

2012-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon 27th Jan 12

Reggae stair paid for drug mules' travel, court hears
By Hannah Williamson »
Deceased 80s reggae singer Smiley Culture paid for drugs mules to traffic cocaine from the Caribbean to the UK, a court heard.

The star, whose real name was David Emmanuel, funded five all expenses paid trips to Barbados for the mules, who would bring their suitcases straight to the star's Warlingham home following their return to the UK, prosecution lawyers claimed.

The evidence was heard at Croydon Crown Court, in the trial of Lloyd McCalla, 51, of Dagenham, and Carlene Wilson, 27, of Ilford, who both deny conspiring to supply cocaine.

McCalla's son Ryan, 30, has already pleaded guilty to the charge.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Tom Little told the court Mr Emmanuel was the main organiser of the conspiracy and needed the help of the McCallas to distribute the drugs.

The prosecution claim it was at Mr Emmanuel's house that a bag containing cocaine was handed over and taken out by Ryan to a taxi, where Wilson was waiting.

Mr Emmanuel, 48, was on bail for conspiracy to supply cocaine, when he stabbed himself through the heart during a drugs raid at his Surrey mansion in Hillbury Road, Warlingham, on March 15, last year.

The court heard on February 27, 2010, five British women who were travelling together, were arrested at the Grantley Adams airport in Barbados.

Three of the women were carrying suitcases containing a total of just under 30kg of cocaine.

David Emmanuel, his daughter and a man called Orville Thomas were also intending to travel back on the same flight.

The five women had flown out to Barbados on February 16, 2010, with Mr Emmanuel his daughter and Mr Thomas flying out three days later.

Mr Little said: "David Emmanuel had paid for the flights and hotel costs for the five women in cash.

"The three women who were found to be in possession of the cocaine were all charged with drug offences in Barbados.

"One of the women, Sandra Matthews, who did not have any drugs in her suitcase, also pleaded guilty to a drugs charge. The fifth woman was released without charge."

The court heard prior to that trip to Barbados, four other trips had taken place which had followed a similar pattern, although on those trips David Emmanuel had travelled on the same flights as the women, but had not associated with them.

Sandra Matthews told police she went on all five trips to Barbados, and said Mr Emmanuel had paid for all of the flights and hotel costs in relation to the five trips.

Mr Little said: "In relation to the trip that led to her arrest, she said David Emmanuel recruited her and gave her money to pay the women, he also provided spending money.

"Telephone, flight and hotel booking information is consistent with the account Sandra Matthew provided to the police.

"It is the facts relating to the five trips to Barbados which is what David Emmanuel was arrested for on March 15, 2011."

The trial continues.

We need to talk seriously about crime

2012-01-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

We need to talk seriously about crime
Posted by Alan White - 27 January 2012 10:50
The truth, kept scandalously quiet, is that most crime is both committed and suffered by the same people.

London mayor Boris Johnson speaks with a policewoman at of the sites of rioting in August 2010 (Photo: Getty Images)
In 2008 I finished a book about street gangs, called One Blood. I'd spent the best part of two years trudging around the country, interviewing people in gangs, council officals, voluntary sector workers, housing officers, teachers and the like.

Not surprisingly, the best insights came from off-record interviews with policemen. One of the most interesting was with a man who was coming to the end of his career with the Met Police and had seen and done it all. His working life had been a non-stop parade of violent domestics, the mentally ill and drug users, and of course, young gang members.

I remember talking to him about the life circumstances of a teenage boy I'd interviewed a couple of days before. He'd recently done time for a street robbery. His father was a violent alcoholic, and he'd been re-housed with family members. He'd been booted out of school and it seemed like no one -- not his family or the local authority -- had made much effort to get him back into education. Did this policeman feel any sympathy for people like him?

"Sort of. But then he's a real little shit."

Then he said something that rather surprised me.

"Middle England...they can close their ears to this problem. But wait till it lands on their doorstep. Then you'll hear them scream. Then you'll hear them scream alright."

It seemed an odd, faintly hysterical thing to say, especially in the context of the black and white, cops and robbers picture he'd painted for most of the interview. Three years later, in August 2011, he was proved exactly right.

His remarks should be put in context. He didn't quite foresee the violence of the riots. What he was talking about was the steady growth of inner city crime operations as they expanded out to the suburbs. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that this is on the rise. During the time I was researching my book I heard about Liverpudlian dealers in Margate, dealers from Peckham operating in Cardiff, and Hackney dealers in Essex.

In the light of this -- and the riots -- we need to talk seriously about crime. Which we haven't, ever. It's been shrouded in screaming headlines, soundbites and political quick fixes. There's a simple reason for this: until recently, crime hasn't actually mattered to most of us.

The situation we find ourselves in has been coming since the 1980s, when the gap between rich and poor reached a level not seen since World War Two, due to a drive to choke inflation out of the economy with high interest rates. All this joblessness would create crime: and indeed police figures show a steady increase in the amount of crime committed since the 1980s. But here's the odd thing: it didn't really impact on the majority. The reason is the manner in which the poorest ended up living. Between 1980 and 2000 poor, rich and average households became less and less likely to live together, as the social housing stock depleted and the most successful tenants bought their properties and moved on through Right to Buy and Tenant Incentive Schemes.

Where once social housing had been a respectable place to live, it soon became synonymous with the many problems of new tenants: mental illness, drug dependency, and poverty. These problems were self-perpetuating: poor academic performance bred poverty, which bred poor academic performance. And above all, they created crime.

And the horrific truth that our politicians have kept scandalously quiet about is that this crime was both committed and suffered by the same people. By 1992, the chances of a resident in the lowest crime neighbourhood being assaulted were barely measurable. Residents in the highest crime neighbourhoods, by contrast, risked being assaulted twice a year. They also experienced twice the rate of property crime and four times the rate of personal crime than those in the next worst category. Communities were tearing themselves apart.

Here's an ex-gang member I interviewed in 2007:

Why are the young kids dying all of a sudden? Because now there are 25-year-olds who have grown up their entire life being robbed and full of resentment . . . the first generation of adults who've lived their entire lives in this culture. And this is the first generation of kids who've not only lived it -- they were born into it.

What this breeds is a number of things -- resentment for those who aren't forced to live in perpetual fear, hypermasculinity, disorder, and a detachment from the mainstream that means all authority figures (the riots were not just about stop and searches) are seen as antagonists. Gangs and riots are about capital - in the first instance, consumer capital - the hope of making money or looting things. But they're also about social capital - for gangs, instilling respect or fear in others; for rioters, lashing out at the perceived injustice of wealthy, content mainstream society, or the unfair authorities.

Above all, it breeds insularity and territorialism. Here's a normal, non gang-involved girl from Bromley, talking to me in 2008:

It affects my whole life. I had to choose my Sixth Form College on the basis of where I come from. Only last week a bunch of boys asked me where I went to school. They asked me where I went to school . . . then they started spitting at me and telling me they were going to rob me . . . and adults don't listen: as far as they're concerned, we're all a menace.

None of this is particularly surprising. What is, however, is the extent to which, while these problems have developed, there has been a collective shrugging of shoulders by the political elite in Whitehall. And it doesn't just extend to politicians. Michael Howard told a revealing story in a 2011 BBC 4 documentary:

I was shown charts which showed crime rising inexorably and the officials actually said to me: 'It is going to continue to go up and the first thing, Home Secretary, that you have to understand is that there is nothing you can do about it.'

The management of crime has become as much about managing perception as it has anything else. In political terms, it makes sense: how many votes are there to be won on sink estates? Indeed it made sense for the rhetoric of New Labour to portray violent crime as purely a criminal justice issue. Tony Blair saw violent gang members as a small minority, estranged from the community in which they live. At the same time, he saw the 9/11 bombers as inhabiting the far end of a wide spectrum of extremism. If anything, he got it the wrong way round. You see it in the mum telling the council social worker to fuck off; in the dad telling his son he should never snitch or bother going to school. These people aren't rioters or even criminals - but they feel hugely distanced from mainstream society.

New Labour's Home Secretaries were so punitive that three new super-prisons had to be built - and all the while the re-conviction rate for 18-21 year olds remained around 80 per cent. Long term solutions were jettisoned in favour of quick fix, headline-generating initiatives. In 2007, when gang paranoia was at its height due to some vicious killings in South London, the police seemed to have arrested a "Mr Big" or called a "gang truce" between supposed "leaders" every other month.

Is it any wonder, then, that when mainstream society was confronted with violence and rage in 2011, it stood in shocked silence, and occasionally filmed it on a camera phone? So insulated from this unpleasant little world had it been, so inured to the folk devilry of drug overlords and postcode wars, that when it was confronted with the reality of violent crime - and more often than not it is little more than disorganised, snowballing urban machismo - all it could do was gawp in confusion and disbelief.

The riots taught even the most ostrich-like of us that something was up. What we have now is a slightly more nuanced position - Iain Duncan Smith with the carrot (health visitors, domestic violence assessments, a gangs "task force") and Theresa May with the stick (strengthening weapons possession laws, including a mandatory custodial sentence for offenders caught carrying a knife etc). There's nothing particularly wrong with any of it. But what we really need is a fundamental rethinking of our politics. And there is absolutely no better time in our history than right now.

When you look at the events of August 2011, it's very hard to feel sympathy for those involved in the riots. Nor should we - it's not contradictory to accept that they made reprehensible decisions at a personal level, while at the same time having been failed by wider society. I, too, made wrong choices as a teenager. But I grew up in middle class suburbs: my peers were occasionally smoking or taking drugs - if I got in a fight, I was unlikely to be stabbed or shot. I - like most of us - was insulated from any more serious wrongdoing.

The enclaves of violent crime within which most of us in our 20s and 30s are fortunate enough never to grow up are a product of decisions taken before our time. But here is the uncomfortable truth we must all accept if we are to change our politics: riots and gangs have far wider ramifications than burning buildings and a few shootings and stabbings. The murders and the smaller-scale mass disturbances in places like Lozells prior to 2011 might have seemed an entirely separate problem from those faced by wider society. In fact, they were warning beacons.

Let's take one issue as an example: housing. If the increase in speculative purchases and corresponding fall in capital government spending during the latter half of the Twentieth Century meant that we ended up with a few ghettos, it could - at a push - be argued it was a price worth paying for the benefit of the upwardly mobile. But this would ignore the long term problems it created for today's young. We all know how disproportionately expensive houses are for first time buyers, but the sheer impact is still incredible. In 1990, 43 per cent of home owners were aged between 25 and 34: the figure is now around 27 per cent. It would be a less serious problem if the rental market could provide any kind of value for money - but market rates haven't kept costs down: young people are paying more and more for worse and worse quality housing.

Likewise, crime is only the most dramatic expression of the despicably high rates of youth unemployment in this country. Those that complain about the feckless poor now are often the same men who grew up in an era when it remained under 600,000. New Labour did little to reverse the trend started by Thatcher's attempt to fight inflation through the free-market. Globalisation became both an excuse and a clarion call: it was seen as inevitable that the rise of corporations that could take their workers from anywhere meant this generation would face the obstacle course of short-term contracts, unpaid internships and low salaries. Gross Domestic Product might have risen, but wages didn't. The Government's answer was to use the benefits system to plug the gap.

As Ed Howker and Shiv Malik have powerfully argued in Jilted Generation, all this means the average young person struggles to grow up: "Adulthood encompasses...family, savings, community, realising ambitions and ideas, stability, even having children...We're in the closing moments of that grand experiment played out on us by predecessors who started their work before we were ever born, who abolished the stop-go economy and gave us stop-go lives, who gave us a knowledge economy and then charged us for the knowledge, who removed all stability and wonder why we stumble."

Their book was one of a glut of similar works which emerged after the 2008 financial crisis, including David Willetts' The Pinch, Francis Beckett's What did the Baby Boomers ever do for us? and Neil Boorman's It's All Their Fault. Many of these books were condemned by - I hesitate to say it - middle aged writers, who felt they amounted to little more than a simplistic call for inter-generational warfare. But by and large they were no such thing. Those of us a long way off retirement, who feel anger at the struggles we face today - we don't blame our parents. After all, many of them were too busy helping us out financially to bankrupt the economy.

No, what most of this literature called for were governmental policies that focus on the long term. And the "long term" isn't some nebulous call for Edmund Burke-style "eternal government". It doesn't just mean "leaving a legacy for the next generation." It means everyone, here and now. Lack of affordable housing, for instance, means there are millions of adults who can't afford to live near their elderly parents, so they place them in care. In turn those elderly people aren't able to care for their grandchildren.

The problem is that focusing on the long term means political honesty - and in the wake of the financial crisis, that's something which has been in short supply. Frustrated by the extent to which the global economy has neutered their ability to impact on society and bereft of central funds, the parties have huddled round the centre ground.

It's taken until this month for Labour to concede it needs to show where it would make cuts. And while the Government has succeeded in keeping interest rates low, it seems to have saved its fiercest rhetoric for the likes of public sector union leaders and benefits claimants. It would not, by any stretch of the imagination, be political suicide to openly discuss the length of financial depression that our country faces. Instead we hear from Andrew Tyrie, the Tory chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee that long term economic plans are inconsistent, incoherent and irrelevant.

And what of our plans for dealing with the gangs? The riots have changed the terms of the debate. So first we invited Bill Bratton, the former chief of the LAPD, to share his ideas with us. Post-riots, we are starting to hear a more nuanced version of the ways we deal with crime, and Bratton's the perfect poster boy. He embodies carrot and stick. I don't dispute that a lot of what he says makes sense. But the bottom line is that he dealt with gangs in America. It's a different dynamic there and - as he would later point out to much harrumphing from our politicians - it's much worse. Never mind the fact that Los Angeles and Nottingham are really very different places - at heart this is a local problem. The gang situation in Liverpool is totally different to the one in Birmingham which is different to the one in London. For what it's worth, the situation in Hackney is also very different to the one in, say, Mitcham.

Bratton has sensible things to say about police and community engagement but many of these ideas have been circulating think tanks and have even been implemented to a greater or lesser extent by some forces for years. It brings us back to Iain Duncan Smith's carrot, and Theresa May's stick. In terms of dealing with the gangs, the stick is all so much noise. Every Government knows - and long has known - that if you actually want to solve the problem in the long term, it's the carrot that matters. And here the problem is simple: there's nothing wrong with the proposals. It's just that they're a drop in the ocean.

One of the most disappointing things for people who are affected by the gangs problem is to be told the Government can solve it. They were told the problem could be solved in 2007. They were told it could be solved in 2008. All the while the voluntary sector does much of the real work, struggling for cash and held to nonsensical account by nonsensical funding procedures.

This is Britain in 2012. The political class manage expectations. And back in a scruffy little cafe next to a gang-plagued estate, no doubt another cynical old copper waits for the next timebomb to go off.

Alan White's work has appeared in the Observer, Times, Private Eye, The National & TLS. He lives in London and tweets @aljwhite.

Gang expert and police commander warn of 'toxic' expansion

2012-01-26T04:18:00.000-08:00

Gang expert and police commander warn of 'toxic' expansion
Sandra Laville, crime correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 January 2012 13.49 GMT
As Met prepares to launch taskforce, commander says there are around 250 gangs active, with 60 causing greatest harm

A senior police officer in London has warned there was no end in sight to the issue of serious youth violence within gangs. Photograph: Janine Wiedel Photolibrary / Ala/Alamy
A gang expert warned on Thursday of the unprecedented "toxic potential" for increasing numbers of young people to join gangs in the UK as the economic downturn bites.

Comments by Rob Owen, chief executive of the St Giles Trust, were echoed by a senior police officer in London, who warned there was no end in sight to the issue of serious youth violence within gangs.

Commander Steve Rodhouse spoke as the Metropolitan police prepares a major announcement on the creation of an anti-gang taskforce. The initiative will see Trident — the Met's specialist unit responsible for investigating shootings and gun homicides within the black community — overhauled to be at the centre of the operation, as revealed by the Guardian.

In preparation for the launch of the taskforce, detectives from Trident and the homicide command have been on specialist training this week in Coventry, the Guardian understands.

The focus on gangs comes as Home Office figures revealed police numbers have fallen by 6,000 in a year, and are now the lowest for a decade. But there is no new Home Office money for the Met police's gang project, despite the prime minister calling for the focus to turn to gangs following the summer riots.

Rob Owen, whose St Giles Trust works with ex-gang members, said the conditions existed as never before for more young people to join gangs.

Owen was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the police and crime committee, which was set up with the creation in London of the office of police and crime commissioner.

"Never before has there been such a toxic potential to see gangs expand," he said.

"With what's happening in the economy right now and with the polarisation in London and across Britain … with groups in society breaking away; that's fertile ground for more gang members to get involved and that is a great concern."

Rodhouse, who is at the forefront of the Met police's new anti-gang taskforce, told the committee that in London there were around 250 gangs active, with 60 causing the greatest harm.

Serious youth violence rose by 9.5% over six months compared with last year.

Met figures show 88% of gangs are involved in violence and individuals linked to gangs are responsible for 16% of the capital's total drug supply, nearly a fifth of stabbings, half of all shootings and 14% of all rapes.

Almost one in five of those arrested in London during the riots last summer were gang members.

"I don't see any forseeable end (to the problem)," Rodhouse said. "It is going to be an enduring challenge."

The Met police will draw on its existing gang initiatives, which have taken ideas from the Boston ceasefire project — and put them together to create a more "ambitious" approach, he said.

But the leader of Waltham Forest council, which with the police runs a pioneering project to offer young people an exit out of gangs along with tough enforcement action, said the reductions in police numbers did matter when it came to tackling the problem.

"Numbers of police officers are important. If you are talking about a taking 10% off the streets in my borough it will have an impact."

London in grip of 60 gangs who do 'high harm'

2012-01-26T04:17:00.000-08:00

London in grip of 60 gangs who do 'high harm'
Justin Davenport, Crime Editor
26 Jan 2012

The full scale of London's gang violence was revealed today as police warned there are 4,500 gang members in the capital.

Figures from the Met show evidence of 400 gangs, including 60 described as "high harm" gangs engaged in serious crime and violence. A total of 250 are said to be active.

Giving the most detailed ever picture of the crisis, Commander Steve Rodhouse said: "We believe around 22 per cent of serious violence is committed by people in young gangs." He could not see an end to the fight against gangs in London. "It is going to be an enduring challenge to London."

The head of the Met's fight against gangs was speaking to the first meeting of the GLA's police and crime committee, which has taken over from the Metropolitan Police Authority. It will scrutinise the work of the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, run by Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor for policing.

In a report to the committee, figures showed that serious youth violence has increased by three per cent in the past three years. Up to 88 per cent of gangs are engaged in violence.

Individuals linked to gangs are involved in 16 per cent of London's drug trade, behind a fifth of stabbings, half of all shootings and 14 per cent of rapes.

Mr Rodhouse said about half the work of the Operation Trident task force, which investigates all shootings in London, was involved in tackling gang related crime.

The Met is launching a new task force to counter the gang problem. It will expand the work of Operation Connect, launched in Waltham Forest last year, which involves working closely with local authorities to divert gang members from crime.

So far about 50 young people had accepted offers of help to change their lifestyles, while 51 gang members have been arrested for violent, acquisitive and drug related crimes. Latest figures on crime in the borough show falls in robbery, assault and gun crime.

Mr Rodhouse said the new Met task force would target about 1,000 individuals across 19 boroughs. He added that police could not solve the issue on their own. He said: "Any approach that neglects to offer pathways out of offending will generate a revolving door of police activity."

The figures revealed that in the first six months of the financial year 2011/12 there were 3,763 victims of serious youth violence in London, a 9.5 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.

Police and Crime Committee examine gang violence

2012-01-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

Police and Crime Committee examine gang violence
25 JANUARY 2012
The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee will meet for the first time tomorrow as part of new arrangements for the oversight of policing in London. [1]
The Committee will begin its work on crime reduction by examining programmes to tackle gang violence in London.
The Committee will look at the scale of the problem of gangs in London, how the Metropolitan Police are trying to reduce gang violence including Operation Connect, and the Government’s gangs strategy.
From 9:30am: Committee business
The Committee will elect a Chair and Deputy Chair, note its terms of reference and consider procedures for complaints and registration of interests.
From 10am (approx): Gang Violence
Members will question the following guests about measures to tackle gang-related violence:
Commander Steve Rodhouse, Metropolitan Police Service, lead officer for Operation Connect
Karen McCluskey, Co-Director Violence Reduction Unit
Cllr Chris Robbins, Leader London Borough of Waltham Forest
Rob Owen, Chief Executive, St Giles Trust, a charity working with ex-offenders
Kathryn Uche, Chief Executive CAYSH, a housing charity working with young people
The Police and Crime Committee meeting will take place on Thursday, 26 January from 9:30am in the Chamber at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1). Media and members of the public are

Croydon man jailed after £450k drugs heist

2012-01-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

EastLondonLines

Croydon man jailed after £450k drugs heist
Written by Hannah Osborne
Cops & Crime, Croydon News
Jan 23, 2012

A man from Croydon has been jailed for seven years after Sussex Police seized a package of high-purity cocaine worth an estimated £450,000.
Albert Mouhtiseb, 28, from Pampisford Road in South Croydon, was one of four men jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine on January 13. In total, they will serve over 20 years in prison.
During the trial at Hove Crown Court Mouhtiseb had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Sussex Police carried out a drugs operation near Crawley on April 1 last year. They found the cocaine in the car of Barry Harlow, 65, who has not yet been sentenced. Police also found £24,000 in cash in another car being used by Mouhtiseb.
The other men jailed for drugs offences were Darren Henwood, 37; Andrew Billings; 43 and Charles Smith, 41. Henwood and Billings were both sentenced to six and half years, whilst Smith was given a four-year term. All three are from West Sussex.
Detective Chief Inspector Ali Eaton, from Sussex Police, said: “Henwood was the ringleader of this group, closely supported by Billings, with Harlow acting as a courier. Taylor had passed the drugs on to Mouhtiseb, who was also a key member, for onward sale to Henwood and no doubt for later distribution when cut on to the streets of Sussex.
“It was particularly satisfying for us to be able to dismantle an entire drugs distribution operation from initial couriers to the principal and his associates. Criminals like this need to know that we will relentlessly target them and bring them to justice, in the interests of all law-abiding people and local communities.”

Lambeth teens star in film about gang culture

2012-01-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Lambeth teens star in film about gang culture
5:12pm Monday 23rd January 2012 in

By Rachel Blundy »

Young people who have been affected by gang culture are taking part in a film about life on the streets.

More than 50 teenagers are working on the film entitled ‘Tiny’, which follows the experiences of a boy who is groomed by a local gang leader.

The project is a collaboration between Streatham based charity St Michael’s Fellowship, and filmmakers Latimer Creative Media.

Charity director, Sue Pettigrew, said: “Many of the young people involved in Tiny have first-hand experience of gangs.

“They understand what’s going on and represent the true voice of young people on this issue.

Marcus Burke, 17, who plays the film’s lead role, said: “It’s hard on the streets, there are always gangs around. I hope this film shows people that there's another path.”

'MET TREATED MY FAMILY DISGRACEFULLY AFTER OFFICERS KILLED MARK'

2012-01-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 23, 2012 Monday

'MET TREATED MY FAMILY DISGRACEFULLY AFTER OFFICERS KILLED MARK'

Bo Wilson, Benedict Moore-bridger

MARK Duggan's mother today attacked Scotland Yard for the "disgraceful" way it treated her family after police shot her son dead.
Pamela Duggan, 53, said the Met's response to her son's death last August - which led to riots that spread from Tottenham across Britain - had made her family's pain and distress much worse.
An interim report into the riots by Met Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said that police made "comprehensive and strenuous" efforts to talk to local people and calm tensions after Mr Duggan, 29, was shot on August 4.
The report was described as a "whitewash" by local church leader Pastor Nims Obunge.
Mrs Duggan today echoed that view and demanded a public apology from the Met and the Independent Police Complaints Commission. She said: "They did not treat us well at all. I still feel ill about it.
"It was disgraceful. I did not hear about the shooting until Mark's girlfriend Semone (Wilson) came round and put the TV on and we saw it on the news."
Mrs Duggan also told of her anger that there was no senior officer at Tottenham police station on August 6 to talk to protesters who had marched there to seek information over the shooting. She said: "They went to the police station and waited for hours, but did not get any answers. It was an insult."
Within hours the riots had begun.
Mrs Duggan said: "It should have been handled better. A couple of weeks or more after it happened a senior police person came round and said sorry and that I should have been told earlier (about the shooting), but that was it. They should apologise publicly."
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the Duggans claim, they were so ill-informed that the father-of-four's sister Kay, 38, drove to Central Middlesex Hospital near Ealing, believing he had been taken there alive by air ambulance, only to find it was an injured firearms officer who had been transported.
Many hours later, the family say, they had to contact police themselves to find out what was happening as they had received no firm information.
The IPCC has admitted making a mistake when it initially said Mr Duggan had fired at police, when tests showed he had not.
The family's lawyer has accused the watchdog, which is handling the investigation into the shooting, of "misinformation, a lack of information, and conflicting information".
Mrs Duggan said she is on medication and rarely discusses her son's death publicly or reads news reports about the case as descriptions of him as a "well-known gangster" do not match her memories.
Mr Duggan's late uncle was Desmond Noonan, whose crime family ran Manchester's underworld for 20 years. Mrs Duggan said: "Mark was not the kind of guy that he has been portrayed as - the way they say he was a gangster. He was a father, a kind, loving family man with kids.
"I can't talk to anyone about it. It brings back too many painful memories. He was my son. The riots were nothing to do with Mark - we did not want them and he would never have condoned violence like that." The Met did not return the Standard's calls.

Shooting inside Tottenham nightclub

2012-01-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Haringey Independent

January 23, 2012

Shooting inside Tottenham nightclub

David Hardiman

DETECTIVES are investigating after a man was shot in the leg in a Tottenham nightclub early on Saturday morning.
A 20-year-old man was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds to his leg after being shot inside the busy Rudolph's club in High Road at around 3.45am.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Trident unit, which deals with gun violence in the black community, are investigating.

Two teenagers arrested for attempted murder following stabbing

2012-01-20T05:05:00.000-08:00

North London Today

Two teenagers arrested for attempted murder following stabbing
Friday, 20 January 2012

By Mary McConnell

TWO 16-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 17-year-old was stabbed yesterday evening.

The victim remains in a critical condition in hospital after he was knifed in Archers Drive, Enfield, at around 8.30pm.

Both 16-year-olds are being held in custody at separate police stations in London.

The incident is being investigated by the Homicide and Serious Crime Command under the command of Acting Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Kelly.

Any witnesses or anyone with information should call the Incident Room on 020 8345 3775 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Gang in court over death of music student Ezekiel Amosu

2012-01-20T05:02:00.000-08:00

Islington Tribune

Gang in court over death of music student Ezekiel Amosu
Published: Janaury 20, 2012
by DAVID ST GEORGE

AN A-level college student was hounded to his death under the wheels of a bus after being targeted by a gang trying to steal his mobile phone, jurors heard this week.

Leading the hooded gang chasing the victim, Ezekiel Amosu, was a teenager from Finsbury Park who was on a bicycle, said prosecutor Sarah Plaschkes, QC, prosecuting.

The 16-year-old cannot be named and neither can his three co-accused, also 16, who are from east London. They deny the manslaughter of Ezekiel, 17, who was in the sixth form at Leyton College and lived nearby in Walthamstow with his family.

He was with fellow pupils in Forest Road, Walthamstow, on the evening of January 24 last year when they were confonted by a group allegedly trying to steal their property.

The jury heard that Ezekiel and his friends were threatened with weapons and began to scatter to escape. But music student Ezekiel was either pushed or tripped and landed in the path of a 123 bus.

He suffered multiple crushing injuries to the head and body and died “almost instantaneously,” said the QC.

Because of their ages – all were 15 at the time – the accused boys are sitting in the well of the court with family members. The case continues.

Operation Trident is not the way to tackle gangs. It needs a new approach

2012-01-19T12:12:00.001-08:00

Operation Trident is not the way to tackle gangs. It needs a new approach
Rather than yet another police operation, former criminals like me can help young people escape a life of violence

Trevor Hercules
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 January 2012 10.35 GMT

Hearing the news about Operation Trident, the Metropolitan police unit set up to tackle gun crime in black communities, taking on teenage gangs, all I could think was: "How many different units are they going to set up to tackle this?" Something new has to be done.

I was in care most of my formative years, and from there I moved on to hostels, detention centres, borstals – and finally prison. Ten years of my life was spent in jail, two in solitary confinement. Oh, and by the way I am black. The reason I mention this is that I always had a problem with my identity living in a predominantly white society, and at times I felt very alienated.

Like many young people living in our most deprived communities, I had a certain mindset. On large council estates, where people are struggling to make ends meet while being bombarded by adverts for the latest goods and fashions they will never be able to afford, economic deprivation can lead to young people feeling like social outcasts; alienated and abandoned. Often parents and extended family members are unemployed and feelings of negativity and despair begin to rub off. Maybe members of their family have been through the criminal justice system – certainly someone in their peer group will have been. These young people know about drugs, crime and violence, and they know how to make money without having to work for it.

Their world view – which I call a social deprivation mindset – lacks a moral dimension, and has little interest in social responsibility, or interaction with society as a whole. They have their own codes and belief system that rules the day, regardless of society. A code which includes: joining gangs, sticking to your postcode, no grassing, stealing, social disobedience, dislike of the police, carrying knives, joining in with bad behaviour, confrontations and even riots. In school it means playing up in class, being a bully, refusing to learn and bunking off school.

Worst of all, these young people enforce their own justice with chilling consequences. But this attitude makes them feel part of something, and gives them a feeling of belonging which they believe society does not offer. They also think it will ease the everyday pressures and confrontations that they and their siblings have to face living in gang-controlled areas.

Yet this thinking is very dangerous, and pulls others into its clutches. Young people think: "We have nothing, so we have nothing to lose." They have not had proper moral guidance from family, schools or society, or been taught that they have real options. We as a society have a duty to our young. The fact that so many young people are being excluded from schools, being put into Pupil Referral Units, imprisoned, caught up in the criminal justice system and are taking part in murders of other young people should be cause enough to set alarm bells ringing. Because these young people are products of our society.

We can only change this mindset by re-educating them in school, with classes that teach them moral and spiritual values. They need to be taught about a work ethic throughout their school life – these things should now be standard schooling.

Thankfully I changed my life. I had to go through a long process; there was no one I respected in authority. I had to spend many years in prison before I realised there was much more to me. People like me need to be utilised – especially among the black community, where many of these youngsters are lacking black male role models. Prison is a place where people can become amenable to change. But advice and help has to come from people that young people will really listen to; from people they can relate to and who can inspire them to change.

Today I run a mentoring programme, and speak in prisons and schools with support from my local MP, Justine Greening. I have just given a talk at the Houses of Parliament on reducing re-offending: I have come a long way. People like me, who were and are disillusioned with a society that they believed alienated them have so much to offer society if we bring them in from the cold – and we can. We need to be utilised to direct these young people on the right course. If I can change then almost anybody can.

It could have been me shot dead that day... now I rescue others

2012-01-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

It could have been me shot dead that day... now I rescue others
David Cohen
19 Jan 2012

Esther Babalola never regarded herself as part of a gang. Her friends, boys she knew from school, were in a Hoxton crew "doing all sorts" but she never stooped to anything illegal, she said, and stayed on the periphery.

