The dilemma facing Damilola jury

By Chris Summers
BBC News

Three youths have been acquitted of murdering Damilola Taylor but the jury has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict on a manslaughter charge against two of them. Why did the puzzle prove so hard to solve?

DAMILOLA CHRONOLOGY 27 November 2000: Damilola Taylor found bleeding to death in a stairwell 25 April 2002: Two brothers, both 16, found not guilty of murder, manslaughter and conspiracy to rob. Two other defendants earlier acquitted on orders of judge after questions were raised about evidence of witness "Bromley". 9 December 2002: Report says mistakes were made, but CPS was right to bring case to trial January 2005: Three youths arrested and eventually charged with murder January 2006: The three go on trial at the Old Bailey 3 April 2006: Hassan Jihad acquitted of all charges 4 April 2006: The two other defendants cleared of murder; jury discharged after failing to reach manslaughter verdict Map of his final journey

It is extremely rare for different people to be put on trial for the same murder.

While retrials are not uncommon - the case of Sion Jenkins is a perfect example - they usually involve the same defendants.

None of the three youths in the dock in Court 12 for the second Damilola Taylor trial had been tried for his murder before.

Because two of the defendants could not be named for legal reasons, some casual observers may have thought they were the same unnamed juveniles who were cleared in the first trial.

But they were not and therein lay the problem for the prosecution - a problem exploited by Orlando Pownall QC and the other defence lawyers.

Opening the case for his client, who was 12 at the time of Damilola's death, the erudite Mr Pownall told the jury: "Everybody recognises that you are considering the case under the scrutiny of the media and those who are, and were, close to the deceased Damilola Taylor.

"There is understandable and natural pressure for the identification of those responsible for the death of a young boy who in November 2000 had only recently come to this country.

'Pressure'

"That pressure is doubly acute because the first time the Crown chose to charge four defendants they were acquitted."

Mr Pownall called several witnesses who had been called by the prosecution at the original trial in 2002.

He said: "The reason they were called was to prove (my client) was innocent and the four individuals on trial were guilty."

Damilola's parents Richard and Gloria sat at the back of the court

In effect he was saying the prosecution could not have it both ways.

They had originally said defendants A, B, C and D were guilty. And now they were trying to say that they had got it wrong and it was actually X, Y and Z who were guilty.

One of these witnesses was social worker Sharon Nedrick, who had worked at the hostel in Bermondsey where Mr Pownall's client was living, under a 24-hour curfew, on 27 November 2000.

Difficulties

She said it was unlikely he could have left the building at the time Damilola was killed without anyone realising.

Jurors on both trials faced similar problems. The evidence against the defendants was largely circumstantial and many of the prosecution witnesses' claims that the accused had made confessions to them came apart under cross-examination.

There was also a complete absence of eyewitnesses.

All that is known is that this broken beer bottle caused Damilola's death

Both juries also must have had it in the back of their minds that Damilola's death could have been an accident.

This was mooted in the first trial, and at the second trial an extremely experienced medical expert lent it added credibility.

Alastair Wilson, the associate clinical director at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, and founder of the capital's air ambulance service, had clearly seen hundreds of glass injuries in his career.

So when he told the court he believed Damilola had died after falling onto a shard of glass it must have been quite persuasive, no matter how hard the prosecutor, Victor Temple QC, sought to undermine it.

Mr Justice Leveson, who successfully prosecuted serial killer Rose West, rejected barrister Elizabeth Marsh's request to have the charges against her client, Hassan Jihad, thrown out.

'Put aside sympathy'

He decided to leave the ultimate decision to the jury but he told them to put aside any sympathy for the victim and prejudices against the defendants.

He told them: "Put aside any sympathy you might have for Damilola, whose life was cut short, and for his family who had to cope with the terrible loss of their son, the first investigation and trial and now this second trial and investigation.

There is understandable anxiety to discover what caused Damilola's death but do not be over-awed by the level of press and public interest or the gravity of the charges Mr Justice Leveson

"There is understandable anxiety to discover what caused Damilola's death but do not be over-awed by the level of press and public interest or the gravity of the charges. Do not feel that any particular verdict is expected of you."

On Monday Mr Jihad was cleared of all charges and the following day his two co-defendants were acquitted of murder.

But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the manslaughter and was formally discharged.

So after six years and two detailed trials poring over all the available evidence Damilola's parents, Richard and Gloria are still waiting for an answer to the question of what happened to their son.

DAMILOLA TAYLOR'S FINAL JOURNEY

1: On 27 November 2000, Damilola Taylor finishes his day as normal at Oliver Goldsmith Primary School in Peckham, south London.

2: He heads to Peckham Library to attend a computer class. At about 1630 CCTV cameras capture him running and skipping as he leaves for home on the North Peckham Estate (since demolished and re-developed).

3: In Blakes Road minutes later he is either stabbed with a broken bottle or falls on broken glass. He staggers 20 yards further, leaving a trail of blood, to a block of flats.

4: At around 1645 a local man finds Damilola collapsed in a stairwell. He is taken to hospital where he dies from blood lost through a severed artery in his leg.

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