by Andrew Chapman and Jo Macfarlane
(August 17, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Knife crime claimed another two teenagers’ lives yesterday as a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were stabbed to death in separate attacks.
The younger victim, Conor Black, died from a single wound to the shoulder outside a house party in Manchester in the early hours of the morning. (Image: Tributes: Conor Black, 16, was stabbed to death in Harpurhey, Manchester)
The 17-year-old, Nilanthan Moorty, was stabbed to death in South London after apparently being caught up in a clash between rival gangs.
His death brings the number of teenagers murdered so far this year in the capital to 23. Eighteen of those were stabbed.
Conor, from Moston in Manchester, was found sprawled on a grass verge just after 2am yesterday in nearby Harpurhey – one of the most deprived areas in the country.
Shaun Donnellan, head of the Greater Manchester Police Major Incident Team, said: ‘The knife went into Conor’s body in a downward direction. There was only a small puncture wound.
‘It is difficult to imagine why anyone would want to stab a young lad in the back and kill him.
‘It would appear he had no defence against it.
‘It is a tragedy, and a very rare tragedy in this area, for a juvenile to be the subject of a knife murder.
‘He is from a very loving family who are devastated.’ Conor’s friend Nick Doyle, 17, yesterday told how he battled in vain to save him while waiting 15 minutes for an ambulance.
He criticised North-West Regional Ambulance Service’s response time as ‘appalling’ and claimed that Conor would have survived if medics had arrived sooner. (Image: A forensics officer at the site of Nilanthan Moorty's stabbing in Croydon)
Mr Doyle, a mechanic, said: ‘If they had been here ten minutes earlier, he would have been sat up smiling in a hospital bed.
‘The woman trying to get the ambulance there had been on the phone to them trying to get them out.
‘But she was told, “as incidents have occurred before, we cannot send an ambulance if we can hear more than five people in the background”. By the time they got here, the lad was gone. He died in my arms.’
Forensic officers work on Guildford Avenue near Moston Lane, Manchester where a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death
The North-West Regional Ambulance Service disputed Mr Doyle’s account of the incident, but confirmed there was a record of the call coming through at 2.02am and the crew attending the scene at 2.17am.
However, a spokeswoman added that it took eight minutes for the operator to realise that someone had been stabbed due to confusion over the seriousness of the incident.
She said the recordings of the phone conversations would be investigated tomorrow.
Angela Keating, 36, a friend of Conor’s family, said: ‘He was a gorgeous-looking lad – blue eyes, talented, with ambitions to be a rapper.
‘He was one of the nicest kids you could wish for. Whoever’s done this is going to pay – but it won’t be revenge, it will be justice.’
Meanwhile, in Croydon, South London, 17-year-old Nilanthan was stabbed to death in the early hours of yesterday following a fight between eight men.
He was taken by the London Ambulance Service to the nearby Mayday Hospital with serious stab wounds to the neck but died three hours later.
Croydon councillor Mike Selva said the victim was a member of a Sri Lankan gang known as the Tamil Boys.
The owner of a local dry cleaning firm, who did not want to be named, added that a bloody turf war had been raging between rival Sri Lankan gangs in Croydon and nearby Tooting.
He said: ‘It’s non-stop. There are fights between them all the time – the police are always splitting them up.
‘There have been three or four murders in the past year around here but they never get reported. It’s like living in a war zone.’
Police appealed for information about a taxi driver with a blue Ford Mondeo who is thought to have dropped off a man – suspected of involvement in the case – in London Road, Croydon, at 1am.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: ‘The suspect, described only as a white male, got out of the cab and was involved in an argument with the driver.
‘It is now known that after the row with the cab driver, words were exchanged with the victim and his friends standing nearby.
‘The suspect then left the scene, but returned a little while later and was again involved in an exchange of words with the victim and his friends, which resulted in the victim being injured.’