"We would spend the day chilling outside McDonald's or in the park just talking and play-fighting, smoking and drinking," said 19-year-old Miss Babalola. "At the time I was 17 and had bombed out of school with three GCSEs and I saw my lazy friends as harmless fun."

But the shocking killing of fellow teenager Agnes Sina-Inakoju in April 2010 as she queued with friends for pizza - an innocent victim caught in the crossfire between the feuding London Fields and Hoxton gangs - changed her perspective. "Agnes and I were not close but we hung around the same boys," she recalled.

"Her shooting, totally random, hit me - I can't be in that environment no more. It had become dangerous to be an innocent bystander - it could easily have been me gunned down that day."

In fact, the only reason that Miss Babalola was not at the Hoxton Chicken and Pizza takeaway that evening was because she had just started a peer-mentoring course, helping at-risk young people into training and employment.

The course was with SkyWay, a frontline Hackney-based group that takes young people who self-refer off the street and guides them away from gangs, encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives.

"We train them in conflict resolution and teamwork to become peer mentors, as well as sports coaches, referees and youth workers," said SkyWay director Gail Mistlin.

SkyWay is one of 190 projects funded by Sport Relief, the biennial charity event that was launched today. This year, Sport Relief has chosen the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund to be a major beneficiary of its activities, which includes a night of TV fund-raising on March 23, and the running of the Sainsbury's Sport Relief Mile in London on March 25.

Groups like SkyWay transform thousands of lives but could not exist without the charitable support and generosity of ordinary Londoners. In the case of Miss Babalola, SkyWay's intervention came not a moment too soon. At the time, she was homeless, living on friends' sofas and acutely fragile.

"My parents had separated when I was seven and I had fallen out with my mum and gone to live with my dad. But when I fought with my dad, the stress of being at war with my family, having nowhere to call my home, poor GCSEs, no job and no sense of direction hit me hard and I became clinically depressed."

It was, she said, an unremittingly bleak time. The lure of the Hoxton gang, like a surrogate family, beckoned. She may well have succumbed if not for a friend who introduced her to SkyWay as a place to give her "a second chance". "The first thing they did was help me find housing and direct me to agencies that would fix me up with a stable place to live," she recalled.

"I would arrive at SkyWay's offices in tears but most times, after talking to key workers, I would leave laughing."

SkyWay put her on its peer-mentoring course - funded with an £89,000 grant over two years from Sport Relief - and offered her vocational training for youth work and sports related qualifications. "They gave me encouragement, built my confidence, taught me to trust myself," she said. "After a while my depression lifted. I started to feel I mattered. A sense of meaning came into my life."

Project manager Daniel Mussie, who runs SkyWay's peer-mentoring programme, is another who was affected by senseless gang violence and the death of Ms Sina-Inakoju. "I saw Agnes just an hour before she was killed," he said. "She was beginning to engage with SkyWay and said she would come back to our youth project later. She never did."

Mr Mussie, 25, has known three other young people also killed by gang warfare. In one chilling case, he recalled how his friend had bled to death in his arms, "another tragic case of mistaken identity".

AS a youth worker, I got a call to say that there was a group of kids on Old Street waiting for somebody and we dashed out to try to calm the situation, but by the time we got there, it had kicked off. My friend, who lived in another postcode, had stumbled into the situation and was attacked with a baseball bat with a nail in the end.

"I tried holding his head together but he died. It was crazy. I don't think about it no more because it will drive you nuts."

Like Miss Babalola, Mr Mussie came into SkyWay to find direction for himself, and now shows other young people who are not in education or work that there is an alternative to joining a gang.

"There are loads of gangs in Hackney, some with kids as young as nine, others as old as 30," he said. "Violence can happen at any time. When I was 15, I came out of a party and somebody got stabbed. I've seen some pretty bad things. That's why I am so passionate about the work we do."

In the last two years, he has helped train 90 peer mentors, aged eight to 20, including Miss Babalola. "Each one works with 10 people, so those 90 mentors reach 900 people, going into Hackney schools and youth clubs," he said.

Today Miss Babalola says that her life is back on track and that she feels "a different person". She plans to apply to London Metropolitan University to study psychology and social work this year. In the meantime, she wants to help young people leave or resist joining gangs and bring them "out of the danger zone to a safer place".

"When I started with SkyWay, the Hoxton crew would regularly call me up and say, 'Hey Esther, why you don't come round no more?' I told them I'm with SkyWay now and so two of them came down to check it out. It could have gone pear-shaped, but instead they got hooked and stayed and became peer mentors like me.

"Now they are completely out of the gang. I feel proud to have helped even two people turn away from gangs. And hugely thankful that, thanks to SkyWay, I have a sense of my own worth and a bright future."

Armed robber jailed for cash raids in Streatham and Peckham

2012-01-19T11:07:00.001-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Armed robber jailed for cash raids in Streatham and Peckham
By Rachel Blundy » 19th January 2012

A self proclaimed 'role model' who ran a clothing line popular with urban music stars has been jailed for 11 years for a series of armed robberies in south London.

Ismail Abbas was found guilty of two major armed robberies in Streatham and Peckham.
Ismail Farouk Abbas, 26, of Danbrook Road, liked to pose with his celebrity clients and promoted himself as a credible businessman and a role model to young people.

But on Monday at the Inner London Crown Court he was put behind bars for orchestrating armed robberies in Streatham and Peckham- stealing tens of thousands of pounds.

The court heard Abbas led an armed attack on a transit van outside the Texaco garage in Streatham Road on July 28, 2010.

His gang hit security guards with hammers and stole £25,000 in cash.

Just a few weeks before, he staged a similar attack at the T Mobile store in Rye Lane, Peckham. He and his fellow gang members threatened staff with imitation guns, stealing £4,500 cash and 72 Blackberry mobiles.

Abbas, who claimed that he wanted to set up his own youth foundation to 'give back to the community', tried to affiliate himself in court with Premiership footballer Rio Ferdinand and his charity Live the Dream, but a spokesman for the charity said they had never heard of him.

He was handed sentences of five and six years for two counts of robbery and possession of an imitation firearm, to run consecutively.

He was acquitted of two further counts of conspiracy to commit robbery on transit vans carrying cash in Kensington and Woolworth in August 2010.

Senior Investigating officer, Detective Inspector Lee Hill said Abbas "used his boasts to recruit others to do his dirty work."

He said: "We know that Abbas portrayed himself as a role model - for instance, he talked in a magazine interview about wanting to set up his own youth organisation. He also claimed during the trial that he worked with the Rio Ferdinand Live the Dream Foundation.

"Essentially it boiled down to the fact that he went to a black tie dinner and offered to make ten exclusive branded t-shirts for the foundation free of charge. When we contacted Live the Dream, they had never heard of him.

"The reality was, Abbas was a criminal who used his boasts to recruit others to do his dirty work, whilst he stood back and watched it all play out."

A third man has appeared in court in connection with the death of a Hackney man

2012-01-19T11:05:00.003-08:00

Hackney Gazette

January 19, 2012 Thursday

A third man has appeared in court in connection with the death of a Hackney man who was gunned down in Clerkenwell on New Year's Day.

Jack Nichols, 20, from Wickford in Essex, appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on Friday last week charged with the murder of Aarron McKoy and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

He was remanded in custody to a date yet to be set.

Ceon Hewitt, 21, also from Wickford, is due to appear in custody at Thames Magistrates' Court on February 14 charged with murder.

Aarron, who grew up in Hackney, was shot in the early hours of January 1 while celebrating his 22nd birthday in Clerkenwell.

Dean Smith, 25, of Lordship Road, Stoke Newington, is currently in custody and due to return to the Old Bailey on April 13 charged with murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Kieron Caesar, 23, whose address has been withheld by police, is remanded in custody to appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on March 22 charged with grievous bodily harm.

Teenager stabbed in Edgware Road street fight

2012-01-19T11:05:00.001-08:00

Hampstead and Highgate Express (Ham and High)

January 19, 2012 Thursday

Teenager stabbed in Edgware Road street fight

A 16-year-old boy was taken to hospital with heavy bleeding after he suffered a stab wound in the leg during a fight in Edgware Road last Thursday.

Police officers on routine patrol were alerted after a fight broke out at the junction with Broadley Street at about 5.20pm.

They intervened immediately and found the boy bleeding heavily from a wound to his thigh.

The victim was taken to hospital where he remains in a stable condition.

Police recovered a knife from the scene and arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.

He remains in custody in a central London police station.

Police say they do not believe the incident is related to gang activity.

Much of Edgware Road was cordoned off by police for the afternoon so that detectives could carry out an investigation into the incident.

n Anyone with information on the stabbing should contact the police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

A man is in a stable condition in hospital after being stabbed by a young man riding a bike

2012-01-19T11:04:00.001-08:00

North London Journal

January 19, 2012 Thursday

A man is in a stable condition in hospital after being stabbed by a young man riding a bike.

The 34-year-old was stabbed several times in the body and arm in a violent and unprovoked attack.

Police are hunting a white man aged about 20, possibly with a lazy eye, with short brown hair, of slim build and prominent cheekbones.

Officers were called at about 5.10pm on Friday to Vale Road, South Tottenham, and arrived to find the man being given first aid by members of the public.

Police also helped until an ambulance arrived. He is now recovering in hospital.

No arrests have been made and enquiries continue.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det Con Alex Peddie on 020 8345 0885 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Gun-wielding Bromley robbers jailed for 30 years

2012-01-19T11:03:00.001-08:00

London24

Gun-wielding Bromley robbers jailed for 30 years
Kate Nelson, Senior Reporter
Thursday, January 19, 2012
11:51 AM

Four armed robbers who forced shop staff to the floor with a gun have been jailed for a total of 30 years after being caught minutes after the robbery.

Clifton Thomas-BassirClifton Thomas-Bassir, 28, of Stevenson Crescent, Southwark, Caniggia Jarrett, 20, of Probyn Road, Lambeth and a 17-year-old boy from Lambeth were all found guilty of robbery and possession of a firearm at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Sederick Semo, of Dorset Road, Lambeth had previously pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of a firearm.

Two of the men burst into The Money Shop in Bromley High Street on July 20 last year brandishing a gun.

Terrified staff were forced to the floor while the thieves robbed £3,000.

Sedrick SemoAfter leaving the shop, they escaped in a green convertible VW Golf with two other men.

But their car was spotted by a police car almost immediately which chased them into in the Brangbourne Estate where all four men escaped. Semo was caught moments later next to the getaway car and arrested while Jarrett was caught in a rear garden nearby.
Thomas-Bassir was arrested 40 minutes later when he phoned police to tell them his VW Golf had been stolen in a car jacking.

He said he was in Bromley Hill, a short distance from where his car had been abandoned.

Police arrested him, as his clothing matched one of the suspects.

The 17-year-old was arrested on January 4 this year after DNA taken from discarded clothing and a mobile phone identified him.

Thomas-Bassir was jailed for 10 years, Jarrett received an eight-and-a half year sentence and the 17-year-old youth was handed six years at Blackfriars Crown Court on January 9. Semo was sentenced to five-and-a-half years.

Chief Inspector Malcolm Noone from Bromley Police said: “The rapid response by uniformed officers led to the arrest of these men shortly after they had committed the crime. The combination of this rapid response and seizure of evidence ensured a thorough investigation and a successful conviction at court”.

SHAMING TACTIC WORKS AS CRIMINALS DON'T WANT PUBLICITY, SAYS FORMER L.A. POLICE CHIEF

2012-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 18, 2012 Wednesday

SHAMING TACTIC WORKS AS CRIMINALS DON'T WANT PUBLICITY, SAYS FORMER L.A. POLICE CHIEF

Justin Davenport, Daniel Bates In New York And Justin Davenport In London

THE US "supercop" called in by David Cameron to advise on gangs after the summer riots said Scotland Yard should publish lists of the 10 most wanted and most violent.

Bill Bratton said that naming and shaming the worst gangs was an effective tactic that worked in the United States.

Mr Bratton, a former police chief in New York, Boston and Los Angeles, said: "Los Angeles had 400 gangs and the majority you don't hear about but what we said to the gangs was: 'If you want to raise your profile, we're going to give you that publicity.'

"You might think that the gangs would love that kind of publicity but they didn't. Some think that the glorification was exactly what the gangs wanted but we did not find that."

Mr Bratton also urged the Met to set up academies to train former members to intervene in gang disputes.

Scotland Yard has drawn up a "matrix" of London's most dangerous gangsters but refuses to publish details, claiming it "glorifies" criminals.

Mr Bratton said that gangs in the UK tried to copy those in the US. "There is a fascination with the American gangster. The Bloods and the Cripps are the two most widely known. The clothing, the signs that they use, even the language. It's hard to tell the difference between a UK gang and an American gang because of the fascination with the designs and the clothing and the desire to emulate."

In a few weeks the new Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is expected to launch a new unit in London to take on the capital's growing gangs problem.

Mr Bratton also revealed how gangs in Britain were now contacting ones in the US via social networking sites. Once tipped as a Met Commissioner, Mr Bratton caused controversy recently by calling Britain's gun crime problem "laughable" when compared with that in the US. He said that in the UK it was still "proportionally much smaller in size or scale than the US".

But he added that he believed the Met was already achieving success in tackling gangs, singling out the anti-gang strategy in Hackney. He said: "You're focused on it and focused on it in a good way. You have already learned something that it took us three generations to learn - you can't arrest your way out of the problem. I don't think London is going to go the way of LA or New York."

Mr Bratton said that former gang members could be trained to calm the situation after a shooting or attack. He also said there should be a national definition of gangs so that police could understand the scale of the problem.

Of the summer riots, Mr Bratton said one result was that police would be "better prepared to identify more quickly the size of the disturbances". "It was clear nobody in your country expected something like that would occur in multiple cities so quickly. If that were to have occurred when they had so many resources assigned to the Olympics and throughout the country it really would have been a catch-up game."

Mr Bratton, speaking at the New York offices of Kroll, the security company of which he is chairman, said the Met had a "significant number of active investigations" into terror suspects in the run-up to the Games.

"We live in a very dangerous world with terrorism and your country has more than your share of groups already established. That's the bad news story. The good news story is you have an extraordinary police intelligence service in terms of keeping an eye on these people."

New gangs strategy and Trident

2012-01-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

Met Police Site

New gangs strategy and Trident

17 January 2012

The MPS is developing a new strategy to tackle gang-related crime and serious youth violence in London. The new approach will enhance our anti-gang activities, improve coordination and tasking, and increase police operations, while making sure our skills and expertise in this area are used more consistently and effectively.

The new plan will also look at how we can enhance our work with partners to divert young people away from gangs so they are able to make more positive contribution to London's communities.

Trident is already responsible for preventing and investigating shootings in London and is a key part of how we tackle gangs. Contrary to media speculation Trident is not subject to a "radical overhaul". The MPS aims to build on Trident's success and develop a co-ordinated police response, whilst working with partners to divert young people away from gangs

The new approach is being finalised and we will be speaking with our partners and London’s communities to develop our approach.

++++

The following statement should be attributed to the Trident Independent Advisory Group:

Claudia Webbe, joint chair of the Trident Independent Advisory Group, said: “With community support it has taken Trident more than ten years to develop its current specialism and expertise in the prevention and investigation of shootings in London. The Trident Independent Advisory Group is pleased to have the assurance from the MPS that Trident is not subject to a complete overhaul, and that it retains its focus on preventing and investigating shootings.”

“In developing the police approach to gang violence in London, we urge the MPS to carefully consider how it engages with London’s communities. This should avoid any over simplification of the term “gang” and work with partners to protect some of the most vulnerable sections of London’s communities.”

Boy, 17, in 'serious condition' following stabbing near Crystal Palace

2012-01-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon 17th Jan 2012

Boy, 17, in 'serious condition' following stabbing near Crystal Palace
By Rachel Blundy »

A teenager is in a serious condition in hospital after being stabbed yesterday afternoon.

Police were called to Woodland Road, near Crystal Palace Park, at about 3.15pm to reports of a man suffering from stab wounds.
Police were called to Woodland Road, near Crystal Palace Park, at about 3.15pm to reports of a man suffering from stab wounds.

Officers and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended the scene.

The victim, believed to be 17-years-old, was taken to a south London hospital. His injuries are not thought to be life threatening.

Lambeth Police are investigating. They believe the teenager may have been stabbed in a different location to where he was found.

No arrests have been made.

Did you see what happened? Call the news desk on 02087226337.

Croydon reggae star was centre of drug operation, court hears

2012-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

17th Jan 2012
Croydon reggae star was centre of drug operation, court hears
Deceased reggae star 'Smiley Culture' masterminded a £400,000 cocaine supply plot from his Surrey mansion, the trial of his alleged conspirators was told on Monday.

Croydon reggae star was centre of drug operation, court hears
The singer - whose real name was David Emanuel - was charged and on bail when he allegedly stabbed himself through the heart on March 15 last year during a police drugs raid at his Warlingham home.

Lloyd McCalla, 51, of Temple Avenue, Dagenham, and 27 year-old Carlene Wilson, of Ilford, have both pleaded not guilty to conspiring with Mr Emanuel, 48, and Lloyd's son Ryan, 30, to supply cocaine between June 30 and July 2, 2010.

Prosecutor, Tom Little, told Croydon Crown Court: "This involves a well organised drugs conspiracy to supply a kilo of cocaine, involving at least four individuals.

"David Emanuel was the main organiser of the conspiracy and needed these drugs distributed and that is where the McCalla family come in."

But the jury were told they would not need to consider a verdict in relation to Mr Emanuel.

"Police attended his home again on March fifteen last year in relation to a different drugs conspiracy and Mr Emanuel stabbed himself and died. He committed suicide," said Mr Little.

On July 2, 2010 undercover police were staking out Mr Emanuel's home in Hillbury Road, Warlingham when Lloyd and Ryan, who has pleaded guilty to the charge, arrived at 7.45pm.

"It must have been at this point the drugs were handed over by Mr Emanuel to the McCalla's and taken out by Ryan," Mr Little told the jury.

"Ryan walked with a bag containing the cocaine to a taxi, where Wilson was waiting and she was given the drugs and the taxi drove off.

"The McCalla's followed behind and the taxi was stopped by police and the drugs were found in the bag between the feet of Wilson."

When analysed, the drugs were found to be 77 per cent pure cocaine.

The trial is due to last three weeks.

Mr Emmanuel’s family have been campaigning for an IPCC investigation into his arrest and death.

Sex workers call for new law after gang attacks: Decriminalisation urged after robberies at brothels Victims fear prosecution if they complain to police

2012-01-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

The Guardian (London) - Final Edition

January 17, 2012 Tuesday

Sex workers call for new law after gang attacks: Decriminalisation urged after robberies at brothels Victims fear prosecution if they complain to police

Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent

A series of gang attacks on brothels in London has triggered calls for changes to the prostitution laws after victims who reported knifepoint robberies said they ended up being threatened with prosecution.

A police investigation has been launched as senior Labour and Conservative members of the London assembly and the English Collective of Prostitutes allege that violent crime is being given a lower priority than less serious sex offences.

The attacks highlight the growing debate over calls for New Zealand's pioneering decriminalisation of sex workers to be considered, an approach recently supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

What is said by sex workers to be a spate of robberies - involving cash and jewellery - coincides with an increase in police raids on east London addresses being used as brothels before the 2012 London Olympics.

The first address targeted was in Barking, east London, on 6 December.

A video showing five men apparently breaking into another house in the area being used by sex workers is also being studied by officers. The women who made the first complaint allege they recognise some of the gang members from the YouTube clip.

In a third attack, at a different address, a woman who worked as a maid at a brothel is alleged to have been raped by the gang. None of the victims there reported the offence for fear of being charged by officers with living off the proceeds of prostitution. The police say they are so far unaware of this incident.

The ECP said changes to the law, in response to fears over the forcible trafficking of foreign sex workers into Britain, have made it more difficult for women to work together in houses for safety.

A complaint sent by Niki Adams, a leading ECP activist who works with Legal Action for Women, to the borough police commander in Barking last month said the way the investigation into the first incident had been pursued had discouraged sex workers from reporting attacks.

The letter continued: "The 6 December attack was at knifepoint and the women felt they had to try and protect themselves.

"They think the assailants may well be the same people who have robbed them before, who have got away with it, and so have returned and become more violent as they have got bolder.

"Targeting women for prosecution in this way undermines any attempts to catch those who attack and exploit sex workers . . . we are receiving reports of incidents where women have been attacked and their attackers have told them brazenly that they know women won't dare go to the police."

Adams believes there may have been as many as 20 attacks in the area over the past two years.

The Metropolitan police confirmed it was aware of the 6 December attack and the YouTube video and is investigating whether the attacks are linked. "Patrolling officers arrived at the scene and were quickly accompanied by scene of crime officers and detectives from Barking and Dagenham CID. Detectives also visited the venue on a further occasion to ascertain the circumstances.

"Unfortunately, those at the address were unwilling to substantiate the allegation or further assist with the investigation despite a number of attempts for them to do so. The case remains under investigation and should any further information come to light it will of course be vigorously pursued."

The force said "a notice has been served to the registered owner of the venue in Victoria Road under the auspices of section 33a of the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The notice formally notified the recipient that they were liable to prosecution should the premises in Victoria Road remain in use as a brothel." Referring to the YouTube video, the police said: "We are looking to see if the attacks are linked. Officers take any such reports extremely seriously and actively encourage all members of the community, particularly those who may be vulnerable to such incidents, to come forward and contact police.

"We strive to encourage and support female victims, and to assist us further we are in the process of launching a bespoke multi-agency victim care service."

Prostitution is not illegal but associated activities, such as kerb crawling, placing advertising cards in phone boxes and working in premises with more than one person available for paid sex, are outlawed.

Last November Simon Byrne, Acpo's lead officer on prostitution and sexual exploitation, suggested there was a need for a fresh look at the legal balance.

Byrne, who was then deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester, is in the process of moving to the Met as assistant commissioner.

"There is a great amount of academic research available, much of which supports the view that an alternative approach is needed," he wrote on his official Acpo blog. "An example would be the decriminalisation and regulation of brothels in Australia and New Zealand, not an answer to all of the related issues but certainly a solution to some."

Another proponent of reform is Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London assembly. "The law is framed so as to put women (sex workers) into the most vulnerable position," he said. "People are not willing to come forward over these attacks. I'm compiling a report."

Len Duvall, leader of the Labour group at the assembly, said: "We need to examine in greater detail information and case studies from those countries that have sought to legalise prostitution, including the model put forward by New Zealand, especially if it provides a degree of protection for sex workers and reduces crimes associated with prostitution."

Charlie Wright's mum is pleading for information about his murder

2012-01-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon
Charlie Wright's mum is pleading for information about his murder
11:58am Monday 16th January 2012 in News By Nina Massey
Lisa Wright with a picture of her son

A MOTHER whose teenage son was shot in the face is pleading for information about the “evil” killers who murdered him.

Charlie Wright from Eltham was shot on April 23, 2010 at a house in Park Mews, Calvert Road, Greenwich - no one has ever been charged.

Police were called at around 2.05am and attended with the London Ambulance Service. However, the 17-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses reported seeing a group of four to five young black men run from the house towards Woolwich Road shortly after the shooting.

This Saturday (January 21) marks Charlie’s 19th birthday and in a renewed effort to catch his killers, the Met and Charlie’s family are appealing for information.

Speaking to News Shopper his mum Lisa Wright said: “If anybody knows anything, even the slightest little thing, it can help bring these people to justice.

“I am pleading with them, pleading with them to help. Please, please, I want these sort of people off the streets who did that to my 17-year-old son, who had his whole life ahead of him."

The 41-year-old added: “If anybody knows any information please help catch these evil, evil people that shouldn’t be out on our streets."

The Met is offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person or people responsible the murder.

Investigating officer Chief Inspector Mark Dunne said: “Charlie would have turned 19 years old this Saturday (January 21) and celebrating the completion of a carpentry course at Lewisham College.

“Tragically instead, this young man lost his life in a brutal way leaving his family and friends devastated.”

Anyone with information should 020 8721 4906 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

London Mayor heads up new police authority with plans to tackle gangs

2012-01-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon
16th January

London Mayor heads up new police authority with plans to tackle gangs
The Mayor of London has taken greater responsibility of the police and vowed to target gang crime in the capital.

Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is now accountable to the Mayor of London
Boris Johnson today launched the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, giving him unequivocal responsibility for the Met.

The new office replaces the Metropolitan Police Authority and means the Mayor holds the Met Commissioner to account.

As part of the shake up, it is understood Operation Trident, which deals with gun crime among black communities, will branch out into tackling gangs.

Specialist teams from the unit will head up a joint gangs taskforce that will tackle the sharp rise in youth violence.

Last month, Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said gang crime was a "significant problem" in nearly half of London's boroughs.

He said: "If I was to pick out one thing that I want to do the most about its young people in gangs.

"It's not just about enforcement – we've got to talk about working with young people and getting them out of gangs."

Official figures show that 19 per cent of those arrested during the riots in London had been identified as gang members.

And there were 4,335 incidents of serious youth violence – stabbings, grievous bodily harm and other violence – in the six months from April to October 2011 compared with 3,921 in the same period the previous year – representing a 10.6 per cent increase.

A spokesman for the Met said the policy was still being planned.

He said: "The MPS is developing a strategy to tackle gang-related crime and serious youth violence in London.

"The new approach will enhance our anti-gang activities, improve co-ordination and tasking, and increase proactive operations, while making sure our skills and expertise in this area are used more consistently and effectively.”

SO MANY CRIMES THAT NOT ALL WILL BE SOLVED, WARNS LAWYE

2012-01-16T11:06:00.001-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 16, 2012 Monday

SO MANY CRIMES THAT NOT ALL WILL BE SOLVED, WARNS LAWYER

Justin Davenport

POLICE and prosecutors may never bring all the London rioters to justice, the capital's senior lawyer admitted today.

David Robinson, London Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor, said the scale of the disorder, which took place across 22 boroughs, meant that "getting to the bottom" of the cases presented huge difficulties.

He said the complexity of some of the 3,600 crime scenes was overwhelming. "Even within these crime scenes we are finding that there were three waves of looting and in each scene there were different events," he added.

"To some extent we may never get to the bottom of all the crimes."

He said that at present there was "no end in sight" to the arrest and prosecution of people involved in last August's unrest, sparked after the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham.

Officers are still detaining up to 50 people a week and the Crown Prosecution Service was charging about 20 a week.

Mr Robinson, who leads a specialist unit established to handle riot prosecutions, said: "We dealt with a huge tranche of cases in the beginning and about a third of those charged pleaded guilty in magistrates courts. Now we're dealing with some of the more challenging cases, where we are involved in longer trials. We have completed about 1,200 cases.

"But there is enough volume of cases to take this forward many months. I do not see an end in sight, the cases keep rolling in."

About 20 lawyers are working full-time at the Special Operations Unit unit on disorder cases. The conviction rate is about 86 per cent - higher than average for the type of offences involved. "Even if we never prosecute everyone and we achieve 1,200 prosecutions, that is a pretty high proportion of those involved," Mr Robinson added.

He said most cases were prosecuted with "high quality" CCTV. But some have used footage from YouTube, including the case of Ryan Kichenside, 18, of Upper Norwood, who was jailed for nearly six years last month after he was filmed dragging a man from his scooter.

Other cases involve a "patchwork" of CCTV and forensic evidence such as DNA and fingerprints. Last week one of the riot ringleaders, Adam Ahmadzai, 20, of Feltham, was jailed for four years after admitting 10 offences in Croydon. Police and prosecutors pieced together his actions over the course of one evening and night, using traces of DNA in a looted shop and images on CCTV.

In total, prosecutors have dealt with 1,000 cases involving DNA or fingerprint evidence.

In a snapshot of current cases, Mr Robinson said 40 to 50 magistrates' court trials and about 180 crown court trials were either ongoing or pending.

He added that there was some evidence gangs were involved in the looting, but most cases were opportunistic thieving.

MET'S GANG SQUAD TO DROP TRIDENT TAG

2012-01-16T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 16, 2012 Monday

MET'S GANG SQUAD TO DROP TRIDENT TAG

Justin Davenport

THE MET was today urged to scrap the name "Trident" for its squad targeting gun crime in the black community, as it unveiled new plans to spearhead a war on gangs.

Teams from Operation Trident will form the backbone of a new 700-strong unit tackling teenage gangs.

Senior police are understood still to be undecided over what to call the new unit.

Operation Trident works closely with black communities and has gained a reputation for success. However, some community leaders now believe the "Trident" tag must go.

Althea Smith, of the Southwark police consultative group, argued that while the name was associated with gun crime in black communities, gang violence involved young people from all ethnic backgrounds.

Details of the new squad emerged as Boris Johnson took charge of policing strategy and performance. The Mayor and Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe joined officers on patrol in Shepherd's Bush today to launch the new Mayor's Office for Police and Crime.

The body, which takes over from the elected Metropolitan Police Authority, is a forerunner of the police and crime commissioners who will be elected across the UK in November to replace police authorities.

Lib-Dem mayoral contender Brian Paddick criticised the delegation of day-to-day control of the office to policing deputy mayor Kit Malthouse. "Setting London's policing priorities is far too important an issue for the Mayor to delegate," he said.

Yard gun team to lead fight against teen gangs

2012-01-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

The Daily Telegraph (London)

January 16, 2012 Monday

Yard gun team to lead fight against teen gangs

Murray Wardrop

THE Metropolitan Police unit which tackles gun crime in black communities is to be overhauled to focus on targeting teenage gangs.

The sharp rise in youth violence on London's streets has prompted a radical shift in tactics, with officers from Operation Trident to be given responsibility for a new strategy against gangs.

Specialist teams from Trident will lead a joint task force that incorporates all of Scotland Yard's units fighting gangs, under the plans being finalised by senior officers.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is expected to announce the initiative today as he sets out his vision for the future of policing.

However, the decision to place Trident at the helm of the force's gangs campaign is likely to prove controversial because it was officers from this unit who ran the operation which saw Mark Duggan fatally shot last August.

Mr Duggan's shooting, by officers of the Met's armed unit CO19, caused riots in Tottenham which led to a wave of looting and violence throughout Britain. In the aftermath, David Cameron said gangs were to blame.

However, the change in tack demonstrates Scotland Yard's's recognition of the link between gangs and gun crime and that the problem is no longer isolated to one ethnic group. Officers will also tackle the perceived long-term causes of gun crime, starting with youth gangs, and deterring youngsters from joining groups which lead them into more serious crime in later life.

A Met spokesman said: "The new approach will enhance our anti-gang activities, improve co-ordination and tasking, and increase proactive operations, while making sure our skills and expertise in this area are used more consistently and effectively.

"Trident is a key part of how we tackle gangs and remains responsible for preventing and investigating shootings in London."

The news comes on the same day that policing undergoes a series of changes, including the passing of the political accountability for the Met from the elected Metropolitan Police Authority to the mayor, Boris Johnson.

Mr Hogan-Howe and Mr Johnson will announce the Mayor's Office for Police and Crime today. In November police and crime commissioners throughout the country will be elected to replace police authorities.

Mr Hogan-Howe will also explain for the first time his vision of "total policing" in a lecture at the London School of Economics this evening.

Last month, the commissioner said gang crime was a "significant problem" in nearly half of London's boroughs.

"If I was to pick out one thing that I want to do the most about it's young people in gangs," he said.

