Hunt for expelled boy as school mourns stab victim

Detectives investigating the murder of 15-year-old Kiyan Prince, a popular
pupil and member of Queens Park Rangers’ youth team, are hunting a fellow pupil
who had been excluded from the dead boy’s school, the London Academy, a week
earlier, according to one parent.

“They kicked him out a week before his GCSE exams,” said Sade Howell,

whose
son was a friend of Kiyan’s. “What we understand is that this boy came to the
school looking for another pupil. He started having a go at him and Kiyan
stepped in to stop the fight.” The boy being sought, originally from Somalia,
was in the year above Kiyan, she added.

Kiyan, a
teacher’s son, who lived near the school in Edgware, north London, was described
by Gianni Paladini, the chairman of Queens Park Rangers football club as “one of
our brightest young talents”. He had been due to go on a youth tour to Germany
next month and was to have received a footballing award yesterday.

Senior police officers said yesterday that the murder, the latest in a spate
of fatal stabbings, could lead to schools adopting airport-style security
checks. Alan Johnson, the education secretary, also added his weight to the
calls for action against young people carrying knives.

Kiyan was stabbed twice, once in the arm and once in the stomach, in the
fight outside Stamford Court, a block of flats near the north London school at
about 3.30pm on Thursday. Police cordons were still in place yesterday around
the garden of the tower block and an intensive search was being carried out at a
nearby McDonald’s drive-in restaurant, where officers believe the weapon was
discarded.

On a day which should have been dedicated to preparing for GCSEs, distraught
teenagers stood in clusters outside the school, hugging each other and chatting
about their friend yesterday. A steady stream of schoolchildren, some from
neighbouring comprehensives, filed up the path to the London Academy throughout
the day to lay flowers at a makeshift shrine to the popular pupil.

A felt tip message on a schoolshirt that was hung above the bouquets read:
RIP Kiyan 1991-2006 from the Copthall Chicks.

Barry Harriman, whose 14-year-old son Michael was a QPR youth teammate,
described Kiyan as “a fantastic player and a fantastic person”. During the day,
headteacher Phil Hearne, who has turned the school from a failing comprehensive
into one of the top 5% in the country, attempted to console mourning students
and teachers. “We’ve got children sitting in corners either in tears or
comforting someone in tears,” he said.

The dead boy’s sister, Tannisa Prince, 18, spent the morning in school, but
left in tears shortly after midday. She was supported by friends and driven home
to her mother, Tracy Cumberbatch.

The stabbing came as the Home Office was about to launch a crackdown on youth
knife crime following a survey by the Youth Justice Board showing that up to
60,000 11-16-year-olds had carried knives in the past year.

Chief Superintendent Mark Ricketts, borough commander for Barnet, said
yesterday that the attack could lead to schools needing airport-style security
checks. But that may not have prevented Kiyan’s murder. Witnesses said that the
Somali boy sought by police had been expelled.

Mehdi Hasshim, 18, a friend of the pupil being sought, said: “I have known
him most of my life. He was expelled earlier this month but I never thought he
would do something like this. I have seen him change throughout the years. It is
the people he hangs out with. Gangs and stuff.”

Another sixth-former, Ardeshir Sarfi, said the alleged attacker was known by
most people at the school. He said: “This is a real surprise.”

Police said yesterday they had stepped up patrols in the Edgware area but
knife crime had not previously been a big problem. The stabbing comes a week
after Special Constable Nisha Patel-Nasri was stabbed to death outside her home
in Wembley, north-west London.