Death of Damilola Taylor
| Date | 27 November 2000 |
|---|---|
| Location | Peckham, London, England |
| Suspect(s) | Ricky Preddie, Danny Preddie |
| Charges | Manslaughter |
| Verdict | Guilty |
| Convictions | Manslaughter |
| Damilola Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Damilola Taylor 7 December 1989 Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria |
| Died | 27 November 2000 (aged 10) Peckham, London, England |
| Cause of death | Stabbing |
| Residence | London, England, UK |
| Nationality | Nigerian British |
| Citizenship | Nigerian, British |
| Occupation | Student |
| Known for | Murder victim |
| Parent(s) | Richard Taylor (father) Gloria Taylor (mother; died of heart attack) |
Damilola Taylor (7 December 1989 – 27 November 2000) was a ten-year-old schoolboy who died in England in what became one of the country's most high-profile killings. Several young boys were cleared of murder charges after a lengthy trial, and later two brothers were convicted of manslaughter.
Damilola Taylor was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to Richard and Gloria Taylor (died 8 April 2008). He attended Wisdom Montessori School, Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos, before he traveled to the United Kingdom in August 2000 with his family to allow his sister Gbemi to seek treatment for epilepsy.
On 27 November 2000, Taylor set off from Peckham Library at 4:51 pm to make his way home. He was captured on CCTV as he walked away. On approaching the North Peckham Estate he received a gash to his left thigh. Running to a stairwell, he collapsed and bled to near death in the space of approximately 30 minutes. He was still alive in an ambulance on his way to hospital.
Different forensic scientists have presented different events that could have given Taylor his fatal wounds. The theory accepted by the Metropolitan Police is that he was attacked and fell on a broken bottle, later bleeding to death. He died 10 days before his 11th birthday.
In 2002, four youths, including two 16-year-old brothers, went on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of Damilola. The trial led to all four suspects being acquitted. Two were acquitted on the direction of the judge after he ruled that the prosecution's key witness, a 14-year-old girl, was unreliable; the jury found the other two not guilty. As well as questioning the reliability of the young witness, the defence presented evidence suggesting that Taylor's wounds were consistent with his falling on a broken bottle and that he had not been the victim of an attack.
Despite the setback, police vowed to keep the investigation open. New DNA techniques identified Damilola's blood on the trainers of another suspect (not one of the first four suspects) Danny Preddie and on the sweatshirt cuff of his brother Ricky Preddie. This led to a re-examination of the evidence obtained at the time of Taylor's death. In 2005, fresh arrests were made, this time on charges of manslaughter. The arrested were Hassan Jihad, 19, and the two Preddie brothers aged 16 and 17 who could not be named at the time due to their age.
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