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Schoolboy stabbed to death in London
A schoolboy has been stabbed to death in north London, becoming the thirty-second teenager to be murdered in Britain this year.
- The Daily Telegraph
- Published: 23:41 June 29, 2008
London: A schoolboy has been stabbed to death in north London, becoming the thirty-second teenager to be murdered in Britain this year.
The victim, named locally as Ben Kinsella, was out with a friend at a pub in Islington when he was attacked in the street at around 2am on Sunday.
Police believe that the white 18-year-old boy, who sat his A Levels this year and was awaiting the results, possibly got involved in an argument with a group of black youths on the street near Shillibeers pub.
Detectives are investigating whether it was a racially motivated attack but are keeping an "open mind" about the motive at this stage.
The boy's head teacher at Holloway School, Bob Hamlyn, has paid tribute to Ben and his family.
He said: "They are a lovely family and they are very supportive at school. He was a bright kid, very high achieving academically and would have had some very good results to look forward to this summer.
"He was also very sporty and had everything to live for but that has been taken away from him now." Among the mourners who turned up to pay tribute to the murdered teenager was Birds of a Feather actress Linda Robson.
She went through the police cordon to lay flowers at the scene where the teenager was attacked.
The teenager's death, the 17th youngster to be murdered in London this year alone, comes amid a high-profile clampdown on knife crime by Scotland Yard.
Hamlyn said: "It's 17 deaths too many. People know what they have to do, they have to stop carrying the knives and put them away."
Police have arrested two young males in connection with the murder. They have taped off the area around York Way and are searching for the murder weapon.
Ben's death follows the funerals last week of two other recent victims - Rob Knox, 18, an actor who had a part in the new Harry Potter film, and Jimmy Mizen, a 16-year-old altar boy who was stabbed in the neck with a shard of glass at a bakery near his home in Lee, south east London.
Meanwhile, the body of murdered schoolgirl Arsema Dawit was taken back to her African family last week and buried in a ceremony on an ancient hillside in Eritrea. Thousands wept in prayer at her grave.
A series of programmes on knife and gun crime in Britain is being screened this week.
The Channel 4 Disarming Britain season will include a documentary fronted by Dr Tunje Lasoye, Head of Accident and Emergency in London's Kings College Hospital, who believes a surge in extreme violence is nothing short of a health emergency.
He reveals that in his hospital he has seen the number of young people coming in with knife and gun wounds steadily rising - and the average age of the victim and perpetrator falling.
Dr Lasoye says: "We cannot be a society that lives in fear any more - we shouldn't allow that to happen. What is the impact on youngsters? I talk to youngsters all the time who are mindful that their classmates carry knives - what psychological scars are being done to them?"
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