Man hurt and 15 arrested after fight between English Defence League and local youths

2012-01-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

London 24

Man hurt and 15 arrested after fight between English Defence League and local youths
Else Kvist, Reporter
Monday, January 16, 2012
10:41 AM

A man was taken to hospital and 15 people arrested after a large fight in Whitechapel on Saturday, involving supporters of the English Defence League and local youth.

The EDL had held an organised march in Barking earlier in the afternoon which was met with a counter protest, and four people were later arrested. It is believed some EDL members travelled onto Whitechapel after the protest.

Police were called to Whitechapel Road just before 5pm on Saturday to reports of a large fight and a man suffering injuries. Bottles and other items were thrown during the fight involving several hundreds of people, according to police.

An ambulance was called to take the injured man to hospital. His injuries were said not to be life-threatening.

Police said the fifteen men were arrested in order to prevent a breach of the peace. They have since been released from police custody.

Officers from Tower Hamlets are investigating the assault and police said they were not aware of further injuries.

MP for Bethnal Green and Bow Rushanara Ali said: “I was out visiting constituents when I saw the police cars. As far as I could see, the police were doing their job. There were a lot of young people around but the police are very adept at handling these situations.

“We’ve shown time and again that there is no place for groups like the EDL and the far right in Bethnal Green and Bow. There is no place for violence and hate in our community. What is important now is that we remain calm and don’t rise to the provocation from the EDL, who want to stir up unrest in our community.

“The police have reassured me that they will have an increased presence in the area.”

Aarron McKoy murder in Clerkenwell: Man charged with shooting on New Year’s Day

2012-01-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

London24
Aarron McKoy murder in Clerkenwell: Man charged with shooting on New Year’s Day
Friday, January 13, 2012
8:49 AM

A second man has been charged with the murder of Aarron McKoy in Clerkenwell on New Year’s Day.

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Jack Nichols, 20, from Wickford in Essex, will appear in custody at Thames Magistrates’ Court charged with murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Mr McKoy, from Hackney, was killed in the early hours of January 1 after celebrating his 22nd birthday.

He was gunned down in Portpool Lane, Clerkenwell.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police say Mr McKoy had been at the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar in Hatton Wall in the hours before he was killed.

Yesterday afternoon officers arrested a sixth person in connection with the investigation.

A 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after attending an east London police station. He remains there in custody.

Previously two people have been charged in connection with the investigation.

Dean Smith, aged 25, from Hackney, is remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on April 13 charged with the murder of Mr McKoy and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Kieron Caesar, 23, is remanded in custody to appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on March 22 charged with GBH on a 24-year-old man in Clerkenwell on January 1.

Isschan Nicholls killing in Bow: Man arrested released without charges

2012-01-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

London24

Isschan Nicholls killing in Bow: Man arrested released without charges
Else Kvist, Reporter
Friday, January 13, 2012
1:23 PM

A man arrested over the death of an 18-year-old killed in a fight, involving up to 15 people, two years ago has been released without charges.

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Police continue to appeal for information and have put up a £20,000 reward for any information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the attack on Isschan Nicholls.

Police were called at about 9.10pm on January 13 in 2010 to reports of a fight in Parnell Road.

Officers discovered two male teenagers nearby suffering from stab wounds.

Isschan, of Poplar, died two days later in hospital and a post-mortem gave the cause of death as stab wounds to the abdomen and thigh. The second victim, aged 17, was treated and discharged.

The fight involved weapons such as baseball bats and pieces of wood, and a number of weapons were recovered, including what police believe was the knife used to stab Isschan.

Anyone with information should call the incident room on 020 8721 4054 or anonymously Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Seventeen other people were arrested during the course of the enquiry with no further action taken against any of them.

Heroin carrying student from Canning Town was anti-drugs

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

London24
Heroin carrying student from Canning Town was anti-drugs
Pat Coughtrey , News Editor
Thursday, January 12, 2012
4:25 PM

A student who claimed he was staunchly anti-drugs was jailed for six months after he was caught with ‘crack’ and heroin.

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Paul Lopo, 18, said he was just carrying the drugs for a friend when he was caught by plain-clothes police cyclists who noticed him acting suspiciously.

They had seen him do a wheelie on his bike as he emerged from an alleyway in Canning Town, then ride away quickly with a rucksack strapped to his chest, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

As they followed him down Freemasons Road at about 11.30pm on May 11, he began speeding up and took a sharp turn in front of a bus, forcing the driver to brake sharply.

Eventually an officer got off his bicycle and grabbed Lopo, who admitted he was carrying drugs.

Police found bags containing 2.7g of crack cocaine, with a street value of £276, and 3.5g of heroin, worth £377, inside the rucksack, which he claimed to be delivering to a friend free of charge.

They later found £150 in cash at his house, which he said was for his train fares to Newham College, where he is studying for a Level Two NVQ in Personal Training.

Lopo, of Oystercatcher Close, Canning Town, admitted two counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply.

Passing sentence, Judge Timothy Lamb QC said he accepted Lopo’s claim he had been carrying the drugs for a friend.

He said: “In your own account there came a point when you knew you were carrying Class A drugs for someone else whilst riding your bicycle.

“You had the choice about what you were going to do, and you chose to become a drug courier.”

Anne Faul, defending, said Lopo was committed to a healthy lifestyle but had slipped up a month before the offence and tried cocaine.

She said: “He’s not a drug user. He wants to be a keep fit expert, he cycles everywhere and that was a blip.

“He is anti-drugs, he doesn’t take them, but he did that one time because of the stress he was going through.”

THIS MAN HELPED ME PUT DOWN THE GUN AND PICK UP THE CAMERA

2012-01-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 12, 2012 Thursday

THIS MAN HELPED ME PUT DOWN THE GUN AND PICK UP THE CAMERA

Amy Iggulden, David Cohen

The scar running down Hassan Craftz Kamara's face from his left eye to his mouth marks the night the 22-year-old nearly died after being slashed with a mini Samurai sword at a party. "I was holding my face together, trying to stop things falling out before the medics patched me with 22 stitches," he said.

But Mr Kamara, then 17, was no innocent bystander. "I f**ked up between 16 and 18, crashed into a brick wall. My dad died when I was nine and I looked up to the wrong people.

"I got into a Shepherd's Bush gang called MDP, short for Money Drugs Power or Murder Dem Pussies. I packed a 38 [handgun] and, of course, a knife."

The gang terrorised west London between 2007 and 2009. Some members were killed, others were jailed for murder. Mr Kamara was sentenced to two years at young offender institutes for assault and violent disorder.

Today he is a man transformed, a film-maker with a place on a media studies course at Ravensbourne College, Greenwich. "I've put down the gun, picked up the camera," he said. "Instead of shooting people, I'm shooting films." He motioned to his "mentor" Dean Stalham, 48, sitting alongside him in the cafeteria at Goldsmiths College. "Dean's my inspiration. He taught me that if you choose to reform your ways and try hard, you will get somewhere in life."

Mr Stalham, 48, himself a former convict, started the charity Art Saves Lives in 2009 to help vulnerable young people find their voices as writers, artists and film-makers. He did it because art saved his life.

While serving three and a half years in Wandsworth jail in 2004 he wrote a play - sponsored by the Royal Court Theatre - that would be performed in front of 200 inmates to a standing ovation, prompting him to mend his ways and become an award-winning playwright. His example inspired three fellow inmates to follow in his footsteps, but he saw how hard it was for people with previous convictions to break through, so he started the charity to help them.

The Evening Standard's Dispossessed Fund has made a £9,000 grant to support Art Saves Lives. The cash will fund two five-month film-making courses at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The course is aimed at young offenders and will pay for professionals to take 56 students through the process of script writing, story boarding, filming and editing, culminating in the production of a movie.

It is the first substantial grant received by Arts Saves Lives and follows a pilot course run last year in collaboration with Inside Films, which saw three ex-offenders -including Mr Kamara and his friend Prince Shaka Owusu, 21 - make a raw but compelling 12-minute film. Titled Bare Inequality, it asks: "Why is my area so poor and yours so rich? What can be done about it?"

Their Dispossessed Fund grant is one of 163 amounting to £1.25 million announced yesterday to support groups tackling poverty across the capital. The fund has raised £7.3 million since it was launched in July 2010, of which £3 million has been given so far to charitable projects, transforming the lives of tens of thousands of Londoners.

Mr Stalham leads his charity by example. "I led a gangster's life," he said. "I had a £500,000 house in Stanmore, a villa in Spain, two antique shops, and I was in a relationship with a Page 3 girl. I thought I had it all, but actually I was a fraudster living on borrowed time, and when the police caught up with me in 2004 I lost everything."

Born in Edgware to a dinner lady and her bingo manager husband, he grew up in a large extended family full of "colourful" uncles and cousins. He bunked off school regularly to play pool in Carnaby Street, he said. "So when I was about to take O-levels, my dad said, 'Don't bother, I've got you a job with Uncle Eddie'." However, Uncle Eddie, he said, turned out to be "less of a builder, more of a heroin dealer".

Mr Stalham's police charge sheet runs to several pages. In 1980, age 17, he was found guilty of stealing a car and fined £100. In 1984 he was arrested for assault; in 1986 for carrying a knife in a public place. Then in 1994, aged 31, he was jailed for two years for conspiring to defraud banks, after police smashed his fake credit card ring which stretched from Rotterdam to Lagos.

A spell in Pentonville and Ford Open Prison failed to mend his ways. "Ford was full of bent solicitors and I learned even more about how to do fraud," he said. In 2004, having opened two antiques shops in Watford, he was sentenced to three and a half years for handling stolen art. "I had four original silkscreen prints by Andy Warhol - Mao, Lenin, Superman and Marilyn - worth £55,000 each, 13 Chagall etchings and 33 Dali lithographs which were hard to value because you couldn't sell them."

It was in Wandsworth Prison that Mr Stalham decided to "take education". "One day, well-known writer Jane Bodie came from the Royal Court Theatre to run an eight-week script writing course and the prize was that the best plays would be performed. I was one of eight on the course and wrote If The Cap Fits, about tensions in an East End road that's gentrified when a cap factory is turned into loft apartments."

Not only was his play performed, it won a Koestler Trust Award for art by

sister of a young Hackney man shot dead while celebrating his birthday in Clerkenwell has made a heartfelt plea for friends or family of his killers to come forward

2012-01-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

Hackney Gazette

January 12, 2012 Thursday

'The sister of a young Hackney man shot dead while celebrating his birthday in Clerkenwell has made a heartfelt plea for friends or family of his killers to come forward.

Cyrena Barned, sister of 22-year-old Aarron McKoy who was gunned down in the early hours of New Year's Day, said: "Someone out there must know who the killers are, but maybe through misplaced loyalty or just plain fear of the consequences, they can't bring themselves to do the right thing."

Aarron, of no fixed address, was shot in the chest in Portpool Lane at about 4.10am. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives say he had been at the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar in Hatton Wall and was involved in a fight outside in which a 24-year-old man was stabbed.

The violence escalated and Aarron - a former pupil a Baden Powell Primary School in Lower Clapton - was chased and shot.

Det Ch Insp John Crossley from the Met's Trident unit told the Gazette that he believed Hackney residents had been at the bar and asked them to come forward with information.

Cyrena, 27, described Aarron, who had a twin brother called Lee, as "a loveable character".

She said she understood how people might be frightened of speaking out for fear of repercussions but that they would be protected.

"I'm sure somebody, somewhere, knows who killed my brother and I just pray that if they search their hearts they will do the right thing," she added.

"From now on, not only will my family and friends remember Aarron's birthday at New Year but also his death.

"New Year will never be the same for our family again. You may be out there celebrating, but we will be mourning."

Although a Hackney man has appeared in court in connection with the shooting, police inquiries continue.

Detectives have also arrested a 22-year-old man and bailed him until March, pending further inquiries.

An earlier suspect was released without charge.

n Anyone with information should call Mr Crossley on 020 8733 4212 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Police are appealing for information after a 21-year-old man was shot in the leg in Hornsey

2012-01-12T11:04:00.001-08:00

North London Journal

January 12, 2012 Thursday

Police are appealing for information after a 21-year-old man was shot in the leg in Hornsey.

Officers were called to Rectory Gardens at around 5.40pm last Friday to reports of shots fired in the area.

A police spokeswoman said "evidence" of a gunshot was found at the scene but there was no sign of any casualties.

Later, a 21-year-old man attended hospital for a gunshot wound to the leg, not thought to be life-threatening.

Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Police arrest two more over drive-by-shooting on estate

2012-01-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

North West London Times

January 12, 2012

Police arrest two more over drive-by-shooting on estate

Detectives investigating a drive-by shooting on the Mozart Estate - where a man was hit twice - have arrested and bailed two more people.

A 19 and 22-year-old man were quizzed by officers after a 21-year-old was shot in the chest and abdomen as he stood at the junction of Third Avenue and Bruckner Street in Queen's Park, on December 21, at 3.50pm.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition but has since improved and is stable.

Last week, officers from Operation Trident, the Met's specialist team that investigates gun crime in London, made the arrests. Both men were subsequently bailed to return to a police station in March.

Last month, a 17-year-old youth from South Kilburn was arrested and bailed to return to a police station this month.

Det Chief Insp Mick Foote is leading the hunt for the gunman. He has made an appeal for a group of up to 10 men who were with the victim when the shooting happened to come forward.

He said: "I would urge anyone who saw the shooting, or may have information about those involved, to come forward. I am particularly keen to trace a group of young men we believe may have been close to the scene ."

Anyone with information about the shooting should call 020 8733 4774 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Alternatively you can submit information anonymously online by visiting crimestoppers-uk.org.

Gang fight in Brent Magistrates Court was ‘disaster waiting to happen’

2012-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Gang fight in Brent Magistrates Court was ‘disaster waiting to happen’
Lorraine King, News editor
Thursday, January 12, 2012
11:12 AM

Youths clash in ‘postcode wars’ battle

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A violent clash between rival youths in a court house was ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ because of postcode wars, it has been claimed.

Three teenagers were arrested after a fight broke out in the public waiting area in Brent Magistrates’ Court on Monday afternoon.

The court was forced to close as a result of the brawl which according to an insider, who asked not to be named, had been predicted following the closure of Harrow Magistrates’ Court.

He claims concerns had been raised that postcode war disputes, in which youths from one area clash with their counterparts in neighbouring districts, would be fuelled.

He said: “There were objections from many agencies but it was ignored.

“If youths have to travel to an area where they don’t get on with people they will inevitably clash. This has been a disaster waiting to happen. It’s amazing no one was seriously injured.”

During the fight, in which a 16 and two 17-year-olds were arrested for affray, several other people fled before they could be detained.

The arrested trio have been bailed to return to a police station in March.

Patrick Jacobs, chairman of Not Another Drop, an anti-crime organisation, said: “You will always get this kind of problem when you have rival youths in the same place. This shows that there is a gang problem in Brent despite continual denials.

“The court needs to step up their security and their scheduling to avoid this sort of thing happening again.”

A spokesman for Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service said: “The closure of Harrow Magistrates’ Court and the movement of work to Brent Magistrates’ Court will mean court services in the area are much more cost-effective.

“Brent Magistrates’ Court provides vastly improved and modern facilities. It offers good facilities and accessibility for court users with a disability and there are separate waiting facilities for victims and witnesses.

“Furthermore, the court has secure video link facilities so that vulnerable and intimidated witnesses do not need to go into the court room to give evidence.

“The government is committed to supporting local justice, enabling justice to be done and be seen to be done in our communities.”

He added: “This week’s incident is a matter for the police, but it should be noted that all the youth cases on the day were from the borough of Brent.”

Brent Police are appealing for witnesses to the fight to come forward.

Anyone with information should call DS Russell Norval on 0208 733 3709 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Half of Tower Hamlets children are in “child poverty”

2012-01-11T11:37:00.001-08:00

Half of Tower Hamlets children are in “child poverty”

By Nadia Sam-Daliri
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
10:20 AM

Tower Hamlets is the worst area in the UK for child poverty, new research by a charity shows.

More than half the children living in the East End are from families where the household income is less than 60 per cent of the national average of 25,000, according to the Campaign to End Child Poverty.

Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, which had the worst rate of child poverty in the country, has hit out at Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman for not having an effective training programme to help people find jobs.

She said: The directly elected mayor has almost a billion pounds of public money to spend and people need to ask, where is he spending it?

Why doesnt Tower Hamlets have an effective training programme? If Newham can get thousands of people into work why cant Tower Hamlets?

But the council insisted it has taken great strides to tackle the issue with measures such as its 400 grants for books and travel for sixth form and college students to replace the governments abolished Education Maintenance Allowance.

It said it is also welcoming 21 new graduates into a council training programme this week, alongside filling at least 1,000 Olympics jobs.

The number of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training has been reduced to 5.3 per cent - lower than the national average of 6.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Ms Ali said there needs to be a frank discussion in the borough about the opportunities less well off families have, alongside how much money is going to be needed to tackle the more difficult issue of long-term unemployment.

The Labour MP said: If you come from a workless family you dont have the opportunities that others do. It makes a massive difference to have people around to give robust, positive feedback to young people.

A call to arms to Canary Wharf and City of London firms to offer more local jobs and paid internships is vital in reducing child poverty, Ms Ali added.

Gunshot fired at police car in Lower Clapton

2012-01-11T11:36:00.002-08:00

London24

Gunshot fired at police car in Lower Clapton

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
10:05 AM

Three armed men on bicycles fired at a police patrol car in Lower Clapton on Tuesday night (January 10).

The attack happened shortly before 11.30pm as officers were monitoring CCTV cameras in Mandeville Street.

As the car was approaching the men, a single shot was fired in its direction and the suspects made off across a footbridge over the River Lee.

A handgun was recovered at the scene.

No one was injured and detectives are investigating.

The shooting follows the death of 26-year-old Tommy Lawrence outside the Glyn Arms pub in Mandeville Street last October.

Tony Paduret murder: Mayfair Club doorman shot ‘for refusing entry’

2012-01-11T11:36:00.001-08:00

London24

Tony Paduret murder: Mayfair Club doorman shot ‘for refusing entry’

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
5:47 PM

A doorman at a Mayfair nightclub was gunned down after refusing entry to a group of revellers, a court heard today.

Bogdan Paduret, known as Tony, was shot twice in the head as he returned home from a shift at the Mayfair Club near Piccadilly in central London on November 27. 2010.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told a jury at the Old Bailey: “This was, you may think, a quite appalling crime. One that was as callous as it was apparently casual.”

Around three weeks earlier he had refused to allow a group of around 10 people into the club, and a fight broke out.

Mr Aylett said: “Tony Paduret must have had a particularly high profile in that fight.

“First of all he was the head doorman. Secondly he was also 6ft 5ins tall with long blond hair that he wore tied up in a bun.

“Unwittingly, the easily identifiable Mr Paduret had made himself a target for one or more of these defendants.”

He said that one of five men in the dock, Errol Jeffrey, 29, would not forget what had happened.

Mr Aylett told the court: “It may be that it was Jeffrey who was least able to forget or forgive the slight that he and his friends had suffered.

“Tony Paduret had simply been doing his job, Nonetheless, Jeffrey and his friends must have felt that they had not been shown the respect to which they considered themselves entitled.”

Romanian Mr Paduret was shot outside his house in Temple Fortune, north London, in front of his friend Constantin Cimpan, who had given him a lift home from work.

The prosecution said that John Otugade, 19, was the gunman, and that he fled on a motorbike driven by Christopher N’Jie, also 19.

Mr Aylett told the court that Otugade had “almost certainly never met” the victim.

“Apart from knowing where Tony Paduret lived, Otugade most likely would not have known the first thing about him.

“Instead, the prosecution suggest, Otugade was looking to make a name for himself - to acquire a degree of underworld celebrity - by doing someone else’s dirty work.

“The dirty work, the prosecution suggest, of the second defendant, Errol Jeffrey.”

It is alleged that Troy Shaw, 20, from Poplar, east London; Jeffrey, from the Isle of Dogs, and Danny Dixon, 29, from Hounslow, west London, acted as “spotters” to keep tabs on where Mr Paduret was.

They, along with Otugade, from Hackney, north London, and N’Jie, from the Isle of Dogs, all deny murder.

Prosecutors allege that Jeffrey was outside the club on the night of the fight, November 6 to 7, which he denies.

Dixon admits being there but denies being involved in the altercation.

The venue was a lap dancing club from Mondays to Thursdays, and then a nightclub on Fridays and Saturdays.

The trial continues.

Childs Hill tower block gunman remains in hospital this morning

2012-01-11T11:21:00.001-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Childs Hill tower block gunman remains in hospital this morning
9:39am Wednesday 11th January 2012 in London News

By Natalie O'Neill »

A MAN who was arrested after brandishing a firearm from a block of flats in Childs Hill remains in hospital this morning.

Police were called to the tower block in Granville Point, Granville Road, at around midday yesterday where the 55-year-old man could be seen through a smashed window on the fourteenth floor.

After a stand-off which lasted more than six-and-a-half hours, officers stormed the building and arrested the man on suspicion of firearms offences and criminal damage.

He was believed to be under the influence of alcohol and was taken to the Royal Free Hospital suffering with cuts and mental health problems.

Volunteers needed for anti-knife crime event

2012-01-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

Volunteers needed for anti-knife crime event
Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Educating: Hazel Nelson-Williams runs an anti-knife programme
By Mary McConnell

A MOTHER running an anti-knife crime education event is asking for more volunteers to help things run smoothly on the day.

Hazel Nelson-Williams, from the Nelson-Williams Foundation, believes it is important to keep the anti-weapons message going.

There will be workshops on weapons awareness and safety, gang association and conflict resolutions as part of the Family Empowerment Day at Oasis Academy Enfield, in Mollison Avenue, Brimsdown, on January 28.

There will also be information on how parents can budget during a recession and a chef will explain how to make nutritional meals when money is tight.

Hazel told the Advertiser: “It is important for us as a foundation to keep doing these educational events, not just the marches when somebody has been killed, like we did last year.

“I have been speaking to some mothers about the recession and they really wanted some advice on budgeting and making healthy meals for their family so that is why we have got the chef coming along and the financial adviser, who is going to talk about how to make ends meet during the recession.

“But we are looking for volunteers to help set the event up and to help us clean up afterwards, so if anyone is free on the 28th please get in touch.”

The event is free to attend, but everyone must register on the event’s website to gain entry. Hazel also has plans to visit other schools in the borough and is planning on running similar events every three to four months.

She added: “Every single school in Enfield will have a children or a few children involved in gangs, even if the schools don’t know who they are, so we have to get the message out to the whole borough.”

To register for the event go to www.family
empowermentday.eventbrite.co.uk or log on to www.nelsonwilliamsfoundation.com for more information.

Hoxton cannabis haul: Police seize drugs worth £1m

2012-01-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

London24

Hoxton cannabis haul: Police seize drugs worth £1m

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
2:22 PM

Police seized shopping bags full of cannabis with a street value of more than £1 million from a lock-up in Hoxton in one of the biggest drugs hauls found in Hackney for about seven years.

Hackney police have seized 270 kilos of cannabis with a street value in excess around one million pounds.
Officers from Operation Bantam, Hackney Police’s drugs and firearms squad, along with rapid response investigators swooped in on an underground car park in Crondall Street shortly before 7pm on Monday (January 9) following a call from a passer-by.

They arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of supplying drugs.

A raid on a nearby lock-up connected to the man uncovered 270kg of cannabis resin and herbal cannabis in cling film stored in five large laundry holders, two holdalls and several shopping bags.

There was also a set of scales and a heat wrapping machine with extra cling film.

A spokeswoman for Hackney Police said the stash was likely to be the biggest seized by officers in the borough for seven years.

Detective Inspective Rhys Willis, from Operation Bantam, said: “These drugs were clearly being stored to be divided up and sold on, and this is a good seizure for Hackney police that has taken a substantial quantity of illegal substances off the streets.”

The suspect currently remains in custody at Hackney police station.

Police appeal after Roehampton stabbing

2012-01-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Police appeal after Roehampton stabbing
Police are appealing for witnesses after a man was stabbed four times in Roehampton.

Police appeal after Roehampton stabbing
The attack took place on December 10 at approximately 10.45pm on Petersfield Rise as he was walking home.

The 23-year-old victim was hospitalised for four days with serious injuries and police are keen to speak to witnesses.

If you can help contact the Critical Incident Investigation Team on 0208 247 8502 with any information. Alternatively you can call crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

WALTHAMSTOW: Teenager killed by bus 'was tripped'

2012-01-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

WALTHAMSTOW: Teenager killed by bus 'was tripped'
By Daniel Binns »
A TEENAGER has told a court of the horrific moment when his friend was run over and killed by a bus as he fled an attempted mugging.

Ezekiel Amosu died after being run over by a bus
Ezekiel Amosu, 17, died almost instantly when he was crushed by an out-of-service 123 double-decker as it drove along Forest Road in Walthamstow last January.

Four 16-year-old boys, who cannot be named because of their ages, are currently on trial at the Old Bailey for his manslaughter. Three are also accused of attempted robbery.

It is alleged that Ezekiel was running away from three of the teens when the fourth, waiting nearby, tripped him up and caused him to fall into the path of the on-coming vehicle.

Today a 16-year-old witness, who said he knew both Ezekiel and one of the defendants, described how he watched events unfold in Essex Close estate nearby.

Police at the scene last January
The teen, whose identity is also protected by law, said a group of boys including Ezekiel were chatting in a courtyard area when they were approached by a separate group, including three of the defendants.

He said the mood swiftly became tense and one of the defendants asked to look at Ezekiel's mobile phone, which he had temporarily pulled out of his pocket to check.

He said: “Ezekiel was, like, 'why do you want to see my phone'? [The defendant] was, like, 'give me the phone I want to see it'. Ezekiel said no and asked if [the defendant] was trying to rob him.”

Jurors heard how one of Ezekiel's friends took the opportunity to run away, and was briefly chased by some of the gang before they gave up.

Moments later Ezekiel, who lived nearby and was a popular student at Leyton Sixth Form College, also tried to flee after one of the gang allegedly threw a stone at him.

The witness said he saw him run out of the estate towards the road where another of the defendants, who was on a bicycle, “appeared out of nowhere” on the pavement next to a row of railings and some wooden boarding.

The witness, speaking via a videolink, said: “Ezekiel must've jumped over the railing and that's when [the other defendant] stuck his foot out and that's where he tripped over”.

The 16-year-old admitted under cross examination that it was dark at the time and that it happened in a “split-second”, but he was adamant about what he saw.

He added that “everybody froze for a minute” when they saw Ezekiel had been killed, but then most youths in the area ran away when the realisation of what had happened sunk in.

The prosecution claims three of the defendants were chasing Ezekiel but the witness said he only saw one boy running after him.

He admitted to initially lying to police about not knowing the names of those allegedly involved but said he changed his mind after he “realised it was wrong”.

All defendants deny all charges. The trial continues.

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£1million cannabis haul seized in Islington

2012-01-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

London24
£1million cannabis haul seized in Islington
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
3:41 PM

A haul of cannabis weighing 270 kg and with a street value of more than £1million was seized on Monday (January 9).

The haul contained 270 kilosCops swooped on an underground car-park in Crondall street, Hoxton, at around 3pm following calls from members of the public.

In a nearby lock up they found a large amount of cannabis resin and herbal cannabis wrapped in cling film in five large laundry holders, two holdalls and several shopping bags.

More cannabis resin was found in a vehicle at the scene.

Officers also found a set of scales and a heat wrap machine.

A 31-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs and remains in custody.

Det Insp Rhys Willis, from Operation Bantam, said: “These drugs were clearly being stored to be divided up and sold on and this is a good seizure for Hackney police that has taken a substantial quantity of illegal substances off the streets.”

Police raid homes of robbery suspects

2012-01-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Westminster Chronicle
Police raid homes of robbery suspects

Posted by Emma Heseltine on Jan 10, 12 02:43 PM in News
Police swooped on the homes of suspected gang members alleged to have been preying on lone women in a spate of robberies across Westminster.

In a dawn raid on Tuesday (10), officers arrested a 32 year-old man on suspicion of robbery after a violent attack on a woman in Belgravia last month.

On December 5, a woman had her earrings, valued at £100,000, ripped from her ears shortly after stepping out of her car in Eaton Place.

And police suspect this incident could be linked to a series of eight attacks on women walking home on their own in Pimlico through November and December.

Each time, between two and four robbers approached victims and took jewellery and watches, sometimes at knifepoint, leaving residents feeling they have to organise night patrols of the streets in the area to protect each other.

On Tuesday, police raided a third-storey flat in Notting Hill, breaking down the door with a steel battering ram, while simultaneously targeting a flat in Queens Park, but the suspect was not home.

However, in three lock-up garages close by, police found a Mini, which they believe had been stolen, and which had been stripped of its number plates, alongside two other suspected stolen cars.

Detective Superintendent Penny Banham said: "These arrests show we are determined to take action against suspects committing crime in Westminster. Since we started this operation we have carried out nine arrests and we have seen an end to the offences in Belgravia and Pimlico."

A 15 year-old boy, who attempted to rob a 55 year-old woman in Belgravia on December 7 was served with a youth referral order at West London Youth Court on Thursday (5).

He was also ordered to pay £100 in compensation to his victim.

The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previously admitted attempted robbery.

POLICE HUNTING PIMLICO GANG SWOOP ON SUSPECT

2012-01-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 10, 2012 Tuesday

POLICE HUNTING PIMLICO GANG SWOOP ON SUSPECT

James Anthony, Justin Davenport

POLICE today swooped on one of the final alleged members of a knife-wielding gang suspected of preying on lone women in central London.
In a dawn raid detectives seized a 32-year-old man on suspicion of a violent robbery on a woman in Belgravia last month. In the attack the woman had a pair of £100,000 earrings pulled from her ears moments after she had stepped from her Bentley car in Eaton Place. Police suspect there are links to a series of eight attacks on women walking home alone in Pimlico in November and last month.
The robbers stole jewellery and watches, sometimes at knifepoint - leading residents to organise night-time patrols to guard the streets.
Officers from Westminster Crime Squad burst into the suspect's one-bedroom flat on the third floor of a council block in Notting Hill early today. Using a steel battering ram, they smashed their way inside, shouting "police, police, police".
Sounds of a struggle could be heard before the suspect was led away in handcuffs - after first asking one officer to look after his pet cat, Angel.
In a simultaneous raid on a second suspect in Ashmore Road, Queen's Park, police were warned the man had a history of violence and once kept an axe behind his door. There was also intelligence he had an samurai sword. The suspect was not at home but in three lock-up garages nearby they found a suspected stolen convertible Mini which had been stripped of its licence plates and two other suspected stolen cars. Detectives believe they were used in the robberies.
Detective Superintendent Penny Banham said : "These arrests show we are determined to take action against suspects committing crime in Westminster. Since we started this operation we have carried out nine arrests and we have seen an end to the offences in Pimlico."

Cricklewood teenager jailed for part in Harlesden Tube Station shooting

2012-01-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Cricklewood teenager jailed for part in Harlesden Tube Station shooting
By Natalie O'Neill »
A GIRL from Cricklewood has been jailed for helping a gang of teenagers try to murder a footballer last year.

Chantelle Franklin, 17,
Chantelle Franklin, 17, of Edgware Road, was among a gang of four teenagers who tried to shoot the 27-year-old man at Harlesden Tube Station last March.

Blackfriars Crown Court, which lifted reporting restrictions on the identities of the youths involved, heard how the victim became involved in a fight with the group in Mordaunt Road as he was making his way home to south-east London from a football match.