Police last night arrested a man in his 20s. He is being held at a South London police station. –Agencies
- Sri Lanka Guardian
(August 17, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Knife crime claimed another two teenagers’ lives yesterday as a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were stabbed to death in separate attacks.
The younger victim, Conor Black, died from a single wound to the shoulder outside a house party in Manchester in the early hours of the morning. (Image: Tributes: Conor Black, 16, was stabbed to death in Harpurhey, Manchester)
The 17-year-old, Nilanthan Moorty, was stabbed to death in South London after apparently being caught up in a clash between rival gangs.
His death brings the number of teenagers murdered so far this year in the capital to 23. Eighteen of those were stabbed.
Conor, from Moston in Manchester, was found sprawled on a grass verge just after 2am yesterday in nearby Harpurhey – one of the most deprived areas in the country.
Shaun Donnellan, head of the Greater Manchester Police Major Incident Team, said: ‘The knife went into Conor’s body in a downward direction. There was only a small puncture wound.
‘It is difficult to imagine why anyone would want to stab a young lad in the back and kill him.
‘It would appear he had no defence against it.
‘It is a tragedy, and a very rare tragedy in this area, for a juvenile to be the subject of a knife murder.
‘He is from a very loving family who are devastated.’ Conor’s friend Nick Doyle, 17, yesterday told how he battled in vain to save him while waiting 15 minutes for an ambulance.
He criticised North-West Regional Ambulance Service’s response time as ‘appalling’ and claimed that Conor would have survived if medics had arrived sooner. (Image: A forensics officer at the site of Nilanthan Moorty's stabbing in Croydon)Mr Doyle, a mechanic, said: ‘If they had been here ten minutes earlier, he would have been sat up smiling in a hospital bed.
‘The woman trying to get the ambulance there had been on the phone to them trying to get them out.
‘But she was told, “as incidents have occurred before, we cannot send an ambulance if we can hear more than five people in the background”. By the time they got here, the lad was gone. He died in my arms.’
Forensic officers work on Guildford Avenue near Moston Lane, Manchester where a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death
The North-West Regional Ambulance Service disputed Mr Doyle’s account of the incident, but confirmed there was a record of the call coming through at 2.02am and the crew attending the scene at 2.17am.
However, a spokeswoman added that it took eight minutes for the operator to realise that someone had been stabbed due to confusion over the seriousness of the incident.
She said the recordings of the phone conversations would be investigated tomorrow.
Angela Keating, 36, a friend of Conor’s family, said: ‘He was a gorgeous-looking lad – blue eyes, talented, with ambitions to be a rapper.
‘He was one of the nicest kids you could wish for. Whoever’s done this is going to pay – but it won’t be revenge, it will be justice.’
Meanwhile, in Croydon, South London, 17-year-old Nilanthan was stabbed to death in the early hours of yesterday following a fight between eight men.
He was taken by the London Ambulance Service to the nearby Mayday Hospital with serious stab wounds to the neck but died three hours later.
Croydon councillor Mike Selva said the victim was a member of a Sri Lankan gang known as the Tamil Boys.
The owner of a local dry cleaning firm, who did not want to be named, added that a bloody turf war had been raging between rival Sri Lankan gangs in Croydon and nearby Tooting.
He said: ‘It’s non-stop. There are fights between them all the time – the police are always splitting them up.
‘There have been three or four murders in the past year around here but they never get reported. It’s like living in a war zone.’
Police appealed for information about a taxi driver with a blue Ford Mondeo who is thought to have dropped off a man – suspected of involvement in the case – in London Road, Croydon, at 1am.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: ‘The suspect, described only as a white male, got out of the cab and was involved in an argument with the driver.
‘It is now known that after the row with the cab driver, words were exchanged with the victim and his friends standing nearby.
‘The suspect then left the scene, but returned a little while later and was again involved in an exchange of words with the victim and his friends, which resulted in the victim being injured.’
Police last night arrested a man in his 20s. He is being held at a South London police station. –Agencies
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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