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Two jailed over Damilola murder
10/10/2006 08:37 - (SA)
London - Two brothers were jailed for eight years each on Monday for the killing of Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor, after a six-year investigation marred by legal and forensic blunders.
Danny Preddie, 18, and Ricky Preddie, 19, from Peckham,
south London, were convicted in August of the manslaughter of
10-year-old Taylor who died after being stabbed in the leg with
a broken bottle.
He bled to death on the stairwell of a run-down housing
estate in November 2000, just months after arriving in the
country.
Failures
"This has been a catalogue of failures," said Damilola's
father Richard speaking outside court following the sentencing.
"Failure by the system to keep these young people in school
and off the streets from committing crime, failure by their
mentors to give them good direction, failure by those in charge
to control them, failure by the authorities to catch them
sooner."
The Preddie brothers, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the
killing, had both denied manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
Cleared of murder
But Justice John Goldring said during sentencing: "Each of
you was closely involved in the attack. The victim, who must
have been bleeding profusely, was simply left to die."
He said he could not jail the pair, who have convictions for
crimes like robbery and assault, for longer because they had
been cleared of murder and because of their age at the time of
Damilola's death.
Both were handcuffed for fear of a repeat of the outbursts
that marked their conviction.
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