The teenagers chased the man into the station before Jordan Gabbidon, 17, of Brent, shot him in the back as he tried to run down the stairs to escape. He was shot from a range of six metres and fell to the ground as he reached the platform.

The victim managed to board a Bakerloo Line train to Willesden Junction and was taken to hospital for emergency surgery for wounds from shotgun pellets in his back which had damaged his spine and liver.

Jordan Gabbidon, 17,
Upon sentencing the group on Thursday, Judge Aidan Marron QC called the shooting a “wicked and ruthless act of violence”.

Gabbidon and Samuel Woods, 16, of Windrush Road, Brent, were jailed indefinitely for public protection for the attempted murder. Both will serve a minimum of six years and three months.

Franklin and Ola Salau, 18, of Nettleden Avenue, Wembley, were convicted of possession of a firearm in a public place. Salau was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Franklin was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice and also jailed for a total of six years.

Police accused of discriminating against urban music scene: Risk assessment of events 'based on ethnicity' Met can demand strict safety measures

2012-01-09T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Guardian (London) - Final Edition

January 9, 2012 Monday

Police accused of discriminating against urban music scene: Risk assessment of events 'based on ethnicity' Met can demand strict safety measures

Alexandra Topping

Heavy-handed police bureaucracy is unfairly targeting and discriminating against the urban music scene, according to agents, the body which represents the industry, and MPs.
At a recent major urban event at a mainstream live venue, organisers say that police insisted on searching 18 performers for weapons before they went on stage, as well as a group of young people on work experience organised by a charity.
The Metropolitan police's risk assessment of live urban music gigs is based on the ethnicity of the audience and artists, according to industry figures. Police can ask for strict safety measures to be put in place on the basis of this risk assessment, and can cancel gigs at short notice.
At the event, police told organisers they had intelligence about an artist on the bill, but would not specify which one, saying they all needed to be searched. An airport-style scanner was used to check the artists and anyone else involved in the gig each time they entered the venue, the event's booking agent said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Of course we complied, we can't afford to rock the boat, but it is definitely racist, it is definitely not fair," he said. "The problem is that it reverberates through young people, they go to different types of events, they see that at indie events they are not treated like this. It just antagonises them." He added that booking agents and promoters were often unwilling to speak out about the issue because of fears they would be targeted by police, or that venues would be less willing to book artists.
"It's dangerous territory. If artists complain about it then it could be even worse for them. We all need to earn a living, and at the moment it is not a level playing field. Basically we have to keep our mouths shut and toe the line," he said.
Sarah McKinley, founder of Xtreme Talent Artist Agency, an urban booking agency, said the risk assessment, using form 696, was not being conducted sensibly. "Often the risk assessment happens after the night has been advertised. People have already spent money and then the night can get pulled."
She added that in her view, the 696 form was only used for urban artists, so was discriminatory. "I've never known a club to have to do a 696 for a normal, non-black event."
John Whittingdale, who chairs the culture, media and sport committee in the House of Commons, said he continued to call for the "discriminatory and draconian" form to be scrapped, after his committee first demanded its abolition in 2009.
"We looked at it and were of the view that form 696 was discriminatory and completely unnecessary. It appears that problem still exists and it is still being used by the Met to target particular types of music."
Jo Dipple, acting chief executive of UK Music, the UK music industry body, said: "We have seen no evidence that directly links music, never mind artists and musicians, with crime and disorder."
Police say that following "concerns" the form had been modified to remove "any reference to music genre".
But the current form, which asks for details about events "that predominantly feature DJs or MCs performing to a recorded backing track", clearly targeted urban artists, said Dipple.
"This is unacceptable. Performers being searched goes way beyond the stated guidance of this supposedly voluntary process," she said, arguing that police were hampering one of the UK's successful music exports, which has seen artists like Dizzee Rascal and Ms Dynamite achieve international success.
In a statement the Met said that form 696 was "intended to identify where an event might be at risk from crime and take steps to prevent it.
"To date shootings linked to licensed premises have been significantly reduced and we believe the risk assessment process has contributed to this.

'I WAS STABBED BY LAWRENCE GANG OUTSIDE WIMPY WEEKS BEFORE STEPHEN WAS KILLED'

2012-01-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 9, 2012 Monday

'I WAS STABBED BY LAWRENCE GANG OUTSIDE WIMPY WEEKS BEFORE STEPHEN WAS KILLED'

Geoff Teather, Benedict Moore-bridger

A MAN said today he nearly died after being stabbed by members of the same gang that killed Stephen Lawrence.
Gurdeep Bhangal said he was "100 per cent sure" one of Stephen's murderers, David Norris, was involved in the assault following an argument over an order at his Wimpy takeaway.
The attack was six weeks before Stephen was stabbed to death in Eltham in 1993. Mr Bhangal called on the Met to open a new investigation.
Norris was jailed last week for a minimum of 14 years for the racist murder of 18-year-old Stephen. Gary Dobson received a 15-year sentence. Police believe other members of the teenage gang were involved.
Mr Bhangal was stabbed in the stomach with a carving knife after confronting white youths that he alleges included Norris, with the actual blow coming from another member of the gang whom he also recognises.
He said he was trying to stop Norris banging on the takeaway window in Eltham and hurling racist insults when a second youth plunged a 10-inch blade into him, just missing his spine.
Mr Bhangal, 41, said the crime was reported to police but he had been extremely unhappy with the investigation which he described as "half-hearted". He told the Standard: "Norris was standing on the step by the entrance just making a nuisance, banging on the window, trying to aggravate the situation and wanting us to come outside. I went outside and got hold of Norris and then I was stabbed on the left hand side by this other person with a big red-handled kitchen knife.
"I went back into the shop and was having difficulty breathing. I looked down and saw a big patch of blood and collapsed. I ended up in hospital for 12 days and very nearly died." His attacker is said to have called him a "Paki bastard".
Tip-offs to the police suggested those responsible for the Lawrence murder were behind Mr Bhangal's stabbing. The gang appeared to make reference to the attack in secret police recordings in Dobson's flat during the Lawrence investigation.
On the tape, Dobson says: "He said 'The f****** black b****** I am going to kill him'. I cracked up laughing. I went 'what black geezer?'. He went 'The Wimpy one'."
Mr Bhangal, who is married with three children, said he became convinced of the attackers' identities after following the Lawrence case. He also believes he knows the identity of the person who delivered the blow.
Officers contacted him nine months ago informing him about their progress in the Lawrence case, but did not mention whether his attack would also be re-investigated.
He said: "I think they should. It could have been fatal and my parents could have had to go through the same thing as Stephen's. Norris was one and he has gone down, so that is a result of sorts. But the one who actually stabbed me is still out there free. "
A spokeswoman for the Met said the original investigation was dropped because of insufficient evidence but added that if new information came to light it "would be considered".
She added: "It is not possible for us to comment on the detail of the investigation, given the passage of time. However, in general terms we can say that the Met has made huge progress in recent years in providing an improved service to minority communities and continues to work hard to gain their confidence."

Ex Holloway gang member gets OBE

2012-01-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

Ex Holloway gang member gets OBE

Sunday, January 8, 2012
12:52 PM

A reformed gang member from Holloway has been awarded an OBE for his services to young people.

Chris Preddie, 24, signed up for Crimestoppers after turning away from a life of gangs and guns which claimed the life of his older brother in a drug-fuelled shoot out.

Since then, Mr Preddie has spoken as a volunteer to around 10,000 young people at various schools, prisons and institutions about his own experiences, attempting to give hope to youngsters who might think they have no option but a violent future.

He uses poetry and plays to recount his own difficult journey out of crime to successfully engage his audiences.

He said: “I think that from the background that I’ve come from and a lot a things I’ve had to go through, it’s just an honour to receive such a great award.

“The fact that I’ve been honoured and now have an OBE is fantastic, I think any kid can now see from this that hard work does pay off.”

They told me to give up ... I couldn't; Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen Lawrence when he died, tells Tim Rayment why he now aims to be mayor of Lewisham

2012-01-08T10:59:00.000-08:00

The Sunday Times (London)

January 8, 2012 Sunday

They told me to give up ... I couldn't;
Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen Lawrence when he died, tells Tim Rayment why he now aims to be mayor of Lewisham

Tim Rayment

The last word breathed by Stephen Lawrence was a name. Minutes before he was murdered at a bus stop, he was demonstrating dance steps to a friend. After being stabbed, he could not run properly. He kept calling to his friend. Then his voice went funny and he fell.
The name was "Duwayne" and it belongs to Duwayne Brooks, the hidden victim of the unprovoked murder that, in the words of a judge last week, scarred the conscience of the nation. He is the best friend who ran off and survived. He was with Stephen as the attack began, and was with him as he died.
Now he is on a mission. The conviction of two men for the racist murder in southeast London is sweet for him. But the mission is not about that. Two years ago he knew nothing about public life. Now it would not be ridiculous to see him as a future candidate for mayor of London.
His is not the usual politician's background. The aftermath of his friend's death took him to the borders of mental illness. His credibility as a witness was questioned. When you ask him if he has any convictions, he says he will have to check; he's been arrested a number of times and is unsure. (Usually the cases were thrown out.) He picked his party, the Liberal Democrats, because the others ignored his approaches. When he studied its policies, he found he was a perfect fit.
The murder of Stephen Lawrence has been the making of him. But it is not a making anyone would choose. And most of the motivation came not from six white thugs - he is adamant that is the number - but afterwards from the police. "The pain over the past 18 years was worth it," says Brooks, 37, of the struggle to win justice for his friend. "The harassment, victimisation, the brutality experienced from the police, false charges being brought against me, all those things that happened ... it was worth it."
Police brutality - the kneejerk phrase of those who dislike the police. Don't stop reading: nothing about Brooks, who is now a Lib Dem councillor with ambitions, is kneejerk.
In 1993 he was a normal teenager, waiting for a bus after going with Stephen to Stephen's uncle's house. They had played computer games and with the uncle's children. Brooks wanted a job with a car, his own home, as many women as he could attract. Stephen wanted to be an architect.
If you go to Eltham today, you hear all sorts of things about this pair. Stephen was "no angel", friendly residents will tell a visiting reporter. He was a drug dealer. Or, it was a dispute over a white girl. What were they doing in Eltham anyway? None of it is true, and it is only the latest insult. As Stephen's life decanted onto the pavement and Brooks shouted for help, a passing white couple thought it was a set-up. They told a court that they thought the boy on the ground was pretending and that he and Brooks were going to rob them. In 1993, this was an area where people would throw things from cars at black people.
Brooks shows no resentment when I tell him that even now resident after resident repeats the "no angel" line. "It's human nature, isn't it?" he says evenly. "You live in an area that's being vilified [as racist], and you want to defend that area. The best form of defence is attack. And that's what everyone's been doing, is attacking his [Stephen's] character and attacking his credibility."
It is what the police did, too.
They had two young black men, one of them dead, and no motive they were prepared to believe. They said to Brooks: Are you sure he didn't commit any burglaries? Had the boys interfered with any females at McDonald's, causing brothers to seek revenge? "I was like, 'Are you not listening to me?' So, everybody's coming up with these excuses to try and justify what took place."
He was the main witness to his friend's murder, living in fear because of rumours that the suspects had friends in the police. Then he developed posttraumatic stress disorder. It was his lawyer who identified that he was unwell, and sent him to a doctor.
"You just notice everything," says Brooks, describing his symptoms - although he saw nothing wrong at the time. "Anybody that walks past you, you notice everything they're wearing. Your senses are heightened. Loud noises frighten you. You're startled easily. You lose short-term memory, just can't remember anything. Paranoia; extreme paranoia that somebody was going to come and kill me.
"And then you disassociate yourself from friends and family. You can't be among groups of people or in a crowded room, you just can't cope."
The disorder made him unreliable as a witness, and this, in the years immediately after the death, severely weakened the case against three Lawrence murder suspects in a failed private prosecution. Then the story gets worse.
Brooks always refused to retract his claim that the murder was an unprovoked, racist attack. The allegation put the police under pressure, and he says the police put pressure on him.
He was stopped and searched and arrested violently.
By now he was a photocopier engineer, with the home and car he had dreamt of. In one arrest, he was punched six times in the face. In another, he was accused of attempted rape. "It was all vindictive by the police," says Brooks. "You can read the judge's comments on that, so you don't have to take my view on it."
Sometimes, he would just go home at night and cry. His mother and other family members urged him to give up the fight, for his own survival. But he didn't. Alongside the dignified search for justice by Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville, there was Brooks.
"The No 1 choice I made was to stick out the whole police stuff," he says. "And there was months and months where people would [say] 'you can never take on the police, the police will always beat you'."
Now he is in politics. Two years after becoming a councillor, he is the Lib Dem spokesman on safer communities at the Local Government Association.
The turning point came in 1999, six years after the murder. The Macpherson report said Brooks had faced "unwitting and collective racism" from the police. At about the same time came the claim of attempted rape. Brooks knew he was innocent, but went straight from court to Belmarsh prison with little prospect of bail.
A stranger, Nicholas Kent of the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, northwest London, put up £20,000 of premium bonds that were "sitting around doing nothing", because he believed Brooks was innocent. "He put his trust in me and I can never forget that," says Brooks. It was the moment he started getting better. He accepted £100,000 compensation from the police in 2006.
After the inquiry, people encouraged him to go into politics; they thought he would be good. His reaction was doubt. He had never been to a meeting of any party.
"And you know, I'm at home one day and I thought to myself, 'Okay, let me ring Lewisham council up, let me ring up the councillors, different political parties, in Lewisham, just to find out what it's like to be a councillor'. People are saying: 'You'd be an excellent councillor'. So I ring the Tories. They ignore me. I ring Labour. They tell me to f*** off.
"I ring the Lib Dems and they welcome me with open arms. From then, we talk about what I would like to do, talk about my views and so forth and it's just like, wham, I'm at home."
Would he have joined the Tories? He is not sure. But he was unlikely to join Labour. "When I look at the whole education system and how it's all worked, it hasn't benefited people like me ... And when we reflect about what's happening in society now, with the lack of respect for authority, these teenagers who are committing all these crimes, they're Labour people. They're the teenagers and the youngsters that were brought up under a Labour government, with that lack of respect for authority."
He attributes his survival to discipline as a child; without it, he says, after the murder he would have been lost. "It was beaten into me to respect your elders, respect authority, and tell the truth ... I think that's what helped to bring me through."
Stephen's parents were never sure about his friend: they had heard rumours that he went out a lot and drank alcohol. In fact he never drinks, never smokes, never did. He does not even drink coffee (his choice is hot chocolate). He says he is at home by 10, and reads policy briefings until the early hours. His ambition, for now, is to be a role model.
"I want to be the next mayor of Lewisham, where I live. That's my goal. I don't want to be an MP at this moment in time. But I believe Lewisham needs to be steered in a different direction... because right now we have the highest unemployment of 18 to 24-yearolds in the country. Staggering, staggering. And I want to give those people hope that you can do it, you've just got to work a little bit harder; it is possible."
You do not have to be a public schoolboy to be a politician, he says. Yet he can think of no role model in Lewisham from a minority background. "What I want to show is that it can be done by anybody, as long as you can work hard."
As he speaks, Brooks is measured.
He gives the impression of a person who has done a lot of work on himself. His anger is well-hidden. He is careful to support what he says with facts. He places the shooting of Mark Duggan, the trigger for last summer's riots, in a context sympathetic to the police, pointing out that it was one of only two in which a gun was fired by officers in the capital last year and the only fatality.
Without his friend's murder, he would be in electronics, perhaps running his own photocopier repair firm. His intelligence would still be disguised by the failings of his education. Instead, the Lib Dems have a star in the making. He acknowledges the debt to his friend, whose loss he says he feels every day. "If I'd known that if I took that road of stress and struggle and anxiety and anguish and pain and loneliness, that this is where it's going to bring me, would I take that road? Knowing I would get to a position like this, yes I would. Because it's all been worth it. That experience has made me who I am today."
'' People said: you can never take on the police. They always win

Aarron McKoy murder in Clerkenwell: Hackney man in court over shooting

2012-01-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

London24

Aarron McKoy murder in Clerkenwell: Hackney man in court over shooting

Saturday, January 7, 2012
11:46 AM

A man is appearing in court today accused of shooting dead another man in central London on New Year’s Day.

Dean Smith, 25, from Hackney, has been charged with murdering Aarron McKoy and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

He will appear in custody at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court.

Mr McKoy, from Hackney, was gunned down in Portpool Lane, Clerkenwell, at around 4am on January 1 after he had been celebrating his 22nd birthday.

He had been in the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar, in Hatton Wall, prior to his killing.

Two arrested after Queens Park shooting

2012-01-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

Westminster Chronicle

Two arrested after Queens Park shooting
Posted by Emma Heseltine on Jan 6, 12 02:58 PM in News
Two further men have been arrested by officers from Operation Trident in connection with a shooting on the Mozart Estate, Queens Park.

On December 21, shortly before 4pm, a 21 year-old man was shot three times in the chest at the junction of Third Avenue and Bruckner Street.

He was rushed to hospital but has since been released and is making a good recovery.

Two men, aged 19 and 22 were arrested on Wednesday (4) in connection with the incident, and have been bailed to return to a North London police station in late March, while the police investigation continues.

On December 22 a 17 year-old man was arrested at an address in South Kilburn on suspicion of attempted murder, and was bailed until the end of January.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Foote, from Operation Trident, said: "I would urge anyone who saw the shooting or who may have information about those involved, to come forward.

"I am particularly keen to trace a group of young men who we believe may have been close to the scene at the time."

Anyone with information should contact the investigation team on 020 8733 4774 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

US SUPERCOP DISMISSES OUR GUN PROBLEM AS 'LAUGHABLE'

2012-01-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 6, 2012 Friday

US SUPERCOP DISMISSES OUR GANG PROBLEM AS 'LAUGHABLE'

Peter Dominiczak, Peter Dominiczak And Nicholas Cecil

THE American "supercop" brought in to advise David Cameron on gangs caused outrage today by calling Britain's gun crime problem "laughable".
Bill Bratton, who introduced zero-tolerance policing to New York and Los Angeles, also described UK gangsters as "wannabes" copying US criminals.
Mr Bratton was tipped as a potential Met Police Commissioner and was said to be the Prime Minister's preferred choice for the role.
But the move was opposed by Home Secretary Theresa May, who insisted that Britain's top police officer should not be a foreigner.
Mr Bratton, who has also been championed by Boris Johnson, advises the Government on tackling gang crime.
In an interview with US magazine The New Yorker, Mr Bratton said: "The firearm problem in England is almost laughable in the sense of how small it is. The gangs here, I would describe as, basically, wannabes.
"They're heavily influenced by American gangs - in dress, in language, in the stupid signs they use."
MPs and anti-gun campaigners reacted angrily to the comments, describing them as "disappointing" and "insulting".
Keith Vaz MP, Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said: "His comments are disappointing and may be seen as insulting to victims of gang violence in London and elsewhere. The phrases that he uses are most bizarre and will not help us solve the very difficult issue of gang crime in London and our major cities.
"He should be welcoming the fact that this is an issue that can be brought under control - rather than appearing to send a message out which suggests that they should become tougher."
Former Met commander and current Lib-Dem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick said: "Everything is relative but to suggest gun crime and gangs are not a serious problem in London indicates he has insufficient understanding of London and Londoners."
Peter Woodhams, whose son was shot dead in 2006, said Mr Bratton's comments were "not the right way to look at the UK's problem with gun crime".
Mr Woodhams's son, also called Peter, was shot three times by 18-year-old Bradley Tucker in front of his fiancée Jane Bowden and their three-year-old son after confronting a group of youths about smoking cannabis in front of the family home in Canning Town.
Mr Woodhams, a 22-year-old satellite TV engineer, had previously been slashed across the face when he confronted the gang. His father said today: "Yes, gun crime is a bigger problem in the US - but there is not one parent in this country who has been impacted who would think it is a small problem."
Mr Bratton told the Standard: "My apologies to any victim offended. That was not my intent. My points are that gangs in Britain need to be properly targeted. British gangs appear to be emulating gangs in my country and that is a problem. [But] in the US gun use is frequently associated with gang violence, which is not generally the case in the UK."

'THUGS OF STONEBRIDGE' JAILED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF FOOTBALLER

2012-01-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

January 6, 2012 Friday

'THUGS OF STONEBRIDGE' JAILED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF FOOTBALLER

James Anthony, Paul Cheston

A 16-year-old rapper who glorified gang shootings on YouTube has been sentenced to more than 12 years for trying to murder a footballer.
Samuel Woods ordered Jordan Gabbidon to blast the 28-year-old victim with a 12-bore shotgun for straying onto their turf in the Stonebridge area of Harlesden. The victim, who had been making his way home from a crime-prevention tournament, was within "millimetres of death" after the shooting at Harlesden Tube station.
In YouTube videos Woods, who goes by the name Capo Ginger, brags about "spraying" people as he and others mimic holding guns. Woods also wrote lyrics in praise of rapper Kevin Georgiou, 26, who was earlier cleared of involvement in the shooting. Georgiou performs under the name K Koke and lives in the Stonebridge area.
The victim was so terrified of giving evidence that he was granted anonymity by the trial judge and given the court pseudonym of Paul.
Woods and Gabbidon, 17, of Harlesden, were each sentenced to 12 years and six months' youth detention after being convicted of attempted murder.
Ola Salau and Chantelle Franklin, both 17, were found guilty of trying to help the pair get away with the crime and received six years each. Their names could be reported only after restrictions were lifted at Blackfriars crown court.
The teenagers were all part of a gang that called itself TOS or Thugs of Stonebridge. The court heard how Paul was with several other players when he encountered Woods, Franklin, Salau and Gabbidon in March last year.
Woods demanded: "What you doing here in my zone? Do you want me to rob you lot?" The thugs then barged into one of the footballers and Woods warned them: "You should move out of the way, innit? This is our bits."
Prosecutor Gillian Etherton QC said Paul was chased into Harlesden station, where CCTV captured Gabbidon taking aim at the victim as he neared the bottom of stairs leading to the platform.
Ms Etherton said: "Paul was very lucky. Some of the shot was lodged next to vital organs, and other was found next to his spine. He was within millimetres of paralysis or death."
Judge Aidan Marron QC said Woods and Gabbidon were a danger to the public. "There is clear evidence that Woods and Gabbidon were promoting gang violence with guns," he said. "The violence progressed at such a frightening speed. You have no regard for life and limb."
Salau incriminated himself when he turned up at a police station with a rap song he had written about the "AM" - attempted murder - in his back pocket. The rap, in neat handwriting, was quickly found by officers.
Salau, of Wembley, and Franklin of Cricklewood, were convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. Franklin was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Man who fled UK is jailed over 2005 armed robbery

2012-01-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Man who fled UK is jailed over 2005 armed robbery
Thursday, 05 January 2012

Sentenced: Mohamed Hassan

AN ARMED robber who held up an off licence in 2005 and escaped to America was jailed for eight years this week.

Mohamed Hassan, 24, of no fixed abode, was extradited to the UK in November to face charges for possession of a firearm and crack cocaine.

He was jailed for eight years at Wood Green Crown Court on Tuesday.
At 9.30pm on April 22, 2005, police were called to an armed robbery at Wineways off licence, in Holmstall Parade, Burnt Oak, after three men, one of them armed, demanded money from staff.

A female employee came out from the storeroom and pushed one of the robbers, who was taking champagne from the shelves, and a shot was fired. As the gang left the shop the gunman pointed the weapon at the shop owner and fired another round. No one was injured in the raid.

Muzzaker Shah, 30, from Middlesex, was initially charged for the armed robbery in connection with the incident, but the trial was dropped after Shah was convicted for the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky in November 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Hassan was identified by the Met’s fingerprint branch after he was arrested for possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply on June 7, 2006, in Deansbrook Road, Edgware. He initially fled to Egypt, which has no extradition treat with the UK.

Last year the police discovered he had moved to America and extradition proceedings began. He was arrested in July 2011 by American authorities and was brough to the UK on November 1.

The judge told Hassan he would have received 14 years imprisonment had he not pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and proved he had turned his life around since committing the crimes.

He was jailed for six years for possession of a firearm and five years four robbery to run concurrently. He was also sentenced to two years for possession of crack cocaine to run consecutively.

DC Siân Newell, from the Finchley Flying Squad, said: “Hassan was involved in a particularly harrowing robbery. Two shots were fired by an accomplice and it was only luck that prevented anyone from being hurt.

“I hope this sentence illustrates that wherever a suspect flees and no matter what time has elapsed, we will pursue and ensure that suspects are put before the courts.”

The third person has still not been identified.

WAC changed life of 'bad boy' Preddie - OBE for cousin of Damilola killers

2012-01-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Camden New Journal

NEW YEAR HONOURS - WAC changed life of 'bad boy' Preddie - OBE for cousin of Damilola killers

Published: 05 January 2012

A YOUTH worker recognised in the New Year Honours has told how his life was turned around by a Belsize Park drama school for teenagers.

Chris Preddie, 24, has been awarded an OBE for services to young people paid tribute to the Weekend Arts Club (WAC) based in Hampstead Town Hall.

Much has been made in the national press about his connection to the killers of Damilola Taylor; his cousins Ricky and Danny were convicted of the killing.

“I haven’t got any criminal record but I was in the environment where there was bad people.

I never held a knife but my friends did so I’m still in the wrong, I was in the wrong crowd,” he said.

Mr Preddie, whose brother was shot when he was 16, says joining WAC changed his life.

“I went to WAC when I was 17 years old.
I used to love dancing and acting.

I started teaching creative writing and that was when it really kicked off and I became a community champion,” he said.

“I was lucky enough to go to WAC and because I was with positive people.
For me, I was 17 and I was in ballet classes, how many bad men do ballet?

I wanted to do the best for myself and WAC gave me the love and support that I needed.

One of the problems young people have is that people like to group them as a whole and say that every young person is bad.

They are individuals and sometimes we have to go to the root of the problem.

It’s different for each person.

“Sometimes the issue might not be a broken home.
His mum and dad might have a job but they’re not there – it might be his environment – everybody is different and it’s understanding what to do to fill that need.”

Mr Preddie, who lives in Finsbury Park, said: “My brother’s death made me realise that life is too short and a lot of young people don’t realise that.
It was one of my turning points. We all have a collective part to play.”

Cousin says man shot on New Year’s Day had ‘heart of gold’

2012-01-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Camden New Journal

Tributes to New Year gun victim - Aaron McKoy ‘had a heart of gold’ say family and friends

Cousin says man shot on New Year’s Day had ‘heart of gold’

Published: 05 January 2012
by GEORGIA GRAHAM

A 22-year-old man who was shot dead on New Year’s Day has been described as a “humble”, “loving” friend with a “heart of pure gold”.

Yolanda Lear paid the tribute to her cousin, Aaron McKoy, just days after his death close to an estate in Holborn in the early hours of what was his 22nd birthday.

The 17-year-old told the New Journal: “Aaron had a smile that would make the angels in heaven smile, he was that type of humble guy that would bring joy with him whenever he entered the room, he is loved by many and he also loved many.”

Mr McKoy died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

An ambulance was called to reports of a shooting at the Bourne Estate in Portpool Lane at 4.10am.

He was pronounced dead at the scene after paramedics battled to save his life for more than an hour.

Miss Lear grew up with Mr McKoy, his identical twin brother, Lee, and his older sister in Hackney.

She said: “We were like one little crew always together – there was hardly a time we weren’t together.

We even went to the same primary school.”

The family stayed close even when Yolanda moved to Southend and Mr McKoy stayed in Hackney.

She said: “The bond which we had was something special that no human being can tear apart.”

Miss Lear said that “his legacy and love” would remain “always and forever” in the hearts of his family.

She added: “He has a heart pure just like gold, a humble and easy going guy, a person who means no harm to anyone.

He was very loved by family and by many friends – he will truly be missed.”

Police said on Monday that they thought Mr McKoy’s murder could have been the result of an “altercation” in the Clerkenwell House wine bar in nearby Hatton Wall just before the shooting.

Residents, who were left traumatised and confused by the shooting, gathered on Tuesday to pay their respects in front of the dozens of flowers and messages left out for the victim.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said she had heard the gunshot in the early hours of New Year’s Day and called the paramedics.

She added: “Everyone is coming to terms with it, no one understands how this can have happened right on our doorstep.

“There are always kids around, and they might not be angels, but nothing like this has ever happened before.

“It’s normally complaints about kid making noise or playing games, but they are good kids.

I know them all. Now people are really scared – there are single parents with kids on the estate really worried about what they are getting up to.

What sort of coward brings a gun to a club on New Year’s Eve?

If you are going to get into a fight, be aggressive, then use your fists and give them a chance to hit you back.

He had no chance.”

Another resident, who had been unable to sleep since the killing, said her brother had seen the paramedics treating the victim and was left “traumatised” by the scene.

An inquest was opened on Tuesday at St Pancras Coroner’s Court which Mr McKoy’s mother attended.

The preliminary cause of death has been given as a gunshot wound to the chest.

Friends made a montage of photos of Mr McKoy along with a series of birthday wishes and placed it along with dozens of flowers at the scene of the shooting.

One friend, “Tenika”, wrote: “Happy 22nd Birthday. Aaron may God take care of you up there, I can’t believe such a sweet person has been taken from us.

You will always be in my thoughts I can’t forget you ever, love you always Aaron xxx.”

Another friend, “Troy”, added: “See you soon, gone but not forgotten.” And “Kearan” said: “Aaron, rest in paradise.”

A Met Police spokesman said the gunman was thought to have fled down Leather Lane.

The spokesman added: “Aaron is known to have been at the Clerkenwell House wine bar in Hatton Wall in the hours before he was killed.

It is believed that an altercation took place in the venue at around 4am and officers from Trident, which deals with gun-related crime in London’s black communities, are investigating the possibility that this may have been a factor in his subsequent murder.”

Detective Chief Inspector John Crossley, of Trident, said: “The venue was very busy going into the early hours of New Year’s Day and we are extremely keen to talk to anyone who was in attendance.

“We believe the victim was involved in an incident in the venue and that this may have been the prompt for his killing.

If you were there and noticed a dispute taking place I would urge you to get in touch as soon as possible, to enable us to bring those responsible to justice.”

Businesses along Leather Lane, opening up again after the New Year break, were visited by police this week in the hope that they may be able to provide CCTV footage.

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: “We were called at nine minutes past four to reports of a shooting on Leather Lane.

“We sent two ambulance crews, a doctor from London’s air ambulance crew in a car and an officer.

Sadly, one patient, a man, reported to be in his twenties, was pronounced dead at the scene by the air ambulance.”

• A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday and has been bailed to appear before detectives in March.

A 20-year-old man was arrested on January 1 and released without charge.

A teenage boy from South Kilburn who was arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting on the Mozart Estate has been bailed

2012-01-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

North West London Times

January 5, 2012

'A teenage boy from South Kilburn who was arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting on the Mozart Estate has been bailed.

The 17-year-old was held after a 21-year-old man was shot in the chest and abdomen as he stood at the junction of Third Avenue and Bruckner Street in Queen's Park on December 21 at 3.50pm.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition but has since improved and is stable.

The teeenager was questioned by officers from Operation Trident and has been bailed to return to a police station later this month.

Det Chief Insp Mick Foote has made an appeal for a group of up to 10 men who were with the victim when the shooting happened to come forward.

He is also appealing for anyone with information to contact him.

He said: "I would urge anyone who saw the shooting, or may have information about those involved, to come forward.

