Damilola Taylor's father: We don’t have ten years to tackle knife crime, too many children will die

Damilola was 10 when he bled to death in a stairwell on a Peckham estate in 2000
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The father of Damilola Taylor today hit out at Sadiq Khan for saying it will take 10 years to end London’s knife crime epidemic.

Richard Taylor branded the Mayor’s claim “defeatist” and said it would result in more young people dying.

In an interview to mark his 70th birthday, he told the Standard it was unacceptable for the Mayor to say that tackling the scourge could take so long.

“Ten years? That means the black young people will all die if this continues in London,” he said. “A generation of 13 to 25-year-olds will not be there in 10 years if we wait to fix it.”

Richard Taylor, father of murdered schoolboy Damilola
Lucy Young

Twenty-two teenagers are among 126 homicide victims in the capital so far this year.

Damilola was 10 when he bled to death in a stairwell on a Peckham estate in 2000 after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle.

His father said: “We must treat knife crime as an act of terror, unleashing every available resource to prevent further loss of life — just like we do when there’s a London Bridge or Westminster Bridge attack.

“It’s not a question of 10 years like the Mayor was saying. It is a defeatist reaction. We have to nip the bud. All of us, our hands have to be on deck.”

‘I want to share time I have with my family’

 

Richard Taylor says he is spending more time at home in Nigeria to be with relatives from his extended family.

He lost his wife Gloria in 2008 when she was aged 57. The couple had dedicated themselves to combating gang violence.

Mr Taylor said: “I have to show grace to the Almighty God that I have attended this age of 70. After Damilola died, I did not believe I would have lasted this long. I thought I would have died from a broken heart. It’s an opportunity for me to believe in the future. I want to share the joy of what I have left of my life with my extended family in Lagos. It’s good to get away and spend time with the children of my brothers and sisters. They want to know the story of Damilola and Richard Taylor. Damilola would be 30 next year, a fine young man with a family of his own. He dreamt of becoming a doctor.”

He added: “The police are doing their best. But young people are carrying knives because they are angry, or for their own protection.

“This postcode war, the volume of drugs fuelling gang battles, together with less police funding. It’s a deadly mix. Most of these young people have mental health issues. They’re on cannabis and cocaine.”

Mr Khan has launched an initiative to cut violent crime based on the public health approach pioneered in Glasgow, which the Evening Standard called for

But after five fatal stabbings in a week from October 31, the Mayor said “to really make significant progress can take up to 10 years, a generation”.

The Mayor also blamed police cuts, saying they had cost the Met 6,000 officers.

Mr Taylor supports the police using stop and search more — although the tactic is controversial as black people are nine times more likely to be stopped than white people.

He said: “Stop and search should be increased. It should be done humanely, not the way we have witnessed the police doing it in the past. It can be done with dignity to make us all safer and repair the relationship between the police and young people.”

Latest figures show black males under 25 are disproportionately the victims and offenders in London knife crime.

Mr Taylor also called on Mr Khan to close or reform London’s 58 pupil referral units, attended by 3,206 children excluded from mainstream schools. A recent Home Office report warned that drug gangs often prey on the units to groom youngsters as dealers.

Mr Taylor said: “I’ve been to see a number of pupil referral units. They are a waste of resources. The pupils’ lives are made worse in the units. The very people they are running away from are there waiting. At the end of the day, they go out and try to kill themselves or end up in prison.”

In response to Mr Taylor’s comments, a spokesman for the Mayor said the reasons violent crime was rising “are complex and years in the making”.

He added: “That is why Sadiq has set up a Violence Reduction Unit, building on the work already started at City Hall on a London-wide public health approach to tackling all forms of violence.

"But we need to be honest with Londoners - this approach will not deliver results overnight. It is a long-term strategy which took a decade to reduce violent crime in Scotland.

“We have to be clear that we could go much further and much faster with greater national investment. The Met Police alone have endured unforgiving Government cuts forcing them to make £1bn of savings, whilst London’s council youth services have lost at least £39m from their budgets. What we are seeing now is the devastating consequences of those cuts.”

Mr Taylor, who was given an OBE, leads the Damilola Taylor Trust, which seeks to steer young people away from crime. The trust’s offshoot in Lagos, Nigeria, the Damilola Taylor Foundation, continues its work in Africa.

Damilola arrived in Britain three months before he died. He came with his mother, elder sister Gbemi and brother Tunde to get treatment for Gbemi’s epilepsy.

Mr Taylor remained in Lagos, where he worked, but dashed to the UK after his son’s death and was seen by TV viewers collapsing in grief at the scene.

He spoke to the Standard after an event organised by London churches at Southwark Cathedral last week to discuss blade violence. Next year, Tunde will marry at the cathedral.

Police and forensic bungles meant it was not until 2006, after three trials, that Danny and Ricky Preddie, 12 and 13 at the time of Damilola’s death, got eight years for his manslaughter.

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