Simon, from Southampton, was walking back to his hotel in Bristol when Waqar, from Birmingham, killed him with a single punch to the head.

In his defence Waqar claimed that Simon had been “racially abusive” towards him, although there was no evidence at all to support this claim.

As a result, the court gave Waqar a ludicrous 18-month sentence. Outside Bristol Crown Court, Simon’s partner, Natasha Matthews, tearfully branded Mr Justice Jack’s sentence “a joke”.

Waqar had finished his bouncer’s shift and was driving along Marsh Street when he saw the men in the road. An altercation of some sort took place, and Waqar got out of his car, and hit the left side of Simon’s face. Waqar returned to the car and drove back to Birmingham.

A pathologist’s report concluded the artery in Simon’s neck was torn as a result of the quick snap of his head when he was struck by Waqar.

Defending, Jonathan Gosling said his client took “full responsibility” for Simon’s death. He said: “It’s an incident which has the label of road rage. The defendant must pay the price today for leaving the car.”

Ben was an innocent victim of a fight which spilled from a pub in Islington on to the streets outside. It was sparked when a group of underage youths were evicted from the Shillibeers bar just before 2am on Sunday. Ben was knifed several times in the neck and the chest.

Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, appeared in court charged with murdering Ben. They are connected to a drug dealing and gun-running gang called the Untouchables. Last year. Police raided 20 addresses linked to the gang and seized £200,000 worth of cocaine.

One of the eyewitnesses said “One of Rob’s mates had his mobile phone stolen last week and he accused a black bloke in the bar of taking it. There was a bit of trouble at the time but nothing serious. Then last night, earlier in the evening, this black bloke was in the bar again and Rob’s mate went up to him.

“The black bloke went off and said he would be back. It was around midnight when this car pulled up outside and I saw two black blokes get out and come into the bar. One of them was shouting something at Jamie and then he threw a chair at him.”

“”The next thing it all went mad and there were several blokes fighting. I stayed inside the bar so I didn’t really see what happened outside but I heard that one of the black blokes had two knives on him and he was stabbing anyone who went near him.”

Rob had just finished work on the new Harry Potter film – Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. He had landed a minor role as Ravenclaw student Marcus Belby.

Karl Bishop was arrested for suspicion in the murder.

He was slashed in the throat with a glass tray in the unprovoked attack and bled to death. His family expressed their shock and disbelief at losing a “gentle giant” loved by all who knew him.

Detectives said he had been in the Three Cooks shop in Lee, south-east London, with his brother Harry, 18, on Saturday morning, when he was challenged to fight by another youth. When Jimmy, a 6ft 4in tall rugby fan, refused, the other teenager left, but then smashed down the door, shattering the glass, and entered wielding an advertising board. In the “excessive” unprovoked violence that followed, Jimmy’s throat was cut with glass.

Paramedics and an air ambulance were called, but he died in his brother’s arms at the scene.

Shopkeepers near to the Three Cooks Bakery where Jimmy was attacked on Burnt Ash Hill reported seeing a young man of Turkish origin shouting from outside before the fracas inside. The suspect, named by locals as Jake Fahri, was later arrested after a brief struggle by a team of ten officers wearing stab-proof vests and carrying stun guns.

Billy Ward was stabbed to death after an argument with Starfield Badza, 18, of Croydon, and Junior Lumbango, of Friars Wood, Pixton Way, Forestdale on a bus as it travelled through Croydon.

Billy was returning home after a night out with friends, and was found with multiple stab wounds at Gravel Hill, at the junction with Selsdon Park Road, and died in Mayday Hospital less than an hour later. Whilst even the Sunday Mirror had the integrity to put out a description of his attackers, the BBC, knowing full well who the police were looking for, shamefully refused to offer anything more than a reference to, “two suspects”.

Now normally in these cases the police do their very best to help “community relations” by putting very subtle pressure on the grieving family to drop any kind of racial angle. Contrast this to the huge police and media circus that would have followed had the role of the victim and murderers been reversed.

Majola, from Warrington, was sentenced to life behind bars, with a recommendation he serve at least 12 years before he can be considered for parole. The court heard that joinery apprentice Stuart had gone to a party at The Bank Quay Social Club on October 17. It finished at 11pm and led to up to 100 young people, mostly students, milling around on the streets outside.

Majola, armed with a screwdriver, was accompanied by a friend who was armed with a shovel, walked along Sankey Street they came across Stuart Lowe with his friends, making their way home.

Although Stuart was not involved in the initial fight, an altercation developed between the two groups, and Majola struck his head with the screwdriver.

Witnesses say Majola kicked Stuart as he lay on the floor before running off.

Jason Spencer, was stabbed to death by Reuben Valentine in a dispute about a torn jacket in Nottingham. Judge Michael Stokes said Valentine was “barbaric and evil” and told him he must serve at least 16 years. The court was told Valentine had become angry when his jacket was torn during a play fight.

Valentine attacked Jason Spencer and stabbed him eight times, with two of the blows piercing his heart.

The court heard evidence the Valentine became angry after his jacket was torn and demanded £60 to replace it.

The jury was then told that when Jason offered to sew it up, Valentine punched him in the face and was hit back. Speaking after the verdict, John Greensmith, Jason’s stepfather, said: “We will never see Jason grow up, have girlfriends, get married or make Angela a grandmother.

He has been snatched away from us because some evil person attacked him, showing no mercy. He took the life of such a special person.”

Keith Cowell, 52, and his son Matthew, 17, were shot dead at their home along with a third man, Tony Dulieu, 33, of Billericay, Essex. Matthew’s girlfriend, Clare, and Keith’s 54-year-old sister, Christine, were also badly hurt in the attack in Plaw Hatch Close, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.

Six people were charged for the triple killings: Kevan Thakrar, 20, of Lomond Way, Stevenage; his father, Atul Thakrar, 46, also of Lomond Way, Stevenage; Amanda Dansie, 20; Jay Thakrar, 24; Miran Thakrar, 23; and a sixth person not named to “protect the integrity of the case.”

According to police, the killers used knives in the attack on Christine because they ran out of bullets.

Mahmud Maksoudian, aged 21, of Madams Wood Road, Little Hulton, was sentence to life imprisonment for stabbing teenager Andrew Holland to death outside Ashy’s chip shop in Plodder Lane, Farnworth.

Andrew was one of two 16-year-old boys attacked outside Ashy’s Takeaway at about 10.50pm on a Friday night, following an argument thought to involve one of the victims. Police found Andrew, of Trentham Gardens, Farnworth, collapsed and bleeding. Both teenagers were taken to Rochdale Infirmary where Andrew later died.

The initial brawl ended and Melvyn went back to his nearby home but walked down the same street 10 minutes later. Jurors heard that Dosanjh, of