THE CRIME THAT 120 BRITISH DETECTIVES COULD NOT SOLVE

Read the first article below and then read the much more revealing short article following. Bear in mind that the over-riding qualification for being a British policeman these days is political correctness. The real police of the past who have not yet got out of the force are rarely in charge of anything significant now. The vastly bungled operation which ended up with the killing of an innocent Brazilian electrician by London police was led by an outspoken Lesbian -- and you can't get much more politically correct than that

After six years and three trials, Gloria and Richard Taylor finally saw justice done for their son Damilola yesterday when two brothers were convicted of killing the ten-year-old boy. The couple walked from the Old Bailey leaving Danny and Ricky Preddie, two teenage street robbers with a long history of violence, facing possible life sentences after being found guilty of manslaughter.

The jury took little more than six hours to reach their verdict. Damilola bled to death after being stabbed in the thigh with a broken bottle on a South London street in November 2000. Yesterday, as the verdicts were announced, Ricky Preddie, 19, shouted at the jury: "You are corrupt. You are nothing." His 18-year-old brother tried to calm him down but Ricky Preddie was taken out of court surrounded by a dozen prison officers. The brothers will be sentenced by Mr Justice Goldring this month.

Throughout the commotion Mrs and Mrs Taylor sat quietly at the back of the court. They have attended almost every day of the three different trials surrounding their son's death. Yesterday, as he left court, Mr Taylor said: "No verdict can return our son to us. It is a great comfort that justice has finally been done for Damilola. We pray his gentle soul can now rest in peace."

The case has cost an estimated 16 million pounds and left question marks over the efficiency of the once highly respected Forensic Science Service. Within an hour of the verdicts the Home Office announced a review by a QC into the service and how key bloodstains, which should have convicted the two brothers five years ago, were missed. Commander Dave Johnston, the head of Scotland Yard's murder teams, said: "I am dismayed the evidence has not been found sooner. Clearly the forensic issues raised will cause us to look at other cases."

Neither the Taylors nor the police know why Damilola died. One of his friends told police that he thought Danny Preddie may have come off worse in a fight with Damilola, who had come to Britain only a few months earlier from Nigeria. Detectives believe that Damilola was surrounded by a gang of youths in Blakes Road, Peckham, as he made his way home from an after-school club at Peckham library.

A small green beer bottle was broken, leaving a shard of glass which was used to "juk" (stab) Damilola in his left thigh.

The Preddies were prime suspects and they were the first to be arrested. Danny Preddie should have been on a supervised 24-hour curfew. His brother was being supervised by the local social services. But the brothers, who were 12 and 13 at the time, were released without charge because there was not enough evidence.

More here

A real cop gets results:

The conviction of Damilola Taylor's killers is a triumph for a detective who understood that only science could pierce the wall of silence around them. In November 2000 Detective Superintendent Nick Ephgrave had been a senior officer in Peckham for four years. He knew the estate where Damilola died and he knew of the Preddie brothers.

But within hours of Damilola's death the case had been assigned to a murder squad of 120 detectives as Scotland Yard tried to atone for the failures of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Mr Ephgrave could only look on as the investigation foundered on a lack of credible evidence. Two years later, the day after the first trial ended, he was placed in charge of a new investigation.

Having worked as a medical physicist before joining the police, Mr Ephgrave hoped forensic science advances might supply a breakthrough and, in March 2004, he received the results he had been looking for: a laboratory confirmed that blood stains on a shoe and a shirt belonging to the Preddie brothers were from Damilola. "I was extremely surprised, pleased and apprehensive at the same time," Mr Ephgrave said. "That was the point when I could go to the Taylor family and say, `We have the beginnings of a case here'."

Report here

So a crime that 120 dumb political police could not solve was rapidly busted wide open by just one scientifically aware local policeman



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)





(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)

  ¶ 10:13 AM