Reports to highlight flaws in Damilola trial

Damilola bled to death in a stairwell in south London

Two reports into the Damilola Taylor murder trial are expected to say fundamental changes are needed in the way murder cases are prosecuted.

The separate reviews of the case were sparked by the collapse of the murder trial.

The 10-year-old died in a stairwell on the south London Peckham estate in November 2000.

Four teenagers were charged with his murder but eventually cleared at the Old Bailey in a trial that ended in April this year.

'Mistakes'

The reviews of the investigation and prosecution are expected to highlight flaws in the way the police and the Crown Prosecution Service handled the case.

The findings of a six-month inquiry by the Bishop of Birmingham, John Sentamu, are being published on Monday, along with another report on the CPS's role by the Director of Public Prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith.

According to Sunday's Observer, the reports will say that there were mistakes in the "post-charge" process by both sides which led to the case's collapse.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens has already alluded to under-staffing in the force's murder squads as a potential factor in what went wrong in the case, and the review is also expected to highlight the limited numbers working on the inquiry once four teenagers were charged.

Last images of Damilola Taylor caught on closed circuit TV footage

The squads were under strength by between 400 and 600 officers at the time which meant that the huge Damilola inquiry could not be sustained after the four suspects had been charged.

In preparing the case, the police then failed to provide any evidence to disprove a key plank of the defence - that one of the defendant's mobile phones had been used nearly two miles away, no more than seven minutes after the stabbing.

The police missed the fact that it would have been possible for the suspect to have been at the scene of the 10-year-old's stabbing and make the call by simply taking a short cut across a park.

Interview techniques

The Bishop's review is also expected to look at the way the police interviewed their key witness - a 14-year-old girl known as Witness Bromley.

During the trial, police were heavily criticised over their interview techniques and the judge eventually threw out her evidence.

Shortly after the end of the trial the report of the police investigation was ordered, along with a second review of the CPS's involvement ordered by the attorney general to be undertaken by Mr Calvert-Smith.

Bishop Sentamu was one of three advisers to Sir William Macpherson in his inquiry into the police's handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder.

That inquiry labelled the Met "institutionally racist".

Ugandan-born Bishop Sentamu is the first black cleric among the Church's leading 44 diocesan bishops.

The then Bishop of Stepney was highly critical of police when, two years ago, he was stopped and had his car searched near St Paul's Cathedral.