"I am particularly keen to trace a group of young men we believe may have been close to the scene at the time."

Police say the shooting is thought to have been fuelled by rivalry between youths living on the Mozart Estate and their counterparts in nearby South Kilburn.

In September, three young women, including a teenage mother cradling her baby, were injured after a gunman shot into a crowd on the estate.

The 18-year-old was holding her 11-month-old son in John Fearon Walk when she was hit in the neck by pellets.

A 17-year-old girl and a 19-year-old woman were also hurt.

n Anyone with information about either shooting can call the investigation team on 020 8733 4774 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

50 new police to join fight against crime

2012-01-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

North London Journal

January 5, 2012 Thursday

50 new police to join fight against crime

'Haringey is to get more than 50 "vital" new police officers to help bring down crime.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe gave the go-ahead for the new officers, with ranks from constable to superintendent, in December.

Some have already started serving, with the remaining 17 due to arrive in the next few weeks.

The news comes just two months after five Safer Neighbourhoods sergeants were axed in Haringey as part of a Met-wide cutback.

The new officers will be in Haringey "for at least 12 months" said a Met Police spokesman, "enhancing the borough's actions in proactively targeting the most harmful criminals; increasing the Met's presence in the areas which are disproportionately affected by crime; and providing more visible reassurance to Haringey's communities".

He added that it is "only right that the Met uses its resources flexibly and places officers in the areas they are needed most".

In all there will be 46 constables, three sergeants, one inspector and one superintendent joining the ranks.

The officers' work will be concentrated in Tottenham's Northumberland Park, High Road in Wood Green, and Green Lanes, Harringay.

Neighbourhood policing will be bolstered in Broadwater Farm, Park Lane and The Hale, Tottenham, and Turnpike Lane, Wood Green. But the borough overall will benefit from extra officers for a crackdown on gang members.

Supt Chris Barclay, acting Borough Commander for Haringey, said: "These vital extra resources provide Haringey with a real opportunity to make our borough safer."

He said the police presence on the streets will rise, with officers also supporting the borough's high-profile targeting of gang members launched last autumn.

The team will also work with Safer Neighbourhoods officers to bolster community links and look at "enhancing activities to help divert young people away from gangs, or working with other authorities to close down venues which generate crime".

He said news of the extra officers "has been universally welcomed" by key community members, adding: "We all want to see a safer Haringey and these extra officers give us a genuine opportunity to achieve that aim."

Four women were arrested after two men were stabbed

2012-01-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

Islington Gazette

January 5, 2012 Thursday

Four women were arrested after two men were stabbed and another was left with head injuries in Islington.

Police were called to Greenman Street, off Essex Road, just before midnight on Wednesday last week to reports of two men being stabbed.

On arrival they found a 41-year-old man with serious stab wounds and he was taken to hospital but is now understood to be recovering.

Another man suffered minor knife wounds to his arm and a third man was found nearby with head injuries which were not serious.

Four women, two aged 15, one aged 17 and one aged 35, were arrested at the scene for violent disorder.

They were bailed pending further enquiries, along with a 16-year-old boy arrested two days after the incident.

Investigating officer Det Con Juliet Barry, from Islington CID, said: "I appeal to anyone who witnessed this incident or who has information that can help this investigation to contact police."

Call 020 7421 0296 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Murder squad issues witness appeal after club shooting

2012-01-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

Hackney Gazette

January 5, 2012 Thursday

Murder squad issues witness appeal after club shooting

The murder detective investigating the shooting in Clerkenwell of a young man from Hackney on New Year's Day has made a direct appeal to residents in the borough to help him catch his killer.

Aaron McKoy was killed while celebrating his 22nd birthday on Sunday. He was gunned down in Portpool Lane at about 4.10am and died at the scene.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the chest.

Detectives have arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of murder and released an earlier suspect without charge. Their inquiries continue.

Police say Aaron had been at the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar in Hatton Wall in the hours before he was killed.

Det Ch Insp John Crossley from the Met's Trident unit -which deals with gun crime in London's black communities - told the Gazette that a fight had erupted outside the club just minutes earlier, in which a stabbing took place.

"We believe the victim was involved in an incident in the venue and that this may have been the prompt for his killing," he said.

"If you were there and noticed a dispute taking place I would urge you to get in touch as soon as possible, to enable us to bring those responsible to justice."

He added that although Aaron's exact address was not yet known, he had many links to Hackney.

"Aaron had family and friends in Hackney and we know that people from Hackney were in that club," he said. "We are asking for anyone with information to come forward."

The victim's cousin, who gave her name as Yolanda, said on Twitter that Aaron had grown up in Hackney and she described him as "a gentle guy".

"Alone with my thoughts, my thoughts are of you, Aaron McKoy damn how I miss you. R.I.P my wonderful cousin Aaron," she tweeted.

Anyone with information for the investigators should call the incident room on 020 8733 4212 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Teenage suspect in the kidnap and murder of a mother

2012-01-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hackney Gazette

January 5, 2012 Thursday

'A teenage suspect in the kidnap and murder of a mother of a three-week-old baby girl was still being questioned by detectives as the Gazette went to press.

The 19-year-old man was arrested in Hackney on Tuesday, a day after Kirsty Treloar, 20, was abducted from her home in Brownlow Road, Haggerston, and found stabbed to death a short time later in an abandoned car in Homerton.

Neighbours said they heard "hysterical" screams come from the three-storey property and a cry of "Please, please, please" before Kirsty was driven away just after 7am.

Her body was discovered with stab wounds at around 8.30am inside a grey Fiat Stilo in Ryder Mews, about a mile from her home.

Kirsty, who had given birth to a daughter less than a month earlier, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her 22-year-old brother Dean and 24-year-old sister Gemma were both found with stab wounds.

Police said Gemma was treated for minor injuries while Dean remained in stable condition.

The baby was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Officers involved in a major manhunt in Hackney arrested a 19-year-old suspect at about 1pm on Tuesday. He remained in custody at an east London police station and had not been charged when the Gazette went to press.

Friends and family left emotional tributes on a Facebook page set up in memory of Kirsty, who is believed to be a former pupil of Hackney Free and Parochial School in Paragon Road.

Stacey Louise Cox said: "Still can't believe it cuz! Woke up this mornin 2 a txt from ur bro! He is recoverin well! Keep lookin down on every1 babe especially ur beautiful daughter! Never gonna forget u cuz lots of love!! Miss u :'( xxx"

And Taylor Dumoulin said: "Feeling so numb, feeling so much hurt, anger and sadness. Rest in peace auntie Kirsty, you're in a safer place now."

Terry Tundervary, 58, a builder living on the same leafy residential road as the Treloar family, said Kirsty was "a pretty girl, a very normal girl".

A post-mortem will take place in due course.

Stephen Lawrence / Eltham Krays / Cover-Up / Corruption

2012-01-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

This carries on from the following post (click here)

A bus stop in south-east London, an outburst of racist bile, which as it crossed the lips of an all-white gang of five young thugs became a sentence of death for a Black teenager and for the integrity of Scotland Yard.

Two vicious stabbing movements accomplished the murder, each calculated to shed so much blood that the victim would known by his own drenching that death was on the way.

This is a snapshot of what happened at 10.46pm on Thursday, 22 April 1993, at the request stop in Well Hall Road, Eltham; a cut-down version of events which engulfed a young man of 18 summers who, after an evening out with his friends in south-east London, was trying to return home to his mother Doreen, his father Neville, his brother Stewart and his sister Georgina.

Despite his awesome wounds and because he was so fit, Stephen Lawrence managed to run 300 yards from the thugs who had stabbed him. With each yard covered and each footfall made he was pumping blood from two severed arteries. And then he fell. Unconscious.

Though traumatised, the other victim of the attack, Stephen’s friend, Duwayne Brooks, had found a phone box. At 10:46pm he dialled 999 pleading for an ambulance. In the meantime a police car arrived. The officers checked Stephen for a pulse. But they failed to examine him thoroughly or to give first-aid. The kit was never even taken from the patrol car. Instead, they questioned Duwayne as if he was a suspect rather than a victim, as if the two Black boys had done something wrong.

In 1977, when Stephen Lawrence was 3, there were just 199 Black police officers in all of England and Wales. When he died, 15 years later, the figure had scarcely improved. None of the detectives who investigated the murder was Black. Stephen’s parents, who came from Jamaica, still wonder whether the boys’ colour shaped the police’s attitude and contributed to the failure to give first aid. “None of the police officers attending the scene made any attempt to see if there was anything they could do. They just stood there while my son bled to death. None of them checked to see how serious his injuries were, they just stood there waiting for the ambulance. Maybe there was something they could have done to save him. But the fact was they never tried. That says it all. There are two questions I would like the police to answer. Are all officers trained in basic first aid? Or was it because they just did not want to get their hands dirty with a Black man’s blood?”

Fourteen-year-old Catherine Avery was in the house just across the pavement where Stephen lay bleeding. She had no more first-aid instruction than the officers on the scene. Yet her basic Red Cross training made her realise they should have attempted to stem the flow of blood.
At 10.54pm the ambulance arrived and a paramedic tried to re-start Stephen’s heart without success. By the time he was in the recovery room Stephen had lost too much blood and his veins had collapsed. At 11.17pm the death certificate was signed.

It is strongly suspected by the police and the Lawrence family that the five murderers are: David Norris, aged 16 at the time, brothers Jamie and Neil Acourt, then aged 16 and 17 respectively, Luke Knight, 16, and Gary Dobson, 17.

Four of them lived on or very near the Brooke Estate. The five boys led a gang with a history of involvement in stabbings and racism in the area. Neil Acourt, for example, had been expelled from school for a racist attack in 1991. And five weeks before Stephen’s murder, Gurdeep Bangal was stabbed in the stomach while serving in his dad’s Wimpy Bar in Eltham High Street.

Nine months earlier, on the other side of the roundabout from the spot where Stephen was killed, Rohit Duggal, a young Asian boy, was stabbed to death outside the local kebab shop. Peter Thompson is currently serving life for this murder and he too was linked to the gang through information given to the Lawrence murder inquiry.

Sometimes ecumenical in their violence, the gang also attacked white kids. Lee Pearson, for example, was stabbed outside the local kebab shop in 1991. Eleven months before Stephen’s murder, Jamie Acourt, David Norris and Luke Knight were suspected of stabbing the Whitham brothers with a butterfly knife. David was charged with wounding and Jamie with possession of an offensive weapon. But the CPS withdrew the charges a few months before Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death, claiming it would not be in the public interest to proceed.

The gang referred to themselves as the Eltham Krays, a sad homage to the dysfunctional, homosexual gauleiters of an earlier age and another part of London.

The apprentice boys from Eltham appeared to have developed contacts with another bunch of local hoodlums called the NTO, short for the Nutty or Nazi Turn Out, a group of boneheads involved in a range of racist incidents including killings in south-east London and Kent.

By 1993, local people were giving the Eltham five another name for their gang – the Untouchables – as in someone was protecting them; as in they were thought to be able to get away with things and have some form of insurance from the local police. One way or another these five boys were completely out of control – a gang of droogs practising ever more perverted forms of ultra-violence.

Nick Jeffrey, an American-born teacher and community activist, knows the youth scene from 40 years of living in south-east London. Eleven years on he still recalls with horror the semi-literate announcement he saw soon after Stephen Lawrence’s murder. Cycling along the south circular he passed the “Welcome to Greenwich – Millennium Borough” sign and up the hill towards the churchyard was a daubing that read: “Watch out coons, you are now entering Eltham”.

“In Eltham centre, midday or midnight, you saw no Black faces on the street. The Well Hall Road McDonalds opposite the churchyard has been a known hang-out for racist youth, as was the Wimpy Bar before it”, says Nick.

His knowledge of the community comes from years of teaching at local schools and from scouting for Arsenal and Preston North End. Nick is a familiar face at the Millwall, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic grounds. He also trained local teams and met many of the youngsters who form the gangs. Eltham, he concludes, is the front line behind which Kent, white Kent, is in aggressive retreat.

“Following the 1981 Brixton riots more inner-city clubs were formed and boys in them had to travel out for competition and for pitches. The team I managed was called Tulse Hill but it was a Brixton and Peckham Club. When we travelled to Greenwich racial abuse was common – on and off the Sunday league pitches. The Acourts’ club, Samuel Montague, began to attract racists. They expelled Neil in 1991 for a post-match knife threat allegedly against a Black boy from Red Lion, a Peckham and Deptford club. His brother Jamie, David Norris and Luke Knight left as well.

“South from the Millennium Dome and along the edges of inner London are vast low-rise, mostly all-white council estates. Yards from the bus stop where Stephen was stabbed a mixed-race family had their home petrol-bombed. Along these routes are a string of mixed-sex comprehensive schools, including the first two purpose-built in this country for the post-war influx of tenants from slum clearance. The GCSE results published for that string of schools in Greenwich are amongst the lowest in the country for boys. Truancy rates are high. Bullying and gang violence have been major issues.

Five of England’s largest pubs from Donwham to Thamesmead have been habitual meeting places of the British National Party and the National Front, each one closed for violence. The Yorkshire Grey at Eltham Green, once host to neo-Nazi organisations Bloods and Honor and Combat 18, is now...[a] McDonalds. The NF logo, however, remains the graffiti of choice – it has more punch and is easier to scratch into a school textbook. In 1990, NF was painted in letters three feet high at the Orchards Youth Club next to the Kidbrooke Estate. Neil Acourt was excluded from the club for that along with David Norris”.

Detectives call the first 60 minutes after any murder the “golden hour”. It is the period when all forensic and other clues are fresh and the chance of solving the crime is at its highest. From then on the trail starts to go cold, like the victim.

The fall of Scotland Yard began at 11.17pm on the Thursday night Stephen Lawrence died. In the following 96 hours the best chance of successfully prosecuting the murderers frittered away.
In those four days the mind-boggling inaction of a handful of senior officers would ultimately cost the Yard what reputation it had left. For the Black British population it merely re-confirmed what they already knew. But it was the loss of confidence among white middle Englanders and Daily Mail readers that rocked the police, and not just Scotland Yard. Chief constables across the country dreaded the Lawrence scandal would have ramifications for British policing in the same way the Scarman report had after the Brixton riots 12 years earlier. They were right.

The mistakes of such senior Yard detectives made the Lawrence family and their supporters question almost immediately whether this was not just another example of wilful racism but something just as sinister – police corruption.

Suspicions were raised when it emerged no officer at the scene had recorded how Duwayne Brooks had heard the attackers say, “What? What? Nigger!” As more officers arrived, the professional quality of the policing continued to decline. In all, fifty-five police officers came to the Well Hall roundabout between 10.50pm and 3am. The turnout included forty-four constables, five sergeants, one inspector, one detective inspector, once chief inspector, one detective superintendent and even, uniquely, two chief superintendents.

Despite this parade of top brass, there was a complete lack of co-ordination, with arriving senior officers barking contradictory orders at subordinates. Consequently, there was no search of the circular area around the murder scene, no house-to-house search of the Brooke Estate and no questioning in a methodical manner of the neighbours.

With good intelligence, the input of local officers who knew the area and proper direction and control, it was a realistic goal not only to identify and interview witnesses but to pinpoint suspects and try to catch the perpetrators red-handed before they could dispose of the evidence, like blood-stained clothing and the weapon, which to this day hasn’t been found. But the golden hour and the golden opportunities that went with it were squandered.

In the weekend immediately after the murder things went from tragedy to farce. Within forty-eight hours a skinhead walked into Eltham police station with remarkable information. He named the gang of five. But no one properly registered the young man as an informant and there was no swift follow-through on his vital leads. He later stated he had given his real name but officers denied this.

There were other sources that came forward to confirm what the skinhead had told the police. Maureen Smith, for example, indicated that she had high-grade information, but there was a six-day delay in interviewing her. Swifter action would have led immediately to two key witnesses, her son and his girlfriend, who could place the Acourt brothers at the murder scene. No proper attempt was subsequently made to identify and trace these two witnesses.

An anonymous letter naming the same suspects was found by a member of the public in a phone box near the murder scene and was handed to the police. Nobody bothered to immediately follow up the information. This serious mistake was compounded the following day, when on Saturday morning the police received a call from an unidentified person saying an anonymous letter with important information would be left in a waste bin near a local pub. Two police officers went in separate cars, one to search the bin, the other to observe. The officer searching the bin found nothing. But while he was out of his car his colleague across the road saw a young man sticking a note on the back window of his car. Nothing was done to approach or follow the man. Once again the letter contained vital leads and named the same gang of five.

The landmark public inquiry into these matters five yeas later put it succinctly: “The truth is that although people were reluctant to give their names there was no ‘wall of silence’. In fact information purporting to implicate the suspects was readily and repeatedly made available”.
It poured into the murder inquiry almost as quickly as the lifeblood poured out of Stephen Lawrence’s body.

The two senior officers responsible for the catalogue of errors in those first four days in April 1993 were also the detectives in charge of the highly sensitive David Norris* murder inquiry since April 1991. The careers of detective superintendent Ian Crampton and his immediate superior, detective chief superintendent Bill Ilsley, had been dominated during the intervening two years by the contract killing of the Yard’s top informant and preparing for the murder trial of four Irish Protestant suspects.

*police informant murdered in 1991, not to be confused with David Norris suspect in Stephen Lawrence case.

Crampton, a wiry south Londoner in his mid-forties, was the senior investigating officer for both the Norris and Lawrence murders. The SIO makes the vital decisions on the ground at the relevant time and is the highest-ranking detective with day-to-day involvement in running the murder inquiry. However he deferred to Ilsley, a lean, tall detective of a similar age, for all the major strategic decisions. Ilsley, as the crime manager for south-east London, in turn reported to and took his orders from the Yard.

Six days before the killing of Stephen Lawrence, the Norris murder trial started at the Old Bailey. It was therefore uppermost in the minds of both senior officers. Crampton was preparing his evidence to withstand cross-examination by four formidable defence barristers; among them was Michael Mansfield QC, who ironically would soon be representing the Lawrence family.
The Norris murder trial was going to be the biggest test of Crampton’s detective acumen in the witness box, given the enormous sensitivities he would have to circumnavigate around police informant confidentiality, the use of supergrasses and the link between British intelligence and loyalist paramilitaries in the dirty war in Northern Ireland.

There was also a lot the Yard felt the defence didn’t need to know. This, of course, concerned the swirl of corruption allegations around Norris and south-east London policing that emerged during Crampton’s murder inquiry, and which it appears were kept in a secret and undisclosed action book.

Ilsley had been promoted to chief superintendent one month after the assassination of Norris. Since May 1991 he had been responsible for all criminal inquiries in 3 Area, an enormous patch of south-east London from Tower Bridge to the Kent borders. His officers liaised closely with specialist detectives targeting organised crime in the region, namely the East Dulwich South East Regional Crime Squad (SERCS) and the Tower Bridge office of the Flying Squad. In fact detectives on these two elite squads often came from the very areas they were targeting and when their tour of duty was over they would return to normal detective duties under the command of Ilsley at one of the twenty-five or so police stations he managed.

Crampton was on night duty when Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death. He attended the scene of the crime and early next morning spoke to Ilsley. They agreed Crampton would run the inquiry only until Monday. From then on he would be occupied with the Norris murder trial.

The two senior detectives say they made a “strategic decision” based on all the available information not to arrest the gang of five named suspects over the weekend. It was a fundamental mistake that led to withering criticism of their professional integrity and truthfulness during the Stephen Lawrence public inquiry in 1998.

Crampton never recorded in any policy file the decision not to make early arrests. Best practice required him to preserve a contemporaneous and accurate log of why certain lines of inquiry were preferred over others. The Lawrence inquiry report twice referred to the “alleged” strategic decision in terms that strongly implied Crampton and Ilsley had made this up. Such improper record keeping had echoes of the highly irregular secret action book during the Norris murder inquiry.

Ever since Stephen’s death the Yard has done its best to try and keep the two murders separate. Those who suggested a connection were simply dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

Young David Norris, the prime suspect in the Lawrence murder, had a notoriously violent criminal father called Clifford, who by the mid-eighties had become a successful player in the south-east London drug business. The local police and specialist detectives in 3 Area all knew of Clifford Norris. Police informant extraordinaire, David Norris, also knew Clifford and his circle.

Clifford Norris was born in Greenwich in 1958. He was the second son in the family. His brother, Alex, was eight years older. Both boys were teenage hoodlums who graduated to violent crime and then drug trafficking. In 1976, barely a man himself, Clifford and his then girlfriend Theresa had a baby boy. They named him David.

Clifford’s propensity for violence seemed untempered by parental responsibility and in 1983, aged 25, as he was driving along the Old Kent Road, a van cut him up. Clifford gave chase, forced the van to a halt and smashed the window with a hammer. Realising the police were on their way, he stopped and threw away his wallet which, when recovered, had inside it a key to a safety deposit box. When this was opened it contained £17,000 in cash. Clifford denied all knowledge of the money and was fined just £150 for criminal damage.

On another occasion he savagely attacked a woman shopkeeper who he believed was responsible for spreading gossip about the state of his marriage. Clifford shot her in the throat. She recovered because the bullet missed her spinal cord but wouldn’t give evidence against him. It was this shooting in 1989 that led an informant to contact Bill Ilsley and name Clifford as the culprit. But without the victims evidence the case died.

The Norris brothers had a number of criminal associates in south-east London who like them were targets of the local detectives and also the East Dulwich SERCS and Tower Bridge Flying Squad.
Alex Norris married into the French family. His new brother-in-law, Gary French, had a close escape in 1989 when he drove to a meeting with David Norris, the informant. Gary apparently spotted he was under surveillance and sped off. Details are scarce about what happened next. When the police confronted David Norris he denied knowing Gary, but told officers he was the cousin of Clifford Norris.

At the time of Gary French’s close escape, David Norris was “working” for the Central Drug Squad and East Dulwich. He was also nurturing corrupt relationships with several detectives. Clifford too had developed his own contacts in the police and there was one detective in particular with whom he was seen in highly suspicious circumstances.

In the late eighties Clifford and Alex Norris were under surveillance by a team of Customs investigators rightly convinced they were preparing a significant cannabis importation from Holland with several others. The Norris brothers had been tailed over eight months visiting a Dutchman in Switzerland and a detective from the Tower Bridge Flying Squad. Undercover Customs officers observed Clifford and Alex Norris on three occasions meeting detective sergeant Dave Coles, who was seen carrying a plastic bag with oblong slabs inside. One meeting which Customs videoed was on 20 June 1988 in the Tiger’s Head pub in Chislehurst, around the corner from the mock Tudor house Clifford had bought for his family. Coles was seen talking to Clifford, making notes and using a calculator.

To Customs it must have looked as if the two men were in business together. The next day their officers made a series of arrests as the gang unloaded a large parcel of cannabis from a lorry parked in an east London side road. Alex and Clifford were not there or at their homes when Customs arrived. They spent over a year on the run together until Alex was caught in July 1989 and received nine years. Incredibly , Clifford remained at large for another five years, unbothered, it seems, by the local police.

Customs immediately reported Coles’ meetings with Clifford to the Yard. CIB began an investigation. Coles denied he was in any way corrupt and claimed he was trying to cultivate Clifford Norris as an informant, although he had no authorisation to do so. The CIB inquiry was totally unsatisfactory – a model of mixed messages and unanswered questions that left the strong impression that the whole highly suspect liaison between Coles and Clifford Norris had been swept under the carpet by the Yard.

Coles never faced a disciplinary charge for those unauthorised meetings. A more senior officer just gave him a mild verbal rebuke, known in police terminology as “words of advice”. Instead, Coles was formally disciplined in May 1989 for falsifying his duty state on a number of occasions when he claimed to be at court, but was in fact having sex with a girlfriend. This period of dishonesty coincided with his suspicious meetings with the Norris brothers.

In mitigation to his guilty plea, Coles produced a character reference from his old boss at Bexleyheath police station. Step forward detective superintendent Ian Crampton. Coles, he wrote, was to be commended for his work and indeed his honesty. The reference showed extraordinarily bad judgement on Crampton’s part, as there was ample documentary evidence of Coles’ dishonesty. If a detective can lie on his duty state then what is he likely to do when gathering evidence against a member of the public? Coles was required to resign.

The discipline farce continued when he appealed and was reinstated the following year by an assistant commissioner, although at the reduced rank of detective constable. Nevertheless, he was still allowed to operate as a frontline detective in the very area his highly suspicious activities had taken place with Clifford Norris, who was still on the run.

Since the Lawrence scandal exploded, Crampton and Ilsley have made emphatic claims about what they knew and didn’t know in the immediate aftermath of Stephen’s murder. Crampton insists that over those four days he was in charge he never connected the prime suspect as the son of Clifford Norris. Similarly, he says he never made any connection between David Norris, the informant, and Clifford Norris, the suspects father. For his part, Ilsley says he never connected the two David Norrises during these early stages.

The Lawrence family and their lawyers have never accepted these claims. Some members of the public inquiry team also privately felt very uncomfortable about these and other aspects of the two senior detectives’ evidence.

Clifford Norris remained at large throughout the period his son became a prime suspect for the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Ilsley should have taken him out of circulation. The chief superintendent accepts he was aware two days after the murder that Clifford was David Norris’s father and was wanted by Customs. But his collar was never felt.

The Coles affair only emerged much later during the public inquiry. The Lawrence family felt it further justified their suspicions that Clifford Norris had some sort of illicit protection from the cops. The Lawrence family suspected that Clifford Norris had exercised corrupt pressure on Coles, who the family and its legal team speculated may have approached senior officers to delay the arrests of young David Norris. No proof was ever produced to support this alleged chain of events. In fact, it seemed Clifford Norris was looking elsewhere, and had corruptly approached, through intermediaries, civilian witnesses who could damage his son.

Young David had stabbed another youth called Stacey Benefield four weeks before Stephen was killed. Initially Benefield declined to name his attacker to police. But on the weekend after Stephen’s death he made a statement naming David as the one who stabbed him with Neil Acourt. This, combined with the intelligence from the skinhead informant and other witnesses who’d come forward, was clearly enough to arrest David and his gang for the Lawrence murder. Crampton and Ilsley thought otherwise but never recorded their momentous decision.

Young David was eventually arrested after Benefield picked him out in a line-up in May 1993. Weeks later, he was approached in the street by an intermediary and taken to meet a man who gave him £2,000 in cash to change his account of events. The man intimated he could take care of the local police, and they parted company. Benefield was left with the strong impression he had been talking to the fugitive Clifford Norris. He spent the money but reported the approach to police.
Nevertheless, young David was acquitted later that year in highly suspicious circumstances. According to Michael Mansfield QC, the Lawrence family barrister: “...the foreman of the jury had approached David Norris prior to the verdict, to reassure him of the result and then to subsequently offer [him] employment. The juror himself was on bail for serious fraud at the time of the trial and he was later convicted of this fraud. He has also admitted a substantial connection with the London criminal underworld”.

No one dispassionately looking at the Lawrence case can blame the family for believing the worst of Scotland Yard. In the run-up to the Lawrence murder and the crucial months that followed it was covering up three highly relevant corruption allegations in three specialist police squads operating in south-east London.

The first was the Dave Coles-Clifford Norris affair at Tower Bridge Flying Squad, followed by the relationship between David Norris and the East Dulwich SERCS. The third scandal once again involved south-east London drug dealers connected to Brinks Mat gangster Kenny Noye, who included among his circle of associates people like Clifford Norris.

On 25 May 1993, the day after the collapse of the David Norris murder trial, a man in Bournemouth made an unconnected complaint against four detectives from the Surbiton office of SERCS. Two of the officers named in the complaint, detective sergeant Alec Leighton and detective constable John Donald, had been intimately involved in the Norris case. Leighton was in charge of the operation that arrested Warne and Dennison in Margate and Donald was the officer who interviewed them when they turned supergrasses and admitted their involvement with others in the murder.

The next month CIB mounted a sting operation, codenamed Zorba, against Donald, Leighton and the two other detectives. Word however leaked to the targets and the anti-corruption squad had to pull back without any success.

Then, in September, five months later after Stephen Lawrence’s death, the Yard was shown compelling evidence by BBC’s Panorama that Donald was in a corrupt relationship with a south-east London drug dealer called Kevin Cressey who he had registered a year earlier as an informant after arresting him with 55 kilos of cannabis.

Cressey decided to deal his way out of trouble by supplying information, including on the Norris murder. But under the cover of the informant handler relationship he also corruptly paid Donald for bail and for information to be passed to Kenny Noye, who although in prison at the time was believed to be behind a large cocaine shipment. To obtain further insurance, Cressey then went to Panorama and agreed to set up Donald.

CIB immediately suspended Leighton and Donald while mounting another operation codenamed Gallery into the Surbiton SERCS office and the new National Criminal Intelligence Service.

Through the BBC documentary the Lawrence family found out about corruption in Surbiton. But they knew nothing of the problems at East Dulwich, or for that matter at Tower Bridge Flying Squad. Scotland Yard needed to keep the collapsed Norris case and the Lawrence murder inquiry separate in the family’s mind. To do that they had to neutralise the growing view that corruption and collusion had taken place.

Paul Condon was only two months in the commissioners chair when he started to cop the fall-out from the defective Lawrence and Norris murder investigations.

His maiden speech in February 1993 was a touchy-feely affair about ethics and racism in the police and society at large. At a Yard organised conference on “Fairness, Community & Justice” seven weeks before Stephen’s murder, commissioner Condon talked about the need for his officers to be “totally intolerant” of race hate crimes and those who peddled racial hatred for political ends”.

Commissioner Condon told his maiden audience that racial issues presented the greatest challenge to the force. There would, he promised, be no compromise on demanding exemplary conduct from his officers. It was a standard, however, that the top cop and his circle of senior officers apparently felt did not apply to them. For within a few months of making that speech the commissioner authorised an internal investigation of the murder inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s death, which was later exposed as a most cynical whitewash.

The events leading to this cover-up began when the Lawrence family met Nelson Mandela during a state visit to London on 6 May, two weeks after the murder. The South African president lent his moral and political weight...After Mandela spoke to the media, Doreen had her turn. She lambasted the police for their “patronising” treatment and the Major government for showing “no interest”.

The moral authority of Nelson Mandela eventually propelled the Yard into action. Senior officers like Ilsley admit that “external pressures” forced him to take a greater interest in the case after Crampton had left to attend the Norris murder trial. But he and the Yard still deny that the hurried decision to arrest the five prime suspects the day after Mandela’s visit was anything but “pure coincidence”.

In late July recriminations flowed when the CPS decided not to prosecute. The case was largely dependent on the identification evidence of Duwayne Brooks. However, even this became tainted following a disputed conversation with a detective who was escorting Brooks to the line-up. The detective alleged Brooks had admitted being coached by friends ahead of the identification parade about the Acourt brothers’ physical appearance. Duwayne said the detective was lying.
The CPS had also relied on legal advice that although the five suspects were more than likely the culprits, there was no realistic chance of a successful prosecution on the available evidence. This of course was clearly down to the bungled police investigation.

By mid-summer, increasing dissatisfaction with the Yard’s response to the killing of Stephen Lawrence had become a key community issue, with demonstrations being prepared. This annoyed Ilsley’s immediate boss, deputy assistant commissioner David Osland, who wrote to Condon complaining that the patience of his detectives on 3 Area was “wearing thin” with the Lawrence family and “self-appointed public and media commentators”. Some of these busybodies included elected local MPs like the Tory left-winger, Peter Bottomley, and Labour backbencher Paul Boateng, who both sought reassurances from the commissioner. However, even Osland eventually realised the murder inquiry was getting nowhere, and began thinking up “a way to placate the influential people in the local community”.

