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Damilola killers 'boast about murder'
02/02/2001 12:41 - (SA)
London - The teenagers who stabbed to death Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy, on a London housing estate are boasting openly about the killing, his mother said in an interview published on Friday.
Gloria Taylor said the young killers were confident that the police could do nothing to bring them to justice for the murder that shocked Britain and Nigeria.
She and her husband Richard said the North Peckham estate, where her son died last November, was dominated by violent gangs that extorted protection money from children and from parents desperate to prevent their children becoming victims.
The Taylors said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph
newspaper that a climate of fear was preventing the killers
from being prosecuted.
Detectives who tried to coax information from people were being met by a wall of silence.
"They withdraw," said Mrs Taylor. "When you find a parent who knows something they won't say anything more."
Mr Taylor, who works as a civil servant in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said: "Realising the gravity of the crime, people should be courageous and speak to the police."
Police have arrested 14 teenagers and one adult in connection with the murder but none has been charged. Detectives have let it be known that they believe they know who carried out the murder but they do not have enough evidence.
Damilola's mother said she believed her son had been targeted by his killers.
"I don't believe it was a random attack," she said.
"What is being said is that there is a protection racket.
Parents are giving their children money to pay the gang to
prevent them from beating them.
"Damilola never carried money, he did not need to, so he had nothing to give them."
Damilola, who was on his way home after attending a computer club, died from a stab wound to his leg.
Mrs Taylor added: "This gang believes that they won't be touched, that they can go on doing what they are doing. They
are going on the streets and boasting that they did it."
- Reuters
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