Murder of Ben Kinsella

Ben Kinsella
Ben Kinsella
Born	27 October 1991 Islington, London, England
Died	29 June 2008 (aged 16) Islington, London, England
Cause of death	Stabbing
Resting place	St Pancras and Islington Cemetery
Residence	London
Nationality	English
Education	10 GCSEs
Known for	Murder victim
Parent(s)	George and Deborah Kinsella
Relatives	Brooke Kinsella (half-sister) Jade Kinsella (half-sister) Georgia Kinsella (sister)

Brooke Kinsella (half-sister) Jade Kinsella (half-sister)

Ben Michael Kinsella (27 October 1991 – 29 June 2008) was a 16-year-old student at Holloway School. Kinsella was stabbed to death in the summer of 2008 by three black youths in Islington, London after an argument over which he was blameless. The significant media attention around his murder (the 17th stabbing death of a teenager in London during 2008) led to a series of anti-knife crime demonstrations, a raised profile for the government's anti-knife crime maxim "Operation Blunt 2" and a review of UK knife crime sentencing laws.

Kinsella was born the son of cab driver George Kinsella and his wife Deborah, a school secretary. He has a half-brother, three half-sisters and a younger full sister. Like his older half-sister Brooke Kinsella, who played Kelly Taylor in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2001 to 2004, Kinsella had been involved in acting and he had a bit part as Tyrone Dooley in a 2004 episode of The Bill. He was a popular and academically gifted student. Friends spoke of his caring and comical nature, adding he was "full of energy" and that he was "the life and soul of his class".

Before his death, Kinsella had become concerned about knife crime after being threatened whilst working part-time at Zebedee's Cafe in Islington, where he prevented the theft of a mountain bike. He wrote a letter to the UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown as part of his English GCSE coursework, urging him to stamp out knife crime and suggesting parenting classes, curfews and youth clubs as possible solutions. The letter was later forwarded to Brown by his family. He had also written a creative writing piece in which he imagined his own death from stabbing.

...
Wikipedia