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'Parents hide Damilola's killers'
25/01/2001 14:46 - (SA)
London - The father of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor hit out on Wednesday at the killers of his son, calling them "children of no value" who had hacked him down
because he refused to join their gang. Richard Taylor, a Nigerian, told BBC radio that police knew who was responsible for Damilola's murder but lacked evidence to secure an arrest because people refused to come forward. "The community in Peckham are scared, they are afraid of
the backlash from the gangs that terrorise the area and they
feel that if they come out and give evidence to the police,
they are afraid of reprisal," he said. The 10-year-old bled to death in the stairwell of a housing
estate in Peckham, south London, in November last year after
being stabbed in the leg, just weeks after his family had
settled in Britain. So far 15 people have been arrested in connection with the
case but none has been charged. Taylor, who is to make an appeal for witnesses on the BBC
programme "Crimewatch UK", said he was disappointed by the community's reaction to crime, saying he
was dismayed that parents were hiding the killers. "I feel the parents are protecting the killers because they
too are criminals," he said. "I don't expect parents to hide them (the killers), I expect members of the community to go out and talk to the police. They are supposed to prevent another murder, another killing in the area." Taylor said he wished he had never sent his family to Britain, saying Damilola, who he called "my lovely son", would
still be alive today if he had remained in Nigeria. He said there had been a breakdown in moral values in Britain. "This kind of act can never, never, happen in Nigeria. It's
something which is strange in nature to me. People of Nigeria
are shocked that a civilised country like the UK will still
have things like this happening."
- Reuters
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