Damilola Taylor

On 27 November 2000, ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was killed in London, in what became one of the United Kingdom's most high-profile killings. Two brothers – who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing – were convicted of manslaughter in 2006.

Damilola Taylor Damilola Taylor Born Damilola Olufemi Taylor 7 December 1989 Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria Died 27 November 2000 (aged 10) Peckham, London, England Cause of death Stabbing Nationality Nigerian Occupation Student Known for Stabbing victim Parent(s) Richard Taylor (father; died 2024) Gloria Taylor (mother; died 2008) Damilola Olufemi Taylor was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Richard and Gloria Taylor,[1] both from the Yoruba ethnic group.[2] He attended Wisdom Montessori School in Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos before he travelled to the United Kingdom in August 2000 with his family to seek treatment for his sister's epilepsy.[3]

Death At 4:51 pm on 27 November 2000, Taylor set off from Peckham Library, south east London, to walk home.[4] Approaching the North Peckham Estate, he was attacked on Blakes Road resulting in a gash to his left thigh and a severed artery. He was found in a stairwell on the estate and taken to King's College Hospital where he was pronounced dead.[5]

Trials First trial In 2002, four youths, including two 16-year-old brothers, went on trial at the Old Bailey for murder. The trial led to all four suspects being acquitted – two were acquitted on the direction of the judge after he ruled that the prosecution's key witness, a 14-year-old girl, was unreliable; and the jury found the other two not guilty.[6] As well as questioning the reliability of the witness, the defence presented expert witness testimony from Alastair Wilson, associate clinical director at the Royal London Hospital, that Taylor's wounds were consistent with having fallen on a broken bottle whilst being attacked. This was disputed by the prosecution, who argued that Taylor would have had to "take off and fly through the air like Peter Pan" in order for Wilson's theory to be correct. Wilson also admitted that "he had not seen Damilola's body or been given other information about the death." Pathologist Vesna Djurovic maintained that Taylor "was stabbed deliberately [with a broken bottle] in the left thigh, probably while he was on the ground