Hope 2020 is making real change in real time

Whether it’s journalists, police, politicians, youth workers or teachers, society needs to work harder and longer supporting young people as a fitting legacy to Damilola.

IT WAS my first reporting shift at a national newspaper – and a day so distressing I’ll never forget it.

I was walking through the newsroom, when suddenly every TV flickered into action. Reporters huddled together, some wept.

Ten-year-old Damilola Taylor’s father Richard was breaking down having seen the filthy stairwell where his stabbed son bled to death on the notorious North Peckham estate.

Nigerian civil servant Richard had sent his family to London for a new and better life.

But Damilola, who dreamt of becoming a doctor, ran up against an old foe – thuggery born and bred in the capital.

I had the pleasure of becoming Richard’s friend over the last 20 years since our first interview.

Admittedly, there have been more lows that highs for this incomparable man.

Blunders by police and forensic experts meant Damilola’s killers escaped justice for six years. In 2008, his beloved wife Gloria died aged 57 of a broken heart.

But Richard continued to campaign for changes in the justice system through the Damilola Taylor Trust, which also provides youngsters from inner-city areas an opportunity to play and learn free of fear and violence.

The Spirt of London Awards, which began in 2009, celebrates youngsters’ positive achievements in the community. Celebrities and politicians have queued up to hail the vast majority who don’t grab the headlines for all the wrong reasons.  

It is fitting on the 20th anniversary of Damilola’s death, that Hope 2020 is making real change in real time.

Whether it’s journalists, police, politicians, youth workers or teachers, society needs to work harder and longer supporting young people as a fitting legacy to Damilola.   

Anthony France – Evening Standard Crime Correspondent

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