Boy Arrested By London Police for the Murder of a Ghanaian Teenager
July 19, 2008
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested at his home in Brixton early Friday morning and is being held in police custody for the stabbing to death of a Ghanaian teenager, Frederick Moody on the streets of Lambeth, in south London.
The 18-year-old Moody is the fifth teenager to be fatally stabbed to death in the capital in less than a month; and the 21st teenager to have been brutally murdered in London this year alone.
Police said he was found with stab wounds to the stomach in Lambeth, South London, at around 7pm on Thursday and died before arriving at hospital.
Moody’s death came less than 48 hours after the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a crackdown that could see more people jailed for carrying knives.
PM Brown’s statement follows official Home Office figures showing one person is the victim of knife crime every four minutes in the United Kingdom.
“The message that you have got to get across from the earliest years in school is that you are not safe with a knife, you are less safe, and if more people carry knives the whole community is not safe,” Brown said.
Neighbors near the scene of the latest stabbing, in Guildford Road around 300 yards from Stockwell Tube Station, said they had thought they were living in a safe area.
Edward Skurfield, 19, said: “I have lived here for three years and my friend has lived here for 11 years and we have not heard of any knife crime in that time in this area. It is so upsetting because people keep dying.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We were called to Guildford Road in South Lambeth at 7.05pm on Thursday to reports of an assault in progress.
“A youth, believed to be in his late teens, was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead at 8.15pm.
Police say Friday that: “A murder inquiry is underway”.
Source African Press Agency
Ghanaian Nightclub is closed after five people are stabbed. Councillor speaks out after revellers are hurt on violent weekend. A TOTAL of five people were stabbed over the weekend prompting Islington councillors to suspend the licence of a Holloway Road nightclub.Manjaro’s nightclub, near Highbury Corner, was the scene of two separate stabbings which police believe were linked. The first incident took place in the early hours of Saturday and the second on Sunday. Three men were attacked in the first incident and two people stabbed in the second. At an urgent meeting of the council’s licensing committee on Monday, councillors agreed a request from the Metropolitan Police to suspend the club’s licence which means it cannot open for the next 20 days. Councillor Stefan Kasprzyk, the Lib Dem chairman of Islington’s licensing committee, said: “This council will not tolerate knife crime in our borough and we have acted quickly to stop the problems at this club.“Residents tell us that knife crime is one of their top concerns. The suspension of Manjaro’s licence shows how seriously the council takes the issue of knife attacks. “We will work with the police to take whatever action is necessary to rid the borough of the scourge of people carrying knives and we will use all our available resources to help the police solve these crimes.”Two of the victims from Saturday night’s stabbing remain in hospital and the third has been discharged. Of the two men stabbed on Sunday, one is still hospital.A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the second stabbing.The club’s licence has been suspended until the council reviews it in full on May 22. Residents wishing to make representations about Manjaro’s licence should contact the council’s licensing section by May 5. Source: Islington Tribune