Six officers were approached to give him the tools to make good this placation. But every one of them declined the poisoned chalice, until detective chief superintendent John Barker stepped forward. Although the last to be approached, Barker agreed to conduct a confidential internal review of the murder inquiry.

Osland commissioned the now infamous Barker Review with Condon’s prior approval. The commissioner had told the Lawrence family he was keeping a close personal eye on the situation. The review began in September 1993 and took Barker ten weeks to complete. The commissioner saw it in November and signed it off. It was as short in length as it was self-serving and convenient in its conclusions. Barker concluded that the Lawrence murder inquiry had “progressed satisfactorily” with “all lines of inquiry being correctly pursued”.

The cover-up mentality was so deeply ingrained in the Yard that Barker even considered creating two different versions of the report. One would be for internal consumption. The other, a phoney, much more anodyne alternative, would exist for disclosure to the Lawrence family and their legal advisors should they ever sue. But in the end Barker and Osland didn’t proceed with this misleading strategy, creating instead only one flawed and unprofessional document that gave the murder investigation an entirely unwarranted clean bill of health.

Crampton, Ilsley, Osland and other senior officers had all seen the final draft of the Barker Review and failed to point out its wholesale untruthfulness. Of course they claimed that was because the murder inquiry, in their view, was not incompetent. This self-delusion would in all likelihood have persisted today had the Lawrence family not complained and triggered a PCA-supervised (Police Complaints Authority) investigation in 1997.

The Kent detectives who examined the Barker Review on behalf of the PCA felt it was “misleading”; gave reassurance, which was “undeserving and highly damaging”; and did “nothing to re-focus the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation”. Indeed, the PCA/Kent report specified 28 shortcomings in the initial investigation that had been missed or suppressed by the Barker Review.

The family’s barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, would later submit to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry that the Barker Review demonstrated “the capacity and propensity of senior officers to collude with each other to manipulate and engineer a desired result”. The inquiry report put it another way: “The Review provided a convenient shelter to those involved. The failure of all senior officers to detect the flaws in [it] is to be deplored”.

The Barker Review was a multi-layered cover-up, not just a whitewash of police incompetence during what had become a cause celebre Black murder. The Home Office under Michael Howard was hardly concerned about the effect of the case on Britain’s race relations – which is why he consistently ignored calls for a public inquiry. The real concern was how the Lawrence case threatened to undermine the confidence of middle Englanders in the Major governments political project of a rehabilitated Scotland Yard efficaciously fighting the war on crime.

The Barker Review was the dishonest document the government and the Yard could point to over the next four years, like a fake environmental health certificate on the greasy wall of a backstreet kebab shop. It was also commissioner Condon’s official imprimatur that corruption was not a problem, when his inner circle was telling him this was definitely not the case.

In other words the setting up of the Ghost Squad in the late 1993 began with a deceit that would mark the commissioners period in office for the next seven years.

The Lawrence scandal was undoubtedly one of the chief reasons the anti-corruption initiative was launched covertly. For the next four years the secret strategy was one of containment. The Yard’s corruption problem was not publicly admitted until 1997 by which time a small cabal of senior officers and spin doctors had worked out how bad it was and how the damage could be limited and the fall-out managed.

So it was that in the spring of 1994, commissioner Condon met the Lawrence family and their legal team at Scotland Yard to discuss the Barker Review. He looked Neville and Doreen Lawrence in the eyes and assured them with all the solemnity he could muster for the occasion that his officers had done everything they could. The Barker Review said so.

A few weeks later, Paul Condon was made a knight of the realm.

Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn (2004) excerpts from pages 149-164
See also Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report 2007 (click here)

Daniel Morgan murder (Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice and Racism in Scotland Yard)

2012-01-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

This carries on from the following post (click here)

Death of an expert witness

The elimination of private detective Daniel Morgan was planned with unusual care. At around 9pm on 10 March 1987 he left a meeting in the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, and walked into the rear car park. As he unlocked the door of his BMW, someone wielding a huge axe attacked him from behind.

The assailant felled Daniel with four ferocious blows to the head. He was already on his back when the crowning blow struck. It was inflicted with specially concentrated venom – in all probability to ensure that if Daniel was found before his final breath, he could speak no whisper and leave no clue. As the private detective’s lifeblood drained into the tarmac, the murderer slipped away, leaving the axe in his face.

Daniel Morgan was just thirty-seven years old and a father of two very young children.
The next day, before the pathologist began the autopsy he required considerable assistance just to extract the murder weapon. It had been fused with Danny’s cheekbone. Preliminary analysis made it pretty clear this was a professional hit. The 14-inch wooden axe handle had been shrewdly modified. It was expertly wound with Elastoplast to prevent slippage and allow the killer to boost directional control.

At the inquest it was suggested that the location for the killing was specially chosen to fall within the area of Catford police station. The apparent purpose of this particular piece of strategic planning was as sinister as it was simple – to contaminate the murder investigation from the inside, restraining and frustrating the gathering of evidence while keeping well ahead of any honest cop who might be assigned to the murder inquiry. With the integrity of the investigative process subverted, the murder would become what the police call “a sticker” and conveniently remain unsolved.

Today this is precisely the position. The murderer and his co-conspirators remain at large. Bust so does a pungent aura of police corruption. Significantly, the Daniel Morgan murder came just days after the private detective began taking steps to expose that corruption. Because of this, the killing still stalks Scotland Yard, a ghost unexorcised.

Daniel John Morgan was born on 3 November 1949, the middle of three children. The Morgan family line had its roots in Pontardawe, the Welsh valleys then renowned for coal mining. His father grew up in the interwar depression, an especially tough period in the valleys. At Arnhem during the Second World War, Daniel’s father was not only badly wounded but also taken as a prisoner of war. On his liberation in 1945 he had the ranks of captain and continued in service. There he met his wife Isobel who was working as an army telephonist. Later, the couple moved to Singapore where their sons Alistair and then Daniel were born, followed by Jane.

Daniel was always something of an outsider; maybe it was his clubfoot. He didn’t perform well academically in his early rounds within the British education system. At grammar school he preferred wood and metal work to any other subjects. After his father died suddenly at forty-one from emphysema, Daniel went to agricultural college. He then worked on a farm in Denmark for two years learning the language while tilling the fields and chatting up the local talent.

In the late 1970s Daniel moved to London. His mother had remarried, and her new husband got him a job at a south London private detective agency called Madigans. Daniel learned the ropes in the unusual half world, half underworld of private investigation, tracing runaways and rate defaulters for local authorities and proving infidelities for other clients. In this early outpost of the information-sleaze economy, private eyes routinely gained access to confidential information supposedly held only by the state. Madigans, for example, had acquired a set of the reverse directories produced by the Post Office for state agencies, which covered all streets and phone numbers throughout Britain.

Jobs could often be accomplished even more speedily and more profitably with the help of other state assets – local police officers. They could help a private eye in a variety of ways in return for “a drink”, London speak for a payoff.

By 1983 Daniel felt he had mastered the profession of a private eye. He and his Scots-born wife, Iris, were by then the parents of two young children – a daughter called Sarah and a son, also named Daniel. With these new responsibilities went a need for better pay, a pressure further compounded by Daniel’s sense that Madigans cramped his style. He felt he could run a successful business himself.

Daniel first set up a small operation called DJM investigations, opening an office in Thornton Heath, south London. He had been shrewd enough to cultivate good relations with a number of key clients during his time at Madigans and lured some of them away with him when he left. Soon his client list involved tracing and bailiffing work for credit companies, banks and big law firms.
Daniel then set up Southern Investigation, recruiting a bookkeeper called Kevin Lennon as company secretary and a former Madigan employee, Jonathan Rees*, as a fellow director. A tough, compact and exceptionally garrulous former merchant seaman with a Yorkshire accent in marked contrast to his Welsh family name, Rees, then 32, had some contacts in the local underworld and powerful connections in the local police, especially at Catford.

*NB Jonathan Rees was later part of the phone hacking scandal in 2011. It was revealed that he had earned £150,000 a year from the News of the World for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye.

The news that her youngest son had been killed came to Isobel Morgan in the early hours of 11 March 1987 during a phone call from the police. After steadying herself, she contacted her remaining children, Alastair and Jane. When Isobel could manage to get the words out she gave them all the information she had. “Dan’s dead...Murdered...That’s all I’ve been told”.

Alastair drove immediately from his home in Hampshire to London to comfort Iris, his brother’s widow. On the way there he resolved to find out what he could about Daniel’s last few days. Where had he been? What had he been working on? Who had he met at the Golden Lion pub before he was murdered?

Alastair’s loyalty to Daniel ran deep. They’d spent fifteen years as boys sharing a room. Later as men the two became closer still. When Alastair first returned to England after separating from his Swedish wife, Daniel cheered him up and found him a temporary job working by his side in Madigans.

Alastair kept the job until he was ready to move on. But during his time there he developed a view of Jonathan Rees. He found Rees had a strong authoritarian streak and seriously enjoyed the exercise of power that went with his job as a bailiff evicting squatters and gypsies. Rees was also loud mouthed and aggressive – with a strong rhetorical adherence to racist views that expressed his fear of the supposed swamping of the traditional British way of life.

During his drive to London, Alastair also puzzled over something his brother had told him some months earlier, concerning the disappearance of £18,280.62 in cash during a robbery outside Rees’s home.

Behind Daniel’s back, Rees had done a private job to protect the transit of cash for Belmont Car Auctions. The company and Daniel felt Ree’s explanation for carrying so much cash strained credulity. They suspected it was a scam. Rees had claimed he took the money home because the night safe of the bank had mysteriously been superglued. First he dropped off his brothers-in-law, Glen and Gary Vian, two ne’er-do-wells he had recruited to provide security. When he arrived home he was forced to park some distance from his house, whereupon two unidentified men apparently squirted ammonia in his eyes and robbed the money.

As he approached London, Alastair recalled his last conversation with his brother. Daniel had forcefully underlined his suspicions about the robbery and feared his company now faced ruin because Southern Investigations had no insurance for carrying cash. Furthermore, Daniel had told his brother Belmont was suing for the money. By the time Alastair arrived in London he was in a well of deep anxiety.

At the police incident room in Sydenham, Alastair learned the gruesome details of his brother’s killing. Rees, he discovered, had pressed Daniel to come to the Golden Lion and then left just before the attack. Equally strange, while one of Daniel’s trouser pockets had been torn open during the attack, another containing credit cards and £1,000 in cash was untouched. Yet Daniel’s watch was stolen in what, Alastair suspected, was a clumsy attempt to camouflage the murder as a mugging. More intriguing still was word that his brother had been seen writing something on pieces of paper in the pub just before he died. But no notes were found.

Alastair found himself dealing with a middle-aged detective sergeant called Sid Fillery from the murder inquiry. He was a well-padded confident man with powerful fists and a ready line in conversation. Alastair had met him briefly once before when he’d been out drinking with Daniel. At first the resumption of the relationship seemed reassuring. But very soon Alastair had cause to re-assess.

He had no idea how active Fillery had been in the immediate aftermath of the murder. Nor was he aware just how close the friendship between Fillery and Rees had become. They were the best of friends and confidants. The nature of this relationship was by then a matter of extraordinary importance, for Rees was under suspicion not only for the Belmont Car Auction robbery but also for the axe murder of his business partner.

The more Alastair learned about their relationship the more disingenuous Sid Fillery appeared. It emerged he had helped introduce Rees to Belmont.

In addition, Alastair discovered that 24 hours before the murder, Fillery and Rees were drinking at the Golden Lion. The session included a crowd of Catford cops. A row erupted, with some pushing and shoving. Those present would later claim the argument was over whether British policemen should routinely carry guns, with Daniel apparently taking a lone, dissenting view. Another theory is that the Belmont robbery and the missing £18,000 was the real cause of the row.

Rees and Fillery had been out drinking together almost every night in the days before the murder, Alastair learned. In that same period his brother was growing increasingly sceptical about the Belmont robbery and considering whether he should distance himself from Rees and file an entirely separate defence. Daniel was even thinking about bringing in someone else to replace Rees in the business.

It transpired that on the day of the murder Daniel had reluctantly agreed to return to the Golden Lion the night after the row to meet Rees, who told him a man called Paul Goodridge would meet them there to discuss lending Rees money.

Goodridge, a self-styled bodyguard, never turned up at the pub. And at around 8.45pm Rees left the Golden Lion, making him the last known person to see Daniel alive. This one fact had two immediate consequences. It made Rees an obvious suspect – a man to be carefully and neutrally questioned until he could be ruled in or out. Second, it meant that someone other than his best friend in the local police force should have been deployed to investigate and preserve all available evidence. Remarkably none of this was done.

Instead, Fillery interviewed Rees soon after the murder and took his witness statement in which no mention was made of their contact immediately before the murder. Rees was then allowed to leave the station without either his clothes or his car being forensically examined. Fillery had simply told his best friend he could bring them back later.

Alastair couldn’t understand how Fillery was allowed anywhere near the murder inquiry, let alone in such a direct role. He started asking awkward questions. While he waited for answers, Fillery suggested to the Morgan family that Alastair should go back home to Hampshire and not get in the way of the police investigation.

“Eventually I had to go home to get on with my own work”, says Alastair, a translator. “I still made regular calls to the murder squad who could give me little assurance of any progress in the case. Like all the rest of the family I was uneasy”.

Unease turned to alarm when he spoke to his brother’s office manager. Peter Newby said Fillery had visited the detective agency to recover documents the morning after the murder. He claimed the detective filled a black plastic bin liner after specifically asking for at least one file by name – Belmont Car Auctions. Fillery has always denied this. Wherever the truth lies, the Belmont file has never been seen again. As Alastair puts it, “Someone had it”. Significantly, Daniel’s 1987 desk diary had also disappeared.

DS Sid Fillery came off the Morgan murder inquiry after four days. He says as soon as he realised there was a conflict of interest over his relationship with Rees he withdrew. But the senior officer running the murder inquiry claimed at the inquest that he had removed Fillery.
Three weeks later, Fillery was arrested in connection with the murder along with Rees and four others – Glen and Gary Vian, Rees’s brothers-in-law, and two constables from Catford. They were just as suddenly released, without charge and again without anyone troubling to put the Moran family in the picture. They learned of the arrests from the media. Alastair and his mother, Isobel, kept asking questions, but the family liaison was very poor and the Morgans felt they were being deliberately kept in the dark.

Fillery’s closeness to Rees was not the only flaw in the murder investigation. When Alastair went to the Golden Lion the morning after the murder he saw there was no proper crime scene cordon. This meant key evidence could have been missed or even taken away.

The Morgan family also struggled with the unexplained delay in holding an inquest into Daniel’s death. One month before it opened in April 1988 Fillery was allowed to leave the force on a full medical pension. The officer complained of suffering from depression after 22 years’ service.
“We were very unhappy about him leaving the force”, says Alastair, “and we began telling people in high places just how seriously we viewed the situation”. He wrote to the then Conservative home secretary, Douglas Hurd, asking that he authorise a substantial reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest and conviction. “I stressed strongly in my letter that the inference of possible police involvement in the murder was now very serious”, says Alastair. Hurd did nothing, which was somewhat ironic in that in his spare time the home secretary wrote whodunit novels.

In a private latter to the late Paul Keel, the Guardian crime correspondent and one of the only journalists to take a serious interest in the background to Daniel’s killing, Alastair expressed the family’s growing sense of frustration: “Sometimes I get the feeling that individual coppers are so damned busy watching their own backs and guarding their precious reputations that they have little energy left to pinpoint real villains. The really good ones get harassed out by cynical and complacent colleagues”.

“An inquest is due in the fairly near future. But the police are singularly uninformative about all the ins and outs of the hearing, and reading between the lines of their almost total silence, I get the feeling that they themselves don’t feel particularly comfortable about it...Perhaps someone is going to finish up getting egg on their face”.

At last, 13 months after the murder, the inquest opened. But Scotland Yard advised Iris Morgan, Daniel’s widow, that there was no need for the family to be legally represented.

Alastair was appalled. “My mother was, if this is possible, even more suspicious than I was of what was going on. Despite her slender means and with a great deal of help from our solicitor at the time, she arranged for us to have a barrister present to protect our interests and cross-examine witnesses”.

June Tweedie was their barrister. She arrived at the Southwark Coroner’s Court direct from Gibraltar where she had been involved in another controversial inquest and one with more immediately obvious political remifications - the “Death on the Rock” killing of three IRA members in an SAS ambush, which some argue was part of a shoot-to-kill policy exported from the dirty war in Northern Ireland.

Despite their suspicions, nothing prepared the Morgans for what came out at the inquest. An early and electrifying witness was Kevin Lennon, the bookkeeper and company secretary of Southern Investigations.

Lennon explained he had been friendlier with Rees than with the murdered man; and as a result of this friendship Rees had, he claimed, repeatedly confided in him. Rees had come to hate Daniel, repeatedly referring to him in front of other people as “the little Welsh cripple”, Lennon told the inquest. The two were also rivals over a mistress they shared called Margaret Harrison, a local estate agent.

Lennon claimed Rees repeatedly discussed with him how he intended to get Daniel out of the business. Initially, Lennon told the coroner Rees had confided in him that his plan was to get Daniel breathalysed by his friends at Norbury police station while driving home late one night. This would cost Daniel his driving licence and incapacitate him in the business. Lennon added that to his certain knowledge Rees proceeded to try to make such arrangements on at least three occasions. But the plan never came off for reasons that remain unclear.

However, Lennon saved the most dramatic for last. He told the inquest Rees had asked him if he knew anyone who would kill Daniel. “I formed the opinion that Rees was determined either to kill Daniel Morgan or to have him killed”, Lennon told the coroner, adding, “When he spoke to me about it Rees was calm and unemotional about planning Daniel’s death”.

Lennon also revealed that after Fillery left the force he went to work for Southern Investigations. The Morgan family could scarcely believe their ears. In essence, Rees’s best friend who ended up playing an instrumental role in the bungled murder inquiry had effortlessly left the Yard on a full medical pension, only to resurface in Daniel’s private investigation agency filling the dead man’s shoes and working in partnership with the main murder suspect.
Cross-examined by Tweedie, Lennon volunteered further particulars of conversations he said he’d had with Rees. The bookkeeper testified that Rees had even discussed who would organise the murder (“Policemen from Catford”) and how much it would cost (“£1,000”).

Lennon again: “When questioned by me, Rees said: ‘These police officers are friends of mine and will either murder Daniel or arrange for his murder...’ He [Rees] went on to explain...that if they didn’t do it themselves the police would arrange for some other person over whom they had some criminal charge pending to carry out Daniel’s murder and in return police proceedings against that person would be dropped. Rees continued to explain to me that Daniel’s murder would be carried out within the jurisdiction of Catford Police station”.

At this point the Morgan family barrister interrupted him: “It was, was it not?”

Lennon: “Yes”

Tweedie: “The reason for the murder being carried out in that area was because those same Catford police officers would then be involved in the murder investigation and would suppress any information linking the murder with Jon Rees or themselves?”

Lennons: “That is right”

Lennon claimed Rees had discussed murdering Daniel with his wife Sharon. She was therefore a key witness. But she never gave evidence, insisting to the coroner, Sir Montague Levine, that she wasn’t mentally fit enough to attend. The coroner appeared unhappy at her absence. Daily Mirror reporter Sylvia Jones, however, soon tracked down Sharon Rees. She was photographed shopping the day after she lodged her sick note with the Coroner’s Court.

The Mirror’s expose did little to bolster Rees’s credibility when his turn came to give evidence. He categorically denied any involvement in the killing of Daniel Morgan.

It also emerged that the police chose Rees to identify the body to spare the family the trauma. The family felt this was completely unprofessional – if only because it gave a suspect direct access to the corpse before making a statement.

The Morgans then learned of a bizarre undercover operation run in parallel to the bodged murder inquiry. The man in charge, detective superintendent Douglas Campbell, acting alone or with CIB [Complaints Investigation Bureau), was trying to sting Rees and Fillery into confessing their involvement in the murder. However, the detective constable he chose for this undercover role was entirely inappropriate. DC Duncan Hanrahan also had no undercover experience. He was, though, friendly with Rees and Fillery, and a fellow Freemason. Another disqualification was his posting at Norbury police station, where Rees had many other friends whom he was allegedly going to use ahead of the murder to fit up Morgan on a spurious drink drive offence.

Nevertheless, Hanrahan’s evidence was not helpful to Rees. The detective had been the night duty officer who initially dealt with Rees’s claim that he had been robbed of the car auction money. Hanrahan told the inquest he felt it was “an inside job” or “a set up”.

Turning to his undercover role, Hanrahan explained how Rees had discussed obstructing the murder inquiry. Indeed, Hanrahan told the inquiry important leads and information, he had changed his mind in retaliation for the way the murder squad was treating him after his friend Sid Fillery was reassigned.

Hanrahan also claimed Rees had discussed ways of actively destabilising the inquiry by attacking its second-in-command, detective inspector Alan Jones. According to Hanrahan, Rees even contemplated planting illegal drugs in his car and having him arrested for possession. Rees denied this.

When murder inquiry boss, detective superintendent Douglas Campbell, gave evidence, he admitted that Fillery’s actions had effectively sabotaged the investigation. But it was comments about Daniel Morgan’s contact with the media just before his murder that really reverberated. Campbell revealed that Daniel had been talking about blowing the whistle on police corruption in south-east London. June Tweedie tried to explore with the senior officer whether this perhaps was the motive for the murder.

Tweedie: “Did you find anything relevant to the demise of Daniel Morgan?”

Campbell: “I could find no evidence at all. It was a suggestion that he had a story to sell to a newspaper. I spoke to the other persons concerned. I even went to the newspaper but if i told you what he was offered you would see it was quite ludicrous. He was alleged to have been offered £250,000 per story.”

Tweedie: “I am not so interested in offers by newspapers”.

Campbell: “All I will say, Madam, is that we looked in all directions to try and substantiate that and we could not”.

At this point Sir Montague Levine brought the line of questioning to a halt. The name of the newspaper(s) and the persons Campbell spoke to during the murder inquiry have never been revealed. Campbell is now retired but he declined to be interviewed.

A verdict of unlawful killing was recorded at the inquest.

Daniel Morgan did have good contacts in the media. At the Daily Mirror he knew a number of reporters including Anton Antonowicz and the Mirrors then political editor, Alastair Campbell.
Antonowicz was helpful and remembered meeting Morgan on several occasions, some of them in a pub behind the newspaper, affectionately known as The Stab in the Back. Campbell, however, was less forthcoming. He was still prime minister Tony Blair’s head of spin when we approached him. He wrote back saying the name Daniel Morgan “rang a bell”, but it would be “a waste of time” to meet.

Daniel had also provided information to Private Eye. But what was more interesting was his work in 1986, a year before the murder, for the BBC. The legal department had hired him to find witnesses to defend a crucial libel case brought by two Tory MPs who’d featured prominently in a Panorama documentary called “Maggie’s Militant Tendency”. A senior BBC source confirms Morgan was hired to locate and interview Conservative Party members who were in Berlin on an official delegation with Neil Hamilton MP. The Panorama expose of right-wing extremism in the Tory ranks alleged that during the Berlin visit Hamilton goose-stepped and gave a mock Hitler salute, an illegal act in Germany at the time. Hamilton and other right-wing Tory MPs denied this and sued the BBC with the support of powerful elements in the party hierarchy and funding from the maverick billionaire, James Goldsmith.

Before caving in, the BBC had robustly defended the programme.

They instructed Morgan to find any witnesses who may have been “got at” and persuaded to keep silent about that night in Berlin.

It is likely Southern Investigations involvement with the BBC would have attracted the attention of MI5 or its freelance contractors working for the Conservative Party. Around this time, Daniel Morgan’s car was burgled and his offices broken into.

But would any of this – from moonlighting cops to silenced Tory witnesses – really have attracted a media price tag of £250,000? It’s unlikely. To earn that much from Fleet Street, Daniel Morgan had to have been on to something very big.

One south London detective called Derek Haslam believes he was. According to Haslam, Daniel’s best contact in the south London police was detective constable Alan “Taffy” Holmes. He illegally obtained police information for Southern Investigations. But Haslam claims Taffy Holmes was serving on the Brinks Mat investigation. He killed himself four months after Daniel’s death. At the time of his suicide he was being investigated for corruption.

These two deaths, at first sight, appear unconnected. But Haslam says you can’t understand either in isolation. “Those who kept the two deaths separate never wanted to know the truth”.

Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn (2004) excerpts from pages 99-109

Witness appeal over murder as man is jailed for 28 years

2012-01-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

Newham Recorder

January 4, 2012 Wednesday

Witness appeal over murder as man is jailed for 28 years

Detectives have launched a fresh appeal in the murder of Forest Gate hoteliers Amarjit Singh and his nephew Rajinder, who were shot to death with a machine pistol.

Police pursued one of the killers, Mohammed Ayub Khan, to Pakistan after he fled for eight years.

At Woolwich Crown Court in December he was jailed for life for the double murder at the rear of the Forest View Hotel on August 29, 2003.

Det Insp Yeats appealed for anyone with information on the two suspects or the weapon to come forward.

He said: "We are still seeking two Asian men in their late teens or early 20's.

"They ran away from the scene during the busy period after Friday prayers and turned right into Norwich Road, crossed Romford Road and continued south in Margery Park Road where they may have got into a vehicle.

Khan is said to have blocked Atherton Mews with his vehicle whilst attending a nearby Mosque. Having been unable to drive their van down to the back of the hotel the victims parked across the Mews blocking Khan's vehicle in.

The men had a heated argument before Khan left in his vehicle. He returned with two other men and began to damage the hotel van.

At around 2.20pm the victims ran out into to confront the suspects. One of the men was then seen to take a Mach 10 machine pistol out of a bag and fired 10 rounds.

The machine pistol is yet to be recovered.

Anyone who can assist should call the incident room on 020 8345 1570 otCrimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Khan, 28, of no fixed abode was found guilty and ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years in prison.

A mob steeped in violence with extensive links to underworld

2012-01-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

The Independent (London)

January 4, 2012 Wednesday
First Edition

A mob steeped in violence with extensive links to underworld;
THE GANG

They called themselves the Krays and had the ambition to match. Led by the swaggering Acourt brothers, Neil and Jamie, and David Norris, the gang was steeped in violence and the price for entry to their club was a stabbing. A litany of violent incidents in and around the predominantly white estate where they lived was attributed to members of their gang and their associates.
After several attacks they thought they were untouchable on their patch, which covered south-east London and north Kent - and for several years they had good reason to believe so. "They travelled around in a gang; they would never do anything individually," said a relative of one of their former victims, who declined to be named because of continued fears of reprisals. "They were trying to be like the Richardsons [a violent south London gang and rivals to the notorious Krays] but they bit off a bit too much."
Eighteen years on, the original suspects still live within a few miles of the murder scene - and from each other - in a protective white working-class community. But their circumstances are a far cry from the cocksure gang of the early 1990s.
1. GARY DOBSON
Whatever the Old Bailey jury decided yesterday, Gary Dobson was going nowhere. When he was arrested in 2010 for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, he was already in a cell at High Down prison in Surrey serving a five-year jail term.
He was caught in a sting operation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency handing over nearly 50kg of cannabis worth £350,000 to another dealer, Stephen Fennell, in a lay-by at Thurrock, Essex. Dobson, now aged 36, was the secondary prize - Fennell had been the focus of the undercover operation.
The Stephen Lawrence jury was not told that Dobson was serving a prison sentence - he usually appeared slightly dishevelled in a three-piece suit and tie - but they were told he had no convictions for violence. He had been due to leave prison in August this year.
The unemployed former van driver told the Old Bailey that his own aspirations had been dashed after being put in the frame for the murder of Stephen Lawrence. After the murder, he was sweeping up after an electrician on building sites and involved in petty crime. He was investigated in a people-smuggling case, but never charged. He was also investigated for handling stolen goods after neighbours saw him unloading garden furniture late at night at his former home in Westerham, Kent.
At the trial, Dobson, a father-of-one, claimed he had been spat at in the streets, received death threats and become bitter and angry against black people and the police. It was the reason he gave for being caught repeatedly expressing what he himself admitted was "moronic" racist abuse by a police surveillance camera hidden in the skirting board of the living room in his flat in 1994.
He also claimed he had Asian, black and Chinese friends - none of whom gave evidence on his behalf. At the time of the murder, he was living with his parents, Steven and Pauline, and his sister a few minutes from the murder scene.
"Gary was a very nice boy, very courteous. If you saw him in the street he would always say hello," said a former neighbour who declined to be named. "I was shocked. I think they are innocent. Gary was friends with my children."
2. DAVID NORRIS
The jailing of David Norris marks the final ignominy for a once powerful criminal family whose malign influence cast a long shadow over successive police investigations into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
When he was first arrested in May 1993, Norris was living at his parents' luxurious home in leafy Chislehurst, bought with the proceeds of his father's multi-million pound drugs empire.
By the time he was arrested in 2010, he was sharing a room with a cousin in a hostel above a Greenwich pub.
Norris, a father-of-five, cut a shambling figure, regularly changing phones, homes and unable to hold down a regular job. He has complained of mental health problems and at the trial needed headphones to hear what was being said.
His poor hearing stemmed from a prison attack while on remand at Belmarsh last year. Norris was said to have been involved in a dispute with a black Muslim convert during morning prayers. The next day, the inmate smashed a television on Norris's head, leaving him in a pool of blood, according to a source with knowledge of the case. Norris's defence team said only in court yesterday that he had been beaten up and had been left with a broken nose and ribs, and teeth knocked out, affecting his speech.
Since the killing, Norris, now 35, has been in and out of prison. In 2002, he was jailed for a racially motivated crime after he shouted "Nigger" at an off-duty police officer and threw a drink at him. The incident was in Well Hall Road, where Lawrence was murdered. Norris was jailed again in 2004 after breaking into a pub and handling a stolen car.
The jury was not told that David Norris was cleared of attempting to murder a white man by stabbing him in the chest with a nine-inch sword five weeks before Stephen Lawrence was killed.
He stood trial but was acquitted after a controversial trial when his father allegedly tried to pay off the victim.
Norris was also allegedly the stabber during an attack on two brothers, Terry and Darren Witham, in June 1992. One of the brothers - deeply tanned after a month abroad - was attacked outside a shop and badly beaten. Norris was charged with wounding and Jamie Acourt with possession of an offensive weapon, but the charges against them were withdrawn shortly before the killing of Stephen Lawrence.
By the time of the murder, his parents had split - though his father's drugs racket meant that the family was not short of money. He lived with his mother Teresa and his younger brothers Clifford and Ben, two terriers and a Rottweiler.
His mother claimed he was being victimised when he was jailed for the first time in 1999 for three months for driving offences. He was fined in the same year - along with Jamie Acourt and Danny Caetano - for stealing empty soda siphons. At that trial, his lawyer said that the man who once claimed to have ambitions to be a landscape gardener was "unemployable for the foreseeable future". He has been married twice and claims his first wife left him because of the unwanted attention, and he hasn't seen two of his children since. He has three children by his second wife.
3. NEIL ACOURT
The snarling face of the gang, Neil Acourt was the man caught on police surveillance footage tucking a knife down the waist of his trousers and urging his friends to get "chivvied up" with weapons for a night out. It was Neil Acourt who was filmed saying: "I reckon that every nigger should be chopped up, mate, and they should be left with nothing but fucking stumps."
He was well-known on the estate where he grew up, his house at Bournbrook Road the centre of gang meetings. He was the leader of the group who emerged from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry after a stonewalling performance with slicked back hair and dark glasses, taunting angry crowds to fight.
His notoriety kept him in the police's crosshairs. He was charged with people smuggling in 1999 after he was seen in a car at Calais with Dobson following a van with seven illegal immigrants in the back. He was cleared but sentenced to 50 hours' community service in 2001 after a metal cosh was found in his car. The court was told he had changed his name to Stuart - his mother's maiden name - and feared reprisal attacks over his link to the Lawrence case.
He was jailed in 2002 with Norris over the racist attack when he drove a car at the off-duty officer. His legal team claimed he lived a reclusive life after he became a suspect for the Lawrence murder, could only find work with family and friends, and was unable to form relationships because of the scrutiny.
He has been working sporadically as a painter and decorator and has spent time at a gym, fishing and practising golf near his brother's home in Sidcup.
Mr Acourt, 36, has recently moved with his parents to a trim white bungalow in Eltham with a battered silver Mercedes 4x4 on the forecourt where he has been decorating the house.
His swagger has been replaced by wariness, peering at arrivals through the window before opening the front door. He checks that his conversations are not being recorded before condemning the media. "And I thought the Iraq war was corrupt," he told The Independent. He declined to say more about the case.
4. JAMIE ACOURT
Neil's younger brother, aged 16 at the time of the murder, now lives a life of outward respectability in a smart terraced home with his partner and two children in Sidcup.
It followed a delinquent childhood that saw him excluded from schools following violent incidents. He was also charged with having an offensive weapon, a truncheon, in the attack on the Witham brothers he allegedly carried out with Norris - with whom he had played football since the age of 14 and had family links - but that charge was dropped.
He is a notable absentee from the secretly recorded surveillance footage at Dobson's house in 1994, 20 months after the killing of Stephen Lawrence. He was on remand at the time, accused of a stabbing a man at Stars nightclub in Greenwich. Darren Giles, who was white, was trying to stop Mr Acourt from attacking a black friend when he was stabbed in the heart and nearly died. At the trial, Mr Acourt pleaded self-defence and was acquitted.
His neighbours told The Independent that the sharp-dressing Mr Acourt, 35, had lived in Sidcup and was said to be working in the car trade. "If he was involved in that nasty business he now has a nice family and a nice house," said one man. "I can't imagine it is very nice for him to have it all dragged up again.
"He is very nice, chats with me. His wife is lovely. I can't imagine he was directly involved but if he fell in with the wrong people I am sure he wants to put it behind him."
5. LUKE KNIGHT
Visitors to the home of Luke Knight on an estate in Eltham are given short shrift. "I'm just waiting for it to be thrown out again like the last time," said a woman believed to be his mother at the house before firmly shutting the door.
The "last time" was an apparent reference to her son's acquittal when the private prosecution brought by the Lawrence family collapsed in 2006. Mr Knight's parents have since applied to have clothes seized by the police returned to them but the request was turned down.
Mr Knight, 35, is thought to be living with his parents - his father is believed to be a market stall holder - his partner and at least one child. They are fiercely defended by their neighbours. One woman, who declined to be named, told The Independent: "You won't hear a bad word said about them around here. I can't fault him - they are a nice family."
He used to live closest to the scene of the murder in Well Hall Road. A person who lived there, and also declined to be named, said: "He was a nice lad, never caused any problems."
6. AND THE FATHER: CLIFFORD NORRIS
The "evil influence" of Clifford Norris - who had been on the run for five years at the time of the murder - was cited as one of the reasons for the suspects evading justice for so many years.
He was a serious player in the south London criminal underworld. Both he and his brother Alexander were implicated in allegations of major crimes involving drugs and murder from around 1987. Alexander was arrested in 1988, and sentenced to nine years in jail in 1989. He had to forfeit more than £750,000 to the authorities over drug-dealing activities.
Clifford had been on the run since 1988 and while he was out of custody was a looming presence over the police inquiry. Police believe that he schooled the suspects in the art of giving nothing away at a police interview.
When his son was charged with wounding in a stabbing a few weeks before the murder, he was alleged to have had a more hands-on role: he was twice believed to have met the victim, Stacey Benefield, and offered him thousands of pounds to change his story. "This is how I sort people out, not by shooting them," he told Mr Benefield, according to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report. The case went ahead anyway and Norris junior was acquitted.
He was finally run to ground in 1994 in a raid after a new investigation into the Lawrence murder concluded that he had to be taken out of circulation. At one point Dobson and Neil Acourt - who had known Clifford from an early age - visited him in prison. Clifford Norris's fortune has now gone. He was released in 2001 and is now living in a flat with a large dog above a hardware shop in a seedy area of Ashford, Kent. He has long since sold his house. In an interview six years ago, he said he rarely saw his son but denied he was racist. "I have always thought he was innocent, otherwise he would have been convicted, wouldn't he?" he said then. He was less forthcoming last month. "Fuck off," he told The Independent and slammed the door.

