Murder of Philip Lawrence

Philip Ambrose Lawrence, QGM (21 August 1947 — 8 December 1995) was a school headmaster who was stabbed to death outside the gates of his school in London, England, when he went to the aid of a pupil who was being attacked by a gang.

Lawrence was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a retired Indian Army colonel, and brought up in County Wicklow. He attended Ampleforth College and won an exhibition to read English at Queens' College, Cambridge, being awarded his BA in 1969 and his MA in 1970.

In the 1970s, he taught English at St. Benedict's School at Ealing Abbey, a Roman Catholic independent school. On 10 February 1973, he married Frances Huntley, a fellow teacher at the school; they had three daughters and a son.

Lawrence later became the Head of English at Gunnersbury Boys' School in Brentford, Deputy Headmaster at St. Mark's R.C. School, Hounslow, and later was named Headmaster of the Dick Sheppard School, a Lambeth comprehensive school. In 1993, he was appointed headmaster of St. George's Roman Catholic School, Maida Vale, regarded as a troubled school with poor exam results. He improved the academic reputation of the school, but problems with violence continued - often occurring when pupils were targeted by people from outside the school.

The Wo Shing Wo gang, which was mainly Filipino, aspired to be a junior version of the Triads. Twelve of the gang's members, led by 15-year-old Learco Chindamo, who was a pupil at another school and claimed to be a Triad member, went to St. George's school on 8 December 1995, to "punish" 13-year-old black pupil William Njoh, who had earlier quarrelled with a Filipino pupil. Lawrence saw them attack the boy with an iron bar and went outside to remonstrate with the gang. Chindamo punched Lawrence, then stabbed him in the chest; he died in hospital that evening. Chindamo was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in October 1996, after a unanimous decision by the jury, and jailed indefinitely (as he was a juvenile at the time). The trial judge recommended that a minimum of 12 years should be served.

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