The soul of Master Damilola Taylor, the 10-year-old Nigerian murdered in London three years ago may now rest in peace as two teenage Britons were finally found guilty of killing him.

After a six-year investigation marred by legal and forensic blunders, Danny Preddie, 18, and Ricky Preddie, 19, from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of Taylor who died after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle. He bled to death on the stairwell of a run-down housing estate in November 2000, just months after arriving in the country.

CCTV footage played on television after his death showed a happy boy skipping home from the library, moments before he died. The Preddie brothers, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing, had both denied manslaughter at the Old Bailey. They will be sentenced in two weeks.

As the verdicts were read out, Ricky Preddie shouted to the jury: "You are corrupt, you are nothing."
The judge, Mr. Justice Goldring, told security guards to "take him away" and he was led from court still shouting and swearing. Taylor's parents, Richard and Gloria, said it was a "great comfort that justice has finally been done for Damilola".

"We pray that his gentle soul can now rest in peace," they added in a statement read outside court by Richard Taylor. The verdicts came after three high-profile trials and a long and difficult investigation by London police.

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 witness, a teenage girl known as "Bromley", who was labeled a fantasist by the defense.

The Preddie brothers, who had been on bail at the time of the killing, were amongst the first suspects to be arrested for the crime in the weeks after the attack, but they were later released without charge.
They were only re-arrested after new forensic evidence came to light. Blood traces found on the suspects' clothing, had been missed at the time of the killing by the Home Office's Forensic Science Service.
Detective Superintendent Nick Ephgrave, who took over the running of the investigation at the end of the first trial, asked a different laboratory, run by private firm Forensic Alliance, to re-examine all the items in the case.

The lab found that a bloodstain on a shoe, easily visible to the human eye, had been missed along with blood drops and fibers on the suspects' other clothes.
The Preddie brothers were cleared of murdering Taylor by a jury in April, but a retrial was ordered after that jury failed to reach a verdict on the lesser manslaughter charges.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates described the case as a "painful episode" for the Metropolitan Police. The police investigation alone into the killing has cost almost 4 million pounds.
"It is important that the answers are found as to how this forensic evidence was missed," said Commander Dave Johnston, Head of Homicide and Serious Crime at the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crimes Directorate.

"We are of course concerned that the new forensic evidence heard in this trial was not available for the first investigation and sympathize with the anguish that this may have caused those affected," he said.
The government has ordered an independent inquiry into what went wrong.
Home Office Minister Joan Ryan said a senior lawyer and a forensic scientist would report in the autumn.
Police and prosecutors also heaped praise on the courage and dignity of Taylor's parents who have ceaselessly campaigned to bring their son's killers to justice. "They have suffered enormously," said Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Tony Connell. "I hope they can now begin the slow process of recovery."

yea Good News , i always bump into his dad at the underground always lost for words


why is this under racism,tribalism. . . ?

Finally, the soul of Damilola Taylor will rest in peace. This is because, the perpetrators of the gruesome murder of the Nigerian in Peckham, London on 27 November 2000 have been brought to book. On Monday 9 October, six years after the death of the 10-year-old school boy, a jury of six men and six women at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London found two teenage brothers guilty of the offence. Danny Preddie, 18, and Ricky Preddie, 19, from Peckham, South London were both sentenced to eight years imprisonment each for the manslaughter of Taylor, who bled to death after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle.

http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1689

These murderers were sentenced to just 8 yrs imprisonment?!

^^8 YEARS THATS IT?

Well everything happens for a reason. There might be a blade waiting for them when they are released!

(Lord please forgive me! )

MzDarkSkin:

^^8 YEARS THATS IT?

Well everything happens for a reason. There might be a blade waiting for them when they are released!

(Lord please forgive me! )

Lol dont wish bad unto others

All these ghettos Nigerians live in abroad.
Will cost you your life.

Nigggers'-villles.

You all need to move to 'Hunkysborough' please. Like "The Jeffersons".