TV star's teen brother killed

2008-06-30 13:46

London - Tributes were being paid on Monday to the brother of a television star after he became the 17th teenager to die as a result of violence in London this year.

Ben Kinsella, 16, was knifed in a north London street in the early hours of Sunday morning following a brawl at a bar. He died later in hospital.

The youngster was the brother of Brooke Kinsella, 24, who acted in EastEnders, the BBC's flagship soap opera and one of Britain's most-watched programmes.

The site where Kinsella was stabbed has become a makeshift shrine, with more than 100 bouquets being laid on the roadside.

Several actors from the programme - some of whom went to school with the victim - have paid their respects.

Kinsella is the 12th teenager to be stabbed to death in London this year.

Campaigners and politicians are worried about the spate of teenage killings.

The city's new Mayor Boris Johnson has made combating youth violence and knife culture a top priority.

Johnson - who lives a 10-minute walk from the crime scene - said: "I deeply regret that another young person has lost their life to violence."

London's Metropolitan Police said it believed Kinsella was stabbed during a row with a group of youths.

Two 16-year-old boys arrested in connection with the investigation have been bailed to return to a north London police station in late August.

Bob Hamlyn, Kinsella's headteacher at the nearby Holloway School, said he was a "bright kid... and had everything to live for but that has been taken away from him now".

"People know what they have to do - they have to stop carrying the knives and put them away."

The killing featured on the front page of several national newspapers on Monday.

Rob Knox, an 18-year-old actor in the forthcoming Harry Potter film, was stabbed to death during a fight outside a London bar last month.

- AFP