Inside the violent, racist world of gang led by self-styled 'Krays'

2012-01-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

The Daily Telegraph (London)

January 4, 2012 Wednesday

Inside the violent, racist world of gang led by self-styled 'Krays';
WHAT THE JURY DIDN'T KNOW

BYLINE: Mark Hughes; Martin Evans

SPEAKING from the witness box, Gary Dobson and David Norris both told the jury that they were "no angels" when they described their upbringing.
The description was a huge understatement. To avoid prejudicing the case, the jury was not told that the pair had a string of criminal convictions and had been suspects in numerous violent attacks, some of which had racist undertones.
As youths, Dobson and Norris were part of a teenage gang that terrorised the estate on which Stephen was murdered, led by a pair of brothers, the Acourts, who referred to themselves as The Krays.
Dobson is currently in prison on drugs charges, while Norris, who has a conviction for a previous racist offence, is the son of Clifford Norris, a wellknown south London gangster. Clifford Norris was even suspected of paying off witnesses in other cases against his son and is thought to have coached some of the suspects ahead of their police interviews after the murder of Stephen.
While on remand for Stephen's murder, Norris has been attacked and badly beaten up by other prisoners. In one incident he had his nose broken, lost four teeth and had four ribs broken.
HOW THE FIVE BECAME SUSPECTS
The jury heard that Dobson and the Acourt brothers, Neil and Jamie, were arrested on May 7, 1993, 15 days after Stephen was murdered.
David Norris was not at home when police arrived to search his house. He went to the police station three days later. Luke Knight, the fifth suspect, was arrested nearly a month later on June 3. No mention was made of how the police alighted upon the men as suspects.
Far from facing the wall of silence that features in many gang murder investigations, the police had intelligence almost immediately suggesting the identity of the men who murdered Stephen.
It is thought that 26 different people had given police the names of those responsible for the murder within the first 48 hours.
On the day after the murder, an anonymous woman rang police and suggested that "two boys who call themselves the Krays" could be responsible.
The following day, police received two anonymous letters. One left in a telephone kiosk said: "The people involved in last night's stabbing are: Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, David Norris and Gary Dobson."
It added: "These b------- are definitely involved and must be stopped because they keep getting away with it. Approach these s---- with care. Do us a favour and prove it. Good luck."
Another with the same names was left under the windscreen wiper of a police car. It read: "Be careful when you arrest them. The house is full of knives." Another note named those responsible as a "group of youths on the Kidbrooke Estate who always carry knives and threaten people".
THE VIOLENT GANG
The Acourts were considered prime suspects because they were the leaders of the gang. Between them they were alleged to have taken part in a handful of other attacks, some involving Dobson and Norris, and others that took place in the area where Stephen was murdered.
In 1991, Lee Pearson was stabbed outside a kebab shop in Well Hall Road, the same street where Stephen was killed. The Acourts were the main police suspects, but Mr Pearson refused to sign a statement implicating them.
In July 1992, an Asian boy, Rohit Duggal, was stabbed to death by Peter Thompson, again on Well Hall Road. Thompson was named as a member of the Acourts' gang in calls to the police the day after Stephen's death.
In November 1992, a black youth named Kevin London said that Gary Dobson threatened him with a knife over the fact he had a white girlfriend. Dobson denied it and was not charged.
Norris and Jamie Acourt were also suspects in the stabbing of Darren Witham in Chislehurst in 1992. Both were charged, but the charges were later dropped.
A month before Stephen's death, in March 1993, David Norris is alleged to have stabbed a man named Stacey Benefield with a miniature sword after Mr Benefield tried to calm an argument between his friend and Norris. Neil Acourt was also suspected by police of being involved in the attack. Only Norris stood trial and was acquitted.
The same month Gurdeep Banghal, 22, was stabbed by a white youth while working in a Wimpy restaurant in Eltham. His attacker is said to have called him a "Paki -------".
Information received by the police suggested those responsible for the Lawrence murder were also responsible for the stabbing of Mr Banghal.
The attack appears to be referred to in the secret recordings made by police of the gang in Dobson's flat in December 1994. Relaying the story, Dobson says: "He said 'The ------- black ------- I am going to kill him'. I cracked up laughing. I went 'what black geezer?' He went 'The Wimpy one, the ------- black nigger ----, ------- black -------. I went 'What, the Paki?".
The jury was also told that, when interviewed by police in 1993, Gary Dobson named the Acourts as his best friends and also mentioned Luke Knight. He also told police he associated with youths named Charlie Martin and Danny Caetano.
What the jury did not hear was how Martin and Caetano were not around the night Stephen Lawrence was killed because they were awaiting trial for a knife attack on a rival gang member who, according to the prosecution, they had tried to skin alive. A surgeon said he had never seen such wounds and the pair were convicted. In May 2001, Norris and Neil Acourt were involved in a racist attack on a black off-duty police officer. The pair drove at Pc Gareth Reid, shouted nigger and threw a drink at him. They were both jailed for 18 months.
THE NORRIS CLAN
In the 1980s David Norris's father, Clifford, ran much of south London's drugs trade.
During the trial, the jury was given glimpses and clues that suggested Norris's upbringing was blessed with more wealth than his friends, but it was never explicitly explained why. While Dobson, Knight and the Acourts lived near each other on the Brook Estate in Eltham, the court heard that Norris lived in relative luxury in an £800,000 mock-Tudor house in Berryfield Close, Chislehurst.
In his own evidence, Norris made reference to his family's wealth.
Shown a photograph of his younger brother wearing what appeared to be the clothes the prosecution alleged that Norris was wearing on the night of the murder, it was suggested that perhaps they were hand-me-downs.
Norris said that his family were not in the habit of recycling clothes. "Not in my house, sir," he said. "We had quite a bit of money so we didn't need to."
When they were children, Norris did not catch the bus to football training like his friends. Instead his father would drop him off in the Porsche 911 sports car he had bought using cash pulled out of a carrier bag.
Clifford Norris's presence is also thought to have stopped some witnesses from coming forward; fearful of making an enemy of the infamous Norris clan.
David Norris and his father have since experienced a rather spectacular fall from grace in criminal circles.
When officers came knocking in September 2010 with a warrant for the younger man's arrest, they found him living out of his van and dossing in a bedsit above Clancy's pub in Greenwich. Having fallen out with his father, he was forced to eke out a living selling scrap metal. Norris, a twice-married father-of-five, is effectively homeless and no longer contributes to his children's upbringing. The 35 year-old has complained of depression and has been on benefits for long spells.
His father has also experienced a dramatic decline in his fortunes.
At the time of Stephen's murder, Clifford Norris had been on the run after being sought on drugs charges since 1988. He was eventually arrested in 1994. The failure to detain him sooner has led to claims that he influenced the police investigation into his son. It was alleged that Clifford "schooled" the suspects before their police interviews, leading to most of them giving "no comment" answers.
Clifford has previously faced allegations of interfering in cases concerning his son.
Shortly after charges were brought in the case of Stacey Benefield, the victim was approached by a man who gave him £2,000 to drop the case. The man is presumed to be Clifford Norris.
In the Lawrence case, two officers were investigated amid claims that they were corrupted by Norris, but the allegations were never substantiated.
Clifford was convicted after his arrest on drugs charges and now lives in a bedsit above a shop.
GARY DOBSON
Following a series of arrests for relatively minor offences, such as theft and handling stolen goods, Dobson was jailed for five years in 2010 after being caught drug dealing.
A father-of-one, he lived with the mother of his son in Shooters Hill, close to the scene of the murder, but they split up several years ago. Prior to his arrest on drug offences he was living with current girlfriend, Michelle Lines, whom he knew from his time at Crown Woods school. She has vowed to stand by him and has attended court on a daily basis throughout the trial to offer support.
Dobson has worked as a bricklayer and labourer at building sites across London.
Far from hiding his notoriety, however, Dobson boasted of his hard-man reputation.
One Australian scaffolder, who worked with Dobson on a building site in south London said: "He didn't try to hide who he was.
"He never mentioned Stephen Lawrence but everyone knew who he was and he used his reputation. It was like he was saying 'I am not someone to be messed with'."
THE VIDEO TAPE
One of the most dramatic moments of the trial came when the jury was shown covert surveillance footage taken in Dobson's home in December 1994.
The tape captured the suspects exchanging a litany of racist rants. It reveals, however, that the men appeared to have worked out they were being bugged.
That knowledge could explain statements made by some of the men who attempted to distance themselves from Stephen's murder. During an apparent discussion about the Stephen Lawrence case, Neil Acourt says: "I fancy they've had a crack deal me self [sic]."
Norris replies: "Yeah came down to get a bit of toot or something or had a bit of crack, it's all gone wrong, the c--n's got knackered up and all of a sudden four innocent people are getting done for it."
Norris adds: "Every time it comes on the news the real people are sitting laughing their nuts off."
Luke Knight adds: "Thinking they've got away f------ scott free."
"Yeah," Acourt adds. "They're definitely doing that."
The reaction
In their own words
"My only regret is that I have lost the ability to walk the streets and just be me, I never set out to do that, I just wanted justice. Would I have done anything differently? Not really, I was just fighting for my son."
Doreen Lawrence
Stephen's mother
"I hope, more than ever, this inspires the investigating team to work harder to bring the rest of the suspects before a jury."
Duwayne Brooks
Stephen's friend who was with him when he was killed
"They (Stephen's parents) kept his flame alive and I take my hat off particularly to Doreen who has been indefatigable in campaigning for justice for Stephen. She is a force of nature and it is not a good idea to get in her way."
Jack Straw
Former home secretary
"We were criticised for the way in which the Met investigated in 1993; we've transformed the way we do investigate homicide and I like to think that where we are now exemplifies how we've changed in terms of the way we investigate."
Cressida Dick
Acting deputy commissioner
"The police and media have made up for what went wrong in 1993. The real lesson to learn is this: if more people could bring up their children like Doreen and Neville Lawrence brought up theirs and fewer people can be brought up like some of the attackers it would be a far better society. Few of us can say that the colour of our skin is of as little importance as the colour of our eyes or hair."
Peter Bottomley
Former Tory MP for Eltham
"Throughout the 18-year ordeal, the Lawrence family's desire has been the pursuit of justicetoday, justice was served."
Paul Anderson-Walsh
Chief of Stephen Lawrence Trust
"The verdicts bring a sense of justice to along overdue prosecution."
Bevan Powell
Chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association
"Some people in my constituency can now have closure on the issue. There has been a cloud over the community for some time. It shows people who are racist that they are not going to get away with it and eventually the law is going to catch up with you."
Clive Efford
Current MP for Eltham

Police raids in gang crackdown

2012-01-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Westminster Chronicle

Police raids in gang crackdown
Posted by Emma Heseltine on Jan 3, 12 02:06 PM in News
Police have raided the homes of up to 20 suspected gang members, including several in Westminster, following the death of a teenager in Oxford Street.

Officers targeted the addresses of those they suspect are associated with gangs which could have been involved in the stabbing of 18 year-old Seydou Diarrassouba from Mitcham on Boxing Day.

They raided homes in Merton, Wandsworth and Southwark as well as Westminster, and have arrested 17 people for a variety of offences including GBH, robbery, affray, intent to supply drugs, burglary, forgery and handling stolen goods.

A large amount of cash was also seized in the raids on Friday December 30, and those arrested have been bailed until later this month.

Commander Mak Chishty said: "We were aware of rising tensions in the wake of the murder and having monitored the situation closely, including various comments that have been made on social networking sites, we felt it vital we take robust and prompt action in order to pre-empt any potential future violence.

"This is just one of a series of measures we are carrying out in order to enhance the safety of the public and visitors to London.

"We will continue to aggressively pursue any lawful opportunities against those who choose to become involved in violent crime and thus protect potential future victims."

A further 11 people were arrested last week in connection with the death, one aged 16, three aged 17, five aged 19 and two 22 year-olds, have also been bailed until later this month.

Anyone with information about the stabbing should contact the police incident room on 020 8358 0100 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Murder squad detectives make arrest in New Year's Day shooting investigation

2012-01-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

Camden New Journal
Murder squad detectives make arrest in New Year's Day shooting investigation

Tuesday January 3, 2012

By GEORGIA GRAHAM

THE gun murder of a 22-year-old man on New Year's Day near a Holborn council estate has left residents “traumatised”.

Aaron McKoy, from Dagenham, died in the early hours of his 22nd birthday after an air ambulance was called to reports of a shooting at the Bourne Estate in Portpool Lane at 4.10am. He was pronounced dead on the scene after paramedics battled to save his life for more than an hour.

A 22-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being questioned by detectives.

Another man was arrested on January 1 and released without charge.

A Met Police spokesman said the gunman was thought to have fled down Leather Lane as he escaped the scene. He added: “Aaron is known to have been at the Clerkenwell House wine bar in Hatton Wall in the hours before he was killed. It is believed that an altercation took place in the venue at around 4am and officers from Trident are investigating the possibility that this may have been a factor in his subsequent murder.”

Detective Chief Inspector John Crossley of Trident said: "The venue was very busy going into the early hours of New Year's Day and we are extremely keen to talk to anyone who was in attendance. We believe the victim was involved in an incident in the venue and that this may have been the prompt for his killing. If you were there and noticed a dispute taking place I would urge you to get in touch as soon as possible, to enable us to bring those responsible to justice."

Residents of the Bourne Estate said Mr McKoy was still breathing when the ambulance crews arrived and paramedics worked on him.

This morning (Tuesday) residents were gathering in front of tributes left at the scene trying to come to terms what had happened on their estate.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said she had heard the gunshot in the early hours of New Year's Day and called the paramedics. She added: “It has just been dampened on the estate, everyone is coming to terms with it, no one understands how this can have happened right on our doorstep. There are always kids around, and they might not be angels, but nothing like this has ever happened before. It's normally complaints about kid making noise or playing games, but they are good kids. I know them all."

She added: "Now people are really scared – there are single parents with kids on the estate really worried about what they are getting up to. What sort of coward brings a gun to a club on New Year's Eve? If you are going to get into a fight, be aggressive, then use your fists and give them a chance to hit you back. He had no chance.”

Another resident, who said she had been unable to sleep since the murder, said her brother had seen the paramedics treating the victim and was “traumatised” by the sight.

An inquest was opened this morning (Tuesday) at St Pancras Coroner's Court which Mr McKoy's mother attended, but did not give evidence. The preliminary cause of death has been given as a gunshot wound to the chest.

Friends made a montage of photos of Mr McKoy along with a series of birthday wishes and placed it along with dozens of flowers.

One friend, Tenika, wrote: “Happy 22nd Birthday. Aaron may God take care of you up there, I can't believe such a sweet person has been taken from us. You will always be in my thoughts I can't forget you ever, love you always Aaron xxx.”

Another friend, Troy, added: “See you soon, gone but not forgotten.” Kearan said: “Aaron, rest in paradise.”

Businesses along Leather Lane, opening up again after the New Year break, were being visited by police today in the hope that they may be able to provide CCTV footage.

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: “We were called at nine minutes past four to reports of a shooting on Leather Lane. We sent two ambulance crews, a doctor from London's air ambulance crew in a car and an officer. Sadly, one patient, a man, reported to be in his twenties, was pronounced dead at the scene by the air ambulance.”

Updates to follow

New Year's Day shooting at Greenwich nightclub

2012-01-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

News Shopper

January 3, 2012 Tuesday

New Year's Day shooting at Greenwich nightclub

Mark Chandler

A NEW Year's Day shooting took place inside a Greenwich nightclub - just a week after it reopened following a suspension if its licence due to a mass brawl.
Police are appealing for witnesses following the incident at That Club in the early hours of New Year's Day.
A police spokesman said a number of shots were fired inside the club at 4am.
No one was injured during the incident.
There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.
In November, the club had its licence suspended until December 25 following a melee outside which saw extra police drafted in from Bromley and Lewisham.
Officers from the Met Operation Trident Shootings Team are investigating the latest incident. Call them on 020 8785 8161 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Oxford Street stabbing victim 'executed' in gang feud

2012-01-01T06:43:00.000-08:00

The Sunday Times (London)

January 1, 2012 Sunday
Edition 1;
National Edition

Oxford Street stabbing victim 'executed' in gang feud

Kevin Dowling

THE teenager murdered amid throngs of shoppers in central London on Boxing Day may have been "executed" by members of a rival gang who had followed him to Oxford Street before killing him with a single stab wound to the heart.
The killing was the latest in a long-running feud between south London gangs which is likely to lead to further violence as the victim's friends seek revenge.
Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, from Mitcham in south London, was attacked in Foot Locker, the sportswear store, by a large group of youths.
He bled to death on the street outside as a passing detachment of officers from Scotland Yard's diplomatic protection group battled to hold back an agitated crowd.
A bloodied lock knife was found close by and officers discovered a number of other weapons at the scene.
Fourteen people aged 16 to 22 have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder and have been bailed.
On Friday, in a series of raids across London, detectives arrested 17 more people for offences including assaults, robbery and drug dealing.
Commander Mak Chishty said more raids on suspected gang members are planned in a pre-emptive move after intelligence reports indicated revenge attacks were being planned.
Sources have claimed that far from being a random clash of rival gang members, the victim may have been murdered in a targeted attack.
Diarrassouba, who had been climbing the ranks of the notorious ABM (All 'Bout Money) gang for two years, had been spotted earlier in the day and then tracked by someone connected to a rival gang called O-Tray One (031 Bloods).
Within the gang community, Diarrassouba's murder is considered a "significant coup" for O-Tray.
He had been building a reputation as a serious player within the gang and was known to carry a knife. He had been involved in drug dealing for ABM and had carried out a number of stabbing attacks, said a source close to ABM.
Last month he appeared in court for his part in a gang robbery and attack on two teenagers in September.
"In his little group he was the one who had been kicking up the most and he had been building himself a reputation," said the source.
"He was the most significant member of the group he was with on Oxford Street that day, and his killer will have earned a few stripes for getting him."
O-Tray and ABM both originate from Stockwell in south London and have been engaged in a deadly feud for four years.
This latest killing follows the murder last May of a member of ABM by two members of O-Tray who shot their victim dead as he stood on the pavement near Stockwell Tube station. Last month, a man was sentenced to 33 years for the murder. A second man is awaiting sentence.
A year ago the leader of O-Tray, known as Tanna, was beaten and stabbed by a group of about 30 youths from ABM and an allied London gang.
Diarrassouba, a Muslim whose parents moved to Britain from Ivory Coast in west Africa, was the 15th young person to be murdered on the streets of London last year.
Born in Britain, he had been studying business at Merton College in south London but had become involved in ABM after befriending gang members who had moved with their families from Stockwell to Mitcham.
Corey Johnson, who runs Community Youth Limited (CYL), a charity that works with gang members, said: "This needs to stop. Many of the young people caught up in such lethal gang rivalry have no idea what the original dispute was over or who started it, but are paying for it with their lives."
This weekend Diarrassouba's parents, who had no knowledge of his gang life, paid tribute to their "loving son and brother".

Arrests as gang tensions mount over Seydou Diarrassouba stabbing

2011-12-31T07:14:00.001-08:00

Arrests as gang tensions mount over Seydou Diarrassouba stabbing

Saturday, December 31, 2011
11:30 AM

Police have arrested 17 suspected gang members in a bid to dampen “rising tensions” and prevent reprisal attacks following the murder of a teenager on the UK’s busiest shopping street.

Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, was stabbed in the heart after a fight broke out at a Foot Locker sports shoe store on London’s Oxford Street on Boxing Day.

Investigators said a number of gangs were present at the time of the killing and were aware of people wanting to “seek retaliation or revenge” for what had happened.

In order to pre-empt any further violence, officers yesterday conducted a series of raids across the capital arresting 17 people for a range of offences including grievous bodily harm, robbery, affray, intent to supply drugs, burglary, forgery and handling stolen goods. A large amount of cash was also seized.

It came after police bailed 11 people arrested over the murder or Mr Diarrassouba. The motive of the attack is yet to be established.

Met Police Commander Mak Chishty said: “We were aware of rising tensions in the wake of the murder and, having monitored the situation closely, including various comments that have been made on social networking sites, we felt it vital we take robust and prompt action in order to pre-empt any potential future violence. We don’t want to see any other young person or anyone else lose their lives.”

Further raids were expected across the capital.

Mr Chishty added: “This is just one of a series of measures we are carrying out in order to enhance the safety of the public and visitors to London.

“We will continue to aggressively pursue any lawful opportunities against those who choose to become involved in violent crime and thus protect potential future victims, in line with the Commissioner’s pledge on total policing.”

Mr Diarrassouba, from Mitcham, south west London, died from a single stab wound which pierced his heart.

The 11 people arrested earlier this week - two 22-year-olds, five 19-year-olds, three 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old - have been bailed to dates in mid-January.

Those arrested in yesterday’s raids, which took place at properties in Merton, Wandsworth, Southwark and Westminster, remain in custody at various London police stations.

Anyone with information about either stabbing can contact police on 020 8721 4906 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Police arrest 17 people in Merton, Wandsworth, Southwark and Westminster in bid to "quell tensions" after killing

2011-12-31T07:14:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon 31st Dec 2011

Police arrest 17 people in Merton, Wandsworth, Southwark and Westminster in bid to "quell tensions" after killing
Police have arrested 17 people in an attempt to “quell tensions” after an 18-year-old was killed in one of London’s busiest streets.

Seydou Diarrassouba, from Phipps Bridge, Mitcham, was stabbed following a fight that started inside the Foot Locker store in Oxford Street. He died on the pavement outside.

Mr Diarrassouba a former South Thames College student, was stabbed in the heart at lunchtime on Boxing Day as the street was filled with shoppers. Another man was stabbed metres away a few hours later, but police have not revealed if the incidents are linked.

One 16-year-old, three 17-year-olds, five 19-year-olds and two 22-year-olds were arrested in relation to the killing - but have now been released on bail until the middle of next month.

Yesterday, the homes of up to 20 suspected gang members in Merton, Wandsworth, Southwark and Westminster were raided by Metropolitan Police officers in what they said was a “bid to quell tensions that have developed in the wake of the murder”.

A Met Police spokesman said: “They are believed to be associated with gangs which could have been involved in the tragic incident.

“The raids resulted in a total of 17 arrests, in connection with a range of offences including GBH, robbery, affray, possession with intent to supply drugs, burglary, forgery and handling stolen goods. A large amount of cash has also been seized. The individuals remain in custody at various London police stations.”

He added raids targeting suspected gang members would continue throughout the weekend.

Met Police Commander Mak Chishty said: "We were aware of rising tensions in the wake of the murder and having monitored the situation closely, including various comments that have been made on social networking sites, we felt it vital we take robust and prompt action in order to pre-empt any potential future violence.”

Police have appealed for witnesses to the stabbing to come forward, suggesting some might have filmed vital footage of the incident on their phones. Anyone with information should call 020 8721 4906.

Jurors fail to agree verdict in Thornton Heath man's murder trial

2011-12-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

Jurors fail to agree verdict in Thornton Heath man's murder trial

By Nick Hitchens »

Jurors have failed to reach a verdict into a murder committed in broad daylight.

Raymond Mitchell was shot twice after a row in McDonalds

Raymond Mitchell, 34, also known as Devon Scarlett, was shot twice in a McDonalds following an argument in April 2011.

Mr Scarlett, a father of four from Thornton Heath, was hit in the leg and abdomen and died in hospital from his wounds.

Horace Campbell, 27, from Anerley, was charged with the murder, committed at the fast-food chain outlet in Brixton, following a confrontation.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey lasting longer than three weeks, the jury was unable to reach a decision.

A second defendant, Douglas-O'Callaghan, 18, William House, Tulse Hill was also accused of being involved, allegedly being asked to bring a gun to the confrontation.

Jurors were told Mr Mitchell first confronted a gang of men embroiled in an argument in the McDonalds, before later squaring up to Campbell.

The two were allegedly ejected by security guards but continued the confrontation.

Mitchell was shot at three times and was hit twice in the abdomen and thigh.

He died in King's College Hospital later the same day.

Both defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of murder.

A new trial date has yet to be set.

Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice and Racism in Scotland Yard

2011-12-30T05:41:00.000-08:00

We will be adding extracts from this important book which has been sparsely circulated and difficult to obtain at a fair price.

Uncovering a history of corruption, cover up, "spin" (lies)and high profile cases such as that of Stephen Lawrence, David Norris and Daniel Morgan, all cases whereby evidence was tainted by corruption leaving them unsolved.

Cast of Characters
“The untouchables”
Paul Condon Commissioner (1993-2000)
John Stevens Commissioner (2000-2005
Deputy Commissioner (1998-2000)
Brian Hayes Deputy Commissioner (1993-1998)
Ian Blair Deputy Commissioner (1998-2008)
Dave Veness Assistant Commissioner
Ian Johnston Assistant Commissioner
Mike Todd Assistant Commissioner
John Grieve Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Roy Clark Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Bill Griffiths Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Roger Gaspar Detective Chief Superintendent (Ghost Squad)
Dave Bailey Detective Superintendent (Ghost Squad)
Dave Woods Detective Chief Inspector (Ghost Squad)
Andy Hayman Commander (CIB3/CIBIC 1999-2002)
Graham James Commander (Discipline & Complaints)
Ian Quinn Commander (CIB2)
Dave Wood Detective Chief Superintendent (CIB3)
Chris Jarratt Detective Superintendent (CIBIC)
Brian Moore Detective Superintendent (CIB3 Operation Ethiopia)
John Coles Detective Superintendent (CIB3 Operation Cornwall)
John Yates Detective Superintendent (CIB3 Operation Russia)
Barry Norman Detective Superintendent (CIB3 Operation Helios)
Martin Bridger Detective Chief Inspector (CIB3 Operation Ethiopia)
Bob Berger Detective Chief Inspector (CIBIC)
Chris McHaffey Detective Chief Inspector (CIB3)
Jill McTigue Detective Chief Inspector (CIB3)
Dave Pennant Detective Chief Inspector (CIB3)
Simon Cousins Detective Chief Inspector (CIB3 Witness Protection Unit)
Shaun Sawyer Detective Chief Superintendent
Bob Quick Detective Chief Superintendent
Barbara Wilding Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Steve Roberts Deputy Assistant Commissioner
David Zinzan Detective Superintendent (IDG)
Tony Fuller Detective Superintendent (IDG)
Steve Foster Detective Chief Inspector (IDG)
Maxine de Brunner Detective Superintendent (ACG)
Jack Kelly Detective Inspector
Steve Bazzoni Detective Inspector
Adrian Harper Detective Inspector
Maggie Palmer Detective Inspector
Peter Ward Detective Inspector
Mark Holmes Detective Inspector

Criminal Supergrasses
Geoff Brennan, Evelyn Fleckney, Hector Harvey, Michael Michael, Maurice O’Mahoney, Richard Price, Jason Proctor, Ashley Sansom, Steve Warner

Police Supergrasses
Kevin Garner, Duncan Hanrahan, Terry McGuinness, Neil Putman, Kalaish Sawnhney (Customs)

Civilians targeted by the Untouchables
Les Brown (solicitor), Debbie Cahill (CPS), Jon Rees (private investigator)

Ex-Cops targeted by the Untouchables
DC Geoff Baldwin, DS John Davidson, DS Sid Fillery, DC Nigel Grayston, DS Keith Green, DS Bob Harrington, DC Martin King, DI Alec Leighton, DI Keith Pedder

Cops targeted by the Untouchables
DS John Bull, DC Mick Carroll, DC Chris Carter, DC Michael Charman, DC Robert Clark, DC Declan Costello, D/Supt Ali Dizaei, DC John Donald, DC Chris Drury, DC Colin Evans, DC Paul Boscomb, DS Len Guerard, DS Eamonn Harris, DC Dave Howells, DS Paul Kelly, DC Tom Kingston, DS Gordon Livingston, DI Fred May, DC Jeff May, DS Denis Miller, DC John Moore, DC Martin Morgan, DI Tim Norris, DC Mark Norton, DS Terry O’Connell, DI George Raison, DI John Redgrave, DC Tom Reynolds, DC Ian Saunders, DC Paul Smith, DC Dave Thompson, DS Barry Toombs, DS Gurpal Virdi, DC Austin Warnes

Integrity is negotiable

[The] scandals that forced Condon’s hand are the “ghosts of the Ghost Squad”. They arise out of three brutal and still unsolved murders in south-east London between 1987 and 1993. These restless souls have stalked the corridors of Scotland Yard for over ten years.

But it’s not just the murder victims who haunt Condon and Stevens eras, so too do the three police investigations of those murders, all of which have the same stench of corruption and cover up.

Among all this scandal is a spate of unexplained suicides of four Scotland Yard detectives who were caught up in separate corruption inquiries.

All these deaths, more than any other events, are the points of entry to the key patterns of corruption that emerged in the ten years, between 1983 and 1993, before the Ghost Squad was launched. They played down or covered up at the time and afterwards.

In 1987, private detective Daniel Morgan was found dead in a pub car park in Sydenham, south-east London, with an axe buried in his skull. He was about to blow the whistle on local police corruption.

A few months later Morgan’s friend, detective constable Alan “Taffy” Holmes, wrapped his chest around a shotgun and pulled the trigger. At the time he was under investigation for corruption, Taffy Holmes was also part of a massive investigation into the biggest robbery ever committed in the UK – the theft of gold worth £26 million from the Brinks Mat depository at Heathrow.

In 1991, Scotland Yard’s most prolific informant, a man called David Norris, was gunned down as he arrived home from the pub. He had just come from a meeting with his police handler when a man, riding pillion on a motorbike, pumped him full of lead. Norris died moments later cradled by his pregnant wife.

The following year, police sergeant Gerry Carroll removed a gun from the armoury and shot himself through the head, at the height of the major corruption probe into officers at Stoke Newington police station. Scotland Yard had been forced to carry out the inquiry after a local community group exposed systematic drug corruption and police brutality that had led to 13 miscarriages of justice.

Then, in April 1993, Black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death by white racists with family links to organised drug crime and local cops.

Finally, in September 1993 BBC’s Panorama broadcast a documentary exposing a corrupt South East Regional Crime Squad detective called John Donald. A south-east London drug dealer, who had been arrested by Donald and was facing trial, approached the BBC with a plan for the programme makers to secretly record him paying the bent detective for sensitive information. Police intelligence was eventually passed by Donald to a number of individuals in the criminal fraternity such as Kenny Noye. He was serving the tail end of a 14-year prison sentence for laundering the Brinks Mat gold. Donald’s betrayal was even more acute because Noye had killed an undercover police officer during the Brinks Mat investigation.

This iconic heist was a watershed for organised crime and police corruption. As this book unfolds, it will become apparent just how much the ghost of Brinks Mat continues to haunt Scotland Yard today because the corruption was swept under the carpet over 20 years ago, allowing a “firm within a firm” to grow inside south-east London policing. It is this corrupt firm of detectives we believe eventually contaminated the Morgan, Norris and Lawrence murder inquiries.

Michael Gillard and Laurent Flynn (2004, p.70-71)

See excerpts on Daniel Morgan chapter click here

See excerpts on Stephen Lawrence chapter click here

Teenager jailed for six years over youth murder

2011-12-29T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hampstead and Highgate Express (Ham and High)

December 29, 2011 Thursday

Teenager jailed for six years over youth murder

A Highgate teenager has been jailed for six years after the shooting of a 17-year-old.

Rafik Hamaizia, 19, of North Hill, was found guilty of false imprisonment and grievous bodily harm at the Old Bailey on December 22.

He is one of five teenagers who has been jailed after Marvin Henry was murdered in October last year at the Old English barracks in Mill Hill.

The court has handed down more than 171 years of jail time in total to the five individuals.

The court had previously been told that Marvin Henry had been gunned down after he put one of the defendants in a bin.

The victim, also known as Spooky, was found collapsed with a gun-shot wound to his chest and later died in hospital.

Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall, of the Metropolitan Police's homicide and serious crime squad, said: "Marvin Henry was killed at the young age of 17.

"Our thoughts are with his family, especially at this time of the year, and I pay tribute to the strength of his mother who has worked with us throughout the investigation into the murder of her beloved son."

A witness who helped put four thugs in jail after witnessing a gang beating from her bedroom window has been awarded £300 for her bravery

2011-12-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

Hackney Gazette

December 29, 2011 Thursday

A witness who helped put four thugs in jail after witnessing a gang beating from her bedroom window has been awarded £300 for her bravery by a judge.

Camilla Swain was woken at 2am by victim Zunur Miah's cries of pain after a group set upon him with metal poles in Lavington Close, Hackney, in March.

She peered through her curtains, saw the assault taking place and heard one of the attackers warn a passer-by: "You ain't seen nothing."

She called police as Mr Miah lost consciousness and the men dragged him into the road.

But Miss Swain was horrified when officers arrived and appeared to believe the gang's explanation that they were helping the victim and the real attackers had fled.

Miss Swain called 999 again to explain the gang were lying and they were arrested.

She came outside, but fainted when she saw Mr Miah's injuries.

Brothers Aminur Rahman, 26, and Mamanur Rahman, 21, of Bow Road, Bow, and their Hackney friends Mohammed Siddkey, 27, of Frampton Park Road, and Mafuf Uddin, 28, of Barnabas Road, denied everything, and the cause of the dispute is still unknown.

The men were found guilty of assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent after Miss Swain gave evidence at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Judge Tudor Owen jailed Aminur Rahman for six years, Mamanur for four years, Uddin for five years and Siddkey for four years.

Miss Swain was awarded £300 from the Sheriff and Recorders of London Fund.

Single stab to the heart killed teen in Oxford Street fight

2011-12-28T06:28:00.001-08:00

The Independent (London)

December 28, 2011 Wednesday
First Edition

Single stab to the heart killed teen in Oxford Street fight;
Police appeal for witnesses and mobile phone footage as 11 are questioned over death of 18-year-old outside sports shop
TIM HUME

A teenager who was killed in front of horrified shoppers at the Boxing Day sales died from a single stab wound to the heart, police said yesterday.
Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, died after a confrontation at a Foot Locker store in Oxford Street, central London, on the biggest day of the year for retailers.
Eleven suspects - two aged 22, five 19-year-olds, three 17-year-olds and a youth of 16 - were being held in custody at several London police stations last night in connection with the incident.
A fight, understood to be over a pair of trainers, started inside the shop before spilling out on to the pavement. Mr Diarrassouba, from Mitcham, South-west London, was pronounced dead at the scene by ambulance officers. He is the 11th teenager to be fatally stabbed in the capital this year.
The suspects were arrested at the scene at about 1.45pm. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne, the senior investigating officer from the Metropolitan Police's homicide command, said Mr Diarrassouba's next of kin had been informed. He said two groups of youths appeared to have been involved in the killing.
Amateur video footage shot on mobile phones and posted on YouTube showed a tense stand-off immediately after the stabbing, with police pushing back angry youths as paramedics tried to save Mr Diarrassouba. One officer could be seen pulling out a Taser stun gun, but Scotland Yard insisted it was not deployed. Officers said a number of weapons had been recovered from the crime scene.
Photographs posted on Twitter showed a pool of blood and a folding knife on the ground, although it was unclear if this was the murder weapon. At about 6.20pm, a second stabbing took place nearby at Oxford Circus. The victim, aged 21, received a leg wound not considered to be life-threatening. Police said inquiries were continuing into whether the two attacks were linked.
Detective Superintendent John Sweeney asked for witnesses from among the crowds of people who were in Britain's busiest shopping area at the time to make themselves known.
"Our sympathy goes to the family of the victim at this time and we are appealing for witnesses to come forward," he said. "We know there were a number of people filming the incident inside Foot Locker who may have captured the incident or its aftermath and we are appealing for these people to contact us."
One of Mr Diarrassouba's school friends, Munawar Shaikh, 20, said he and the victim had grown up in the same area, both attending Rutlish School in Merton Park, which counts the former Prime Minister John Major among its alumni.
"It is devastating. He was such a big personality and a person everyone in Mitcham would know," he said. "He was just a good kid who always had a smile on his face. Everybody will be cut up about it."
Mr Shaikh, a broadcast journalism student in Leeds, added that he was unsure whether the killing was gang-related or just a "misunderstanding ".
Mr Diarrassouba was on bail at the time of his death, reportedly for robbery and assualt. He appeared at the Inner London Crown Court on 19 December to enter a plea, according to court listings.
Last night, a Facebook page called "RIP Seydou" was carrying tributes to Mr Diarrassouba, who went by the nickname "Nutz". One message, posted by Justin Osei, said: "It's not gonna be the same not seeing you around. You were almost like a monument to Mitcham."
Another, Errol Patterson, left a note calling for an end to knife violence, and for those with information on the murder to speak to police. "When Allah/God looks down and asks you 'Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution,' what will you say?" he wrote. Richard Dickinson, chief executive of the New West End Company, which represents stores in the area, said it was shocked by the stabbings, adding that such incidents were "extremely rare". He said the company had called for a meeting with the Deputy Mayor of London, Kit Malthouse, to ensure that similar attacks were not repeated. Oxford Street was re-opened to pedestrians yesterday, although a cordon remained in place around the crime scene, where bouquets of flowers had been left.

Riots could happen again, warns Tottenham MP

2011-12-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

The Independent (London)

December 28, 2011 Wednesday
First Edition

Riots could happen again, warns Tottenham MP

NIGEL MORRIS Deputy Political Editor

The MP for Tottenham, where rioting triggered this summer's eruption of looting in English cities, has warned that conditions are ripe for trouble to break out again next year.
David Lammy said joblessness, poverty and poor housing allied to a lack of male role models, crumbling community links and simple greed had combined with "toxic" results in his constituency four months ago. He said that the deep-seated social and economic problems facing inner-city areas could get worse and called for a fresh effort to reach out to disaffected young people.
In an interview with The Independent, he said: "We need politicians of all political parties to attend to these issues or it could happen again." He said this year's mayhem differed from the violence that hit Tottenham in 1985 in that it was not a race riot. "What we saw in 2011 was not just a battle against the police: it was a battle within and across community," he said.
But Mr Lammy, who grew up in Tottenham, said there were also chilling parallels between the disturbances. "For any area to have two riots in a generation is a catastrophe," he said. "It is with tremendous sadness that 25 years later you see some of those individuals' children caught up in these disturbances."
Mr Lammy also disclosed that he considered challenging Ken Livingstone to become Labour's candidate in next year's elections for the London mayoralty. "I did think about it, but in the end my community needs me," he said.
Despite his eight years as a minister, he also turned down a place on Ed Miliband's front bench. The reason, he said, was that he wanted to focus on writing a book detailing the pressures building in his constituency. The violence on Tottenham High Road and its rapid spread meant the book, Out Of The Ashes, had to be rapidly rewritten.
Mr Lammy said there were legitimate criticisms of the police over the shooting of Mark Duggan, which sparked the trouble, and over officers' slow response. But he added: "The rioting was not just about police numbers - it was about selfishness and greed... [The rioters] were helping themselves to Xboxes and DVD recorders - that had nothing to do with Mark Duggan."
He said the young rioters had grown up in "hyper-individualised times" where they felt entitlement to consumer goods but little responsibility to fellow citizens. He said: "We have to ask why so many people felt they didn't have a sufficient stake in society."

Met police deny Taser used in Oxford Street after stabbing

2011-12-28T06:18:00.000-08:00

The Guardian (London) - Final Edition

December 28, 2011 Wednesday

Met police deny Taser used in Oxford Street after stabbing

Caroline Davies

Scotland Yard yesterday denied deploying a Taser to control youths at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in front of shoppers on Oxford Street during the Boxing Day sales.
As the victim was officially named as Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, from Mitcham, south-west London, it was revealed that diplomatic protection officers were the first on the scene.
Amateur video footage, put on YouTube, shows police remonstrating with several angry youths as paramedics attempt to revive the teenager. Diarrassouba died from a single stab wound to the heart during a confrontation in the Foot Locker store at 1.45pm. He collapsed in the street outside, in front of horrified shoppers near Bond Street underground station.
The footage appears to show an officer using a Taser on one of the youngsters, who is seen appearing to exchange shoves with police. But in a statement yesterday afternoon, Commander Steve Rodhouse said: "One of the first units to come across the incident were officers from the Met's diplomatic protection group, who were driving past . . . they were confronted by certain elements of the crowd who were extremely agitated, and officers had to protect the victim and those administering emergency first aid to him .
"Officers can be seen in the footage pushing the crowd back and one officer is shown to remove his Taser from its holster, although at no time was it ever deployed. Clearly, in those initial early stages, officers would have been unaware of what had occurred and where the suspect(s) might be, and their priority would have been to prevent further injury or loss of life."
Another youth was stabbed in the leg at Oxford Circus underground station at 6.20pm. Detectives are investigating to see if the two incidents are linked, and whether they are gang related.
Eleven people - one aged 16, three aged 17, five aged 19, and two aged 22 - were arrested at the scene and remain in custody at London police stations. Police found weapons near the first crime scene, thought to include a 3in (7cm) lock knife.
Police said three men were arrested in connection with the second stabbing.
Relatives at Diarrassouba's family home were reported to be too distressed to comment yesterday. Munawar Shaikh, 20, who went to school with Diarrassouba, called him a "big personality" who always had a smile on his face. He said he heard about the death on networking sites.
Detective Superintendent John Sweeney, from homicide and serious crime command, said: "We are appealing for witnesses . . . we know there were a number of people filming the incident inside Foot Locker and (they) may have captured the incident or its aftermath, and we are appealing for these people to contact us."
Police said three men were arrested in connection with the second stabbing.
Inspector Bruce Middlemiss said police would conduct a review.
Captions:
Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, died from a single stab wound to the heart during a confrontation in a Foot Locker shop

Gang wars turned Oxford Street's Boxing Day sales into killing zone

2011-12-28T05:57:00.000-08:00

The Daily Telegraph (London)

December 28, 2011 Wednesday

Gang wars turned Oxford Street's Boxing Day sales into killing zone

Mark Hughes; John Bingham

THE death of a teenager in front of crowds of shoppers on Oxford Street may have been the culmination of a string of clashes as rival gangs converged in search of cut-price designer labels.
Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, bled to death in front of hundreds of onlookers after a fight in a shop selling trainers on Boxing Day. It was one of at least three suspected confrontations between gangs on Britain's busiest shopping street during the day but it is thought there may have been many more.
There are fears that the killing could lead to revenge attacks following the stabbing of a second man nearby only a few hours later.
Detectives believe that the lure of cheap designer clothes and trainers drew gangs from across the capital to Oxford Street.
Seydou, 18, who was on bail charged with robbery and assault, suffered a single stab wound to the heart during a clash in a branch of Foot Locker, the sportswear shop, at lunchtime on Monday.
He bled to death on the road outside as a passing detachment of officers from Scotland Yard's Diplomatic Protection Group battled to hold back an agitated crowd while first aid was administered.
The Muslim teenager was the 15th young person to be murdered on the streets of London this year.
Last night, 11 people, including a 16-year-old boy, were being questioned by police over the killing.
A 21-year-old man was stabbed in the leg in a second attack on Oxford Street just a few hours later.
Police have yet to establish a motive for the murder of the teenager but rumours that it may have been during a row over a pair of trainers were being played down.
Instead, it is thought that the fight may have stemmed from an earlier clash between two groups of youths in or around Oxford Street.
Detectives are preparing to scour hundreds of hours of CCTV from other shops to piece together the movements of Seydou and his friends in an attempt work out what led to the fatal confrontation.
Police suspect that the second stabbing may have been an attempted revenge attack for the killing but have not publicly linked the two.
It emerged that there was a third suspected gang clash on Oxford Street, inside a shop next to the scene of the second stabbing, earlier in the day.
It happened at around the time Seydou was stabbed and although it is not thought to be directly linked, police see it as indicative of the number of gang members mingling among thousands of bargain hunters on Boxing Day. "If you went up to Oxford Street on that day you would have found members of gangs from all over London," said one source.
Yesterday, at their home in Mitcham, south London, Seydou's family, including his brother, Ali, 20, they were too upset to comment. Friends posted messages on Facebook paying tribute to a boy with a "sweet smile", but others referred to him as a "fallen soldier" - slang for a gang member - and one described him as a "martyr".
Seydou appeared at Inner London Crown Court on Dec 19 to face charges of robbery and assault over the theft of a BlackBerry in Clapham on Sept 29. One source said he was known to be "on the periphery" of the south London gang scene.
Scotland Yard moved to dispel controversy over footage posted on YouTube appearing to show a police officer using a Taser stun gun on a member of the crowd surging around the dying teenager on Monday.
Commander Steve Rodhouse of the Metropolitan Police said the Taser was removed from its holster but not "deployed".
"Officers can be seen in the footage pushing the crowd back and one officer is shown to remove his Taser from its holster, although at no time was it ever deployed," he said.
Police issued an appeal for members of the crowd who filmed incidents around the time to share their footage with detectives as they try to piece together the movements of those involved.
Police recovered at least two knives from the scene although it had not been confirmed whether one was the murder weapon.

Gang were ‘pack of hounds’ in pursuit of Brixton Hill teenager

2011-12-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

ThisisLocalLondon

Gang were ‘pack of hounds’ in pursuit of Brixton Hill teenager
9:31am Friday 23rd December 2011 in News

By Rachel Blundy »

Five youths who hunted down and killed a 15-year-old schoolboy like “a pack of hounds” have been handed sentences of up to 18 years at the Old Bailey.

Ricardo Gidding, Helder Demorais, Kyle Kinghorn, Jamal Moore and Shaquille Haughton were jailed for the killing of Zac Olumegbon outside Park Campus School, West Norwood in July 2010.

Judge Forrester, sentencing, said: “I have to sentence the five of you for a vicious, shocking and sickening act of violence outside a school in West Norwood at a time when teachers and pupils were gathering at the start of the day.

“[Zac] was chased along the street as he fled for his life. It was a terrifying and terrible way for him to die.

“Mercilessly, you chased him down that street into that back garden.

“This was group violence involving hunting down your victim Zac and attacking as a pack – a pack of hounds.”

The court heard the five teenagers met at a house in Stockwell the night before the incident on July 2, and stayed the there until early the next day, when they travelled south towards Park Campus School in a stolen car with at least two knives inside.

As they drove past the school, they saw Zac standing outside, and four members of the gang exited the car to chase him. The driver, Demorais, remained at the wheel, but was “just as much part of the team” as the others, jurors were told.

Zac, who was part of or associated with a rival Tulse Hill gang called TN1 (‘Trust No One’), was later found by school staff with stab wounds to his heart, neck and buttock at the back of a house in Gipsy Road Gardens.

Edward Brown QC said the stabbing was a revenge attack for a stabbing the previous month, at which Zac was present.

During the eight week trial, Kinghorn claimed the group were “just cruising for girls” on the morning of the incident. Yet when questioned by the prosecution, he could not give the names of any girls’ schools they visited on the trip.

Police said a large hunting knife, which contained traces of Zac’s DNA, was found wrapped in a bin bag in an alleyway by a member of the public on July 16.

The court was shown CCTV footage of Giddings dumping the knife in the hours after the murder. A second knife was never recovered.

Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane, the senior investigating officer in the case, said the sentences served to deter future acts of youth violence but said the police needed the community’s support to prevent similar attacks.

He said: “This case must act as a deterrent to other young people who think they will not be prosecuted or go to prison just because they did not deliver the fatal blow. The senseless and violent murders of young people is something we have come to see far too much of.

“The police's job is enforcement but the police cannot tackle this problem alone.”

The heaviest sentence for Zac's killing was handed to Ricardo Giddings, 17 and from Clapham, who was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years for murder.

Kyle Kinghorn, 18 and from Brixton, was sentenced to 16 years for the same charge, as was Helder Demorais, 17 and from Kennington. Jamal Moore, 17 and from Balham, was given 14 years for the same charge.

All four were also found guilty of wounding with intent, but were not handed a seperate penalty.

Mitcham teenager Shaquille Haughton, 16 was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter - with the term extended to 12 years for the wounding with intent of another boy on the day of Zac's death.

Fighting town gang crime a 'priority'

2011-12-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

Croydon Advertiser

December 23, 2011

Fighting town gang crime a 'priority'

Protection money is being demanded from some businesses along the London Road, the independent inquiry has heard.
Gang members are asking between £50 to £110 a week from various shopkeepers.
Police say they are aware of this and Chief Supt Musker says he has personally met with a number of leaders of local businesses.
But despite giving them his personal phone number and reassuring them information would be treated in the strictest confidence, nobody has come back to him.
Without revealing his exact tactics of how he plans to tackle the alarming issue, Chief Supt Musker said there was "more than one way to skin a cat".
He added fighting gang crime was a priority in Croydon.
The inquiry also heard a series of statistics about those who were arrested in connection with the riots.
About six in ten of those arrested were black, 56 per cent were aged 17 to 25, and 65 per cent were Croydon residents.
The riot inquiry hearings have now ended, and the findings are due to be published in February.

Two Barnet police officers sacked for ‘excessive force’

2011-12-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

London24

Two Barnet police officers sacked for ‘excessive force’

Thursday, December 22, 2011
12:16 PM

Two Met Police officers based at Barnet in north London have been sacked for using “excessive force”.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said two other officers have received final written warnings after a misconduct hearing.

The action follows an incident involving six police officers in the early hours of July 17, 2009.

A Citroen Saxo failed to stop for police and was followed into the Grange Estate, East Finchley.

Four men remained inside the vehicle while the driver decamped and was not traced.

Later, a allegation of assault and excessive force was made by three of the men in the car, who were aged aged 18, 31 and 33 at the time.

An investigation was launched and it found two of the occupants of the Saxo were forcibly removed from the car by officers, despite them being compliant.

None of the occupants were arrested and all were detained without being told their rights or entitlements.

Three of the men sustained injuries, including a “serious nose injury” in the case of one of them.

The officers were unable to account for their actions and their use of force.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring criminal proceedings against any of the officers, but the investigation found there were individual failings by six officers, four amounting to gross misconduct.

A misconduct panel decided breaches by two officers, aged 40 and 37, were so serious they were dismissed.

Two other officers received final written warnings and proceedings are pending for two further officers involved in the incident.

IPCC commissioner for London Deborah Glass said: “In this case the misconduct panel, which heard evidence both from the complainants and the police officers, found that it was the conduct of the police officers which escalated the incident and which led to the officers deliberately and unnecessarily using disproportionate force.

“The outcome of the hearing should give the public confidence that in those cases where the actions of police do cross the line, they are held to account.

“The police interact with the public daily on our streets and the overwhelming majority of these interactions do not result in complaints. But where the police use their powers to stop people, or to use force, they must do so reasonably and proportionately.

“People who feel aggrieved by police actions should make complaints – and this case demonstrates that where the evidence supports it, robust action will be taken.”

Harlesden man jailed for gun possession

2011-12-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

Harrow Observer

Harlesden man jailed for gun possession
Dec 22 2011 By Jessica Thompson
A HARLESDEN man has been jailed for five years for possessing a gun and Class A drugs charges.
Michael Gichaga, 24, of Craven Park Road, admitted at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday December 12 three charges of possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class A, and possessing controlled drugs with intent to supply at Class B.
At the same hearing he also admitted possessing a firearm.
He was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
OnJuly 7 this year, officers from the Harlesden Safer Neighbourhoods Teamstopped and searched Gichaga. He was found with a quantity of class Aand B drugs and was arrested for possession with intent to supply classA and B drugs.
On July 8,officers from Operation Trident carried out a warrant at his homeaddress and a firearm was recovered. He was also arrested forpossession of a firearm.
MichaelGichaga admitted the charges at court. He was sentenced to five yearsimprisonment for possession of the firearm. He was given 10 months forpossession of crack cocaine, eight months for possession of heroin andtwo months for possession of cannabis. These will run concurrently withthe five years for the possession of the firearm.
PCJamie Hoile from Harlesden Safer Neighbourhoods Team said: "We arepleased to see this man taken off the streets of Brent. His convictionand sentence sends out a clear message to drug dealers across Brentborough that Police take drug dealing and possession of firearms veryseriously and a no tolerance approach is taken.

Teenage axeman jailed for Highgate Magistrates' Court attack

2011-12-22T06:39:00.000-08:00

North London Journal

December 22, 2011 Thursday

Teenage axeman jailed for Highgate Magistrates' Court attack

'A teenage gang member who plunged an axe into a boy's head after a chase through a courthouse has been jailed for six years.

Mayhem broke loose in Highgate Magistrates' Court just before noon on September 1 this year when Bienvenu Vangu turned up at court armed with a 40cm axe.

He was with a gang of youths who confronted another gang outside the court, and tensions flared despite the efforts of security staff to separate the factions.

The 30 youths goaded and swore at one another, chasing each other in and out of the courthouse foyer in Bishops Road, Highgate, trapping people inside.

As the mayhem ensued Vangu, 18, pulled a foot-long axe from a plastic bag, raised it to head height and swung it towards two boys aged 14 and 15 as he chased them in and out of the courthouse, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

Court staff locked the doors once Vangu and his victims were outside, before the first victim, 14, fell to the ground and Vangu hacked at this head four times, leaving him with a deep cut to his head and abdominal bruising.

Mobile phone footage then showed Vangu chasing the 15-year-old and hitting him several times in the back with the axe.

Court staff dragged the younger victim into the courthouse and gave him first aid before paramedics arrived.

The older victim was also hospitalised for bruising to his back.

Police later recovered the axe from bushes nearby, and court staff identified Vangu as they recognised him from previous visits to the court.

Jobless Vangu, of St Leonards Close, Grays, Essex, pleaded guilty to all charges and was last week given six years for wounding with intent, five years for attempted wounding with intent, four years for violent disorder and three years for possessing a blade in public, all to run concurrently.

Det Supt Gurdip Singh, head of Haringey CID, said: "The defendant made the wrong choice, he ensconced himself in a life of gang violence and received a significant prison sentence for it."

Investigators are still keen to trace the others involved in the disorder outside the courthouse.

Anyone with information is urged to call Team 3 Haringey CID on 020 8345 0838 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

15-year-old boy was stabbed twice in the shoulder

2011-12-22T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hampstead and Highgate Express (Ham and High)

December 22, 2011 Thursday

A 15-year-old boy was stabbed twice in the shoulder and hit over the head with a bottle when he was attacked by a gang in Maida Vale.

The teenager had left a youth club in Fernhead Road on the evening of December 2 and was in Portgate Close with friends when they were approached by seven male youths wearing dark clothing and hoodies.

The victim and his friends ran but the 15-year-old was caught before he reached Ashmore Road.

He was then hit with the bottle and stabbed after falling to the ground.

The suspects fled towards Drayford Close.

Police were called at about 10.25pm and the boy was taken to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington before being discharged later that night.

Detective Constable Adam Hewitt said: "We are appealing to anyone who was in and around the Ashmore Road, Portgate Close and Drayford Close area on December 2 at around 10pm to contact us and let us know if they saw or heard anything out of the ordinary or suspicious."

n Anyone with information should call DC Hewitt on 020- 7321 9374 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Stabbing reopens old wound for family of murdered teen

2011-12-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

Hackney Gazette

December 22, 2011 Thursday

Stabbing reopens old wound for family of murdered teen

The stabbing of a 15-year-old boy outside Hackney Town Hall on Friday evoked painful memories for the family of a Hackney teenager murdered just metres away.

The latest violence broke out shortly before 10.50am in Reading Lane - between the town hall and Hackney Library - as Christmas shoppers were out and about.

The 15-year-old suffered a single stab wound in the attack, which echoed 16-year-old Robert Levy's fatal stabbing.

Friday's victim is believed to have stumbled into the library before being taken to an east London hospital.

"It struck a chord with me because it is in the same area as where Robert fell," Ian Levy said. "It was especially hard at this time of year as it would have been Robert's birthday this week."

Mr Levy rushed to his son's side in September 2004 after he was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest while breaking up a fight outside the town hall in Mare Street.

Attempts were made to save his life but Robert, a former pupil of Cardinal Pole School, died.

The 15-year-old was discharged over the weekend after making a good recovery.

But Mr Levy, who set up the Robert Levy Foundation with his wife Pat, said more needed to be done to stop youth violence.

"It has dropped significantly but we can see that it is still happening," he said.

He suggested tougher prison sentences would help. Robert's 15-year-old killer was jailed for life but is due for parole in 2013.

Police arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the attack on Friday. He has been bailed pending further enquiries.

SHOOTING SPARKS FEARS OF NEW GANG CRIME ON ESTATE

2011-12-22T06:06:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard (London)

December 22, 2011 Thursday

SHOOTING SPARKS FEARS OF NEW GANG CRIME ON ESTATE

TONY BONNICI AND MICHAEL HOWIE

A SUSPECTED gangland shooting which left a man fighting for his life has re-ignited concerns about a Westminster council estate. The 21-year-old was shot twice in the chest yesterday afternoon on the Mozart Estate in Queenâ€™s Park. He was taken to hospital where his condition was initially described as â€œlife threateningâ€. However, he recovered later and was said to be serious but stable this morning.
Officers believe his assailant arrived at the estate by car. He got out and fired at his victim, who was named locally as Herse Linni. Friends have posted messages on Twitter wishing him well. One said: â€œHeard all this madness about what happened today, Inshallah [God willing] you get better @Hersi_Mozartâ€. News of the shooting has shocked local people. Local MP Karen Buck tweeted: â€œTragically, another shooting involving a young man on the Mozart Estate. Had seemed a little calmer in last month or so.â€ Police, who said they were called to the estate at 3.50pm yesterday, are appealing for witnesses. Operation Trident, which deals with black on black gun violence, is expected to be investigating. Last night forensic officers were combing gardens close to where the man was shot for clues. One estate resident who was too scared to give his name said: â€œItâ€™s terribly sad that this can happen just before Christmas.â€
In September, three teenage girls including a young mother holding her baby were sprayed with shotgun pellets on the estate.