London’s teen murder rate is on course to be one of highest since WWII, figures show
London’s teen murder ‘pandemic’: Capital’s appalling killing rate is on course to be one of highest since WWII, figures show
- Eighteen teenagers have been killed so far this year from London knife crime
- The latest victim was a 19-year-old who was knifed to death on Friday night
- Those targeted recently have included children hunted down outside schools
More teenagers have been murdered in London this year than in the whole of 2020.
Despite police getting extra funding and resources to combat violence in the capital, the appalling teenage murder rate is on course to be one of the highest since the Second World War.
So far this year, 18 teenagers have been killed. The latest victim was a 19-year-old who was knifed to death in Sydenham, south-east London, on Friday night.
Of the murders, 16 victims were stabbed and two thirds were black.
Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, was stabbed to death on his way to school in Hayes, west London, at 8.35am on June 11
Last year the lives of 15 teenagers were lost. The worst year on record for teenage murders in the capital was 2008 when 29 were unlawfully killed.
Those targeted recently have included children hunted down outside schools and parks.
In one particularly shocking killing, Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, was stabbed to death on his way to school in Hayes, west London, at 8.35am on June 11.
A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with his murder.
John Jackson, a relative of Jalan, said: ‘We have a pandemic of violence that is not being treated like a pandemic.’
The latest victim was a 19-year-old who was knifed to death in Sydenham, south-east London, on Friday night
In the latest attack, police were called to Sydenham just after 9.30pm on Friday where they found a teenager with multiple stab wounds. Paramedics tried to save the 19-year-old but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Last week, mothers who lost their children to knife crime joined a Metropolitan Police appeal to local communities in London for help.
Yvonne Lawson MBE, whose 17-year-old son Godwin was stabbed to death in north London in March 2010, said: ‘The police alone don’t have the cure, we urgently all need to work together, report what you know about violence and free young people from this terrible cycle.’
The force’s lead for violence, Commander Alex Murray, said: ‘We are devoting huge resources into doing everything within our power to minimise violence.’
