Boy charged with murder
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Times Online
The gang, known as Thug Fam, has members at the
Early today a 16-year-old boy arrested late on Friday was charged with his murder.
The gang, which is dominated by Somalis but also includes youths of other races, is based at the
The connection between the gang and the killing of the WPC cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
A female friend of Kiyan, who is also a pupil at the school in Edgware, said students were “petrified” of the Thug Fam gang, which is said to have between 15 and 20 members in the area, most older than 16.
The girl, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said: “There used to be about seven members of the Thug Fam gang who went to the
Kiyan was allegedly stabbed after intervening in a fight between two boys, one a close friend.
Yesterday the friend, whose family is from
The group then walked out of the school’s back gate to the spot near a block of flats where Kiyan bled to death in front of a crowd of his classmates, telling them: “Don’t let me die.”
Kiyan’s father Mark was among the group clutching an Arsenal shirt — Kiyan’s favourite team — and had to be supported as he wept. At one point he said: “I don’t want this. There has been enough.”
The family lingered at the scene for about 30 minutes.
One girl said: “Kiyan’s friend is devastated. He is grieving for his friend but he also knows that Kiyan died trying to save him and that makes it unbearable.”
Kiyan, a tall, muscular boy, was a youth team player for Queens Park Rangers and was about to go on a tour to
Born in Tottenham, north
Phil Hearne, principal at the academy, insisted this weekend that the school did not have a problem with gang culture, but residents said there was a serious problem with warring factions in the area.
“They use a derelict garage to meet clients,” he said. “People are terrified to come out and tell people what really goes on here. I’ve lived here for over 20 years and I know what goes on. There is a lot of intimidation and fear. The school has been informed many times about the problems.”
Riyaz Gadatara, 25, a football coach who knew Kiyan, said he was concerned about young children being recruited into Thug Fam. “It is possible that kids in the school will see this gang as glamorous,” he said. “There needs to be a lot of work done to tackle knife and gun culture in Barnet, but also in every borough of the country.”
He added: “There’s no point talking to the police, teachers or parents about what’s going on. I speak to the kids themselves about knife and gun culture and there is definitely a problem. There are some kids afraid to leave their homes sometimes.”
Governors at the school, relaunched in 2004 as one of the government’s flagship city academies, denied any knowledge of a gang presence at the school. It draws its pupils from some of the most deprived areas in the country with more than a third speaking foreign languages. It has nevertheless made good academic progress, a recent Ofsted report shows.
Martin Paisner, a solicitor and governor of the London Academy, said he was concerned that the killing should not reflect on the school and denied there was a significant problem with pupil behaviour.
“This kind of adverse publicity is damaging and wrong and unfair,” he said. “Yes, somebody was stabbed outside the school but these things can happen in any part of London at any time. It is not a reflection on the school.”
It also emerged yesterday that police were first alerted to the stabbing through the presence at the school of a sergeant attending a meeting to promote “safer neighbourhoods”.
Despite his efforts to administer first aid at the scene, and the use of an air ambulance to take Kiyan to the Royal London hospital, the boy could not be resuscitated and was declared dead just before 6pm.
Police said last night that they were still looking for a weapon.
Kiyan’s death comes as the government is making efforts to crack down on the growth of knife crime. Home Office figures for England and Wales show the number of people arrested for possessing an offensive weapon other than a gun have risen by 46% to 35,727 in the past five years.
Knives are a common weapon in this category and 29% of the 820 murders last year were carried out using a sharp instrument.
There were 12,211 knife offences in London, including murder, serious assault, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon. Robbery and assault accounted for the largest proportion of offences.
It contains measures to increase from 16 to 18 the age at which a person can be sold a knife and to give powers to teachers to search pupils for offensive weapons.
Detective Chief Inspector Keith Perkin, who works on the knife crime advisory team for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “We could have a message that a knife amnesty will reduce knife crime, but you and I and any members of the public know that’s not going to happen. A knife amnesty, per se, will not reduce knife crime. It is a marketing tactic and it raises awareness.”
Fear of knife crime rose further when a 15-year-old schoolboy was stabbed in Bexley, southeast London, on Friday night. A 16-year-old youth was being questioned.
Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, said he planned to write to the home secretary and the lord chancellor demanding maximum jail sentences for those convicted of carrying or using knives.
Source: TIMES ONLINE, May 21, 2006
