Brothers Guilty of Damilola Taylor Killing as Evangelicals Offer Prayers

|PIC1|Two teenagers were found guilty on Wednesday of killing 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, after an exhausting six-year investigation finally ended with justice for his family.

The nation watched with horror as legal and forensic blunders hindered the investigation for more than half of the past decade.

Brothers Danny Preddie, 18, and Ricky Preddie, 19, both from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of the boy, originally from Nigeria, who died after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle.

Rev N J Sterling, Chair of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA) Trustee Board, said, “At long last the process of closure can be brought to bear to this protracted and very sad event. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr & Mrs Taylor for their bravery and courageous endurance during what must have been an extremely stressful period. It must have felt like one long night that would not end.

“We also have in our thoughts the parents and relatives of the young men who have been found guilty of this hideous crime and trust they will receive the support they also will need to cope with the situation."

|QUOTE|R. David Muir, Director of Public Policy at the Evangelical Alliance added, “As someone who was closely involved in the case and in supporting Damilola's family, I am pleased with the outcome of this verdict. Nothing can bring Damilola back to his family, but his parents Gloria and Richard can take comfort in the knowledge that those who brutally took their son's life are behind bars.”

In November 2000, Damilola Taylor died in the stairwell of a run-down housing estate after the Preddie brothers attacked him with a broken bottle. He had only been in the country for a few months.

Following the murder, CCTV footage was released on television showing him skipping home from the library just minutes before he died.

The Preddie brothers, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing, denied manslaughter, but, following the guilty verdict, will be sentenced in two weeks time.

|TOP|As the verdicts were read out, Ricky Preddie shouted abuse to the jury, and the judge, Mr Justice Goldring, told security guards to “take him away” and he was led from court still shouting and swearing.

Four other youths were originally charged with Taylor's murder but were cleared at a trial in 2002 that collapsed after the judge dismissed the evidence of the key teenage girl witness.

The Preddie brothers, who were on bail at the time of the killing, were among the first suspects to be arrested for the crime in the weeks after the attack, but oversight by police investigators saw them later released without charge.

The arrests which finally led to their convictions were only possible after new forensic evidence came to light. This evidence, found on the suspects' clothing, had been missed at the time of the killing by the forensic scientists dealing with the case.

|AD|Only when Detective Superintendent Nick Ephgrave, who took over the running of the investigation at the end of the first trial, asked a separate laboratory run by private firm Forensic Alliance, to re-examine all the items in the case that the new vital information was found.

The lab found that a bloodstain on a shoe, easily visible to the human eye, had been missed along with blood drops and fibres on the suspects' other clothes.

The Preddie brothers were declared innocent of murdering Taylor by a jury in April, but a retrial was ordered after that jury failed to reach a verdict on the charges of manslaughter.

The police investigation into the killing has cost almost £4 million, and the government has ordered an independent inquiry into what went wrong and why essential evidence was missed during the original investigation.

The African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance and the Evangelical Alliance joined police in praising the courage and dignity of Taylor's parents who have campaigned tirelessly and never lost hope in bringing their son's killers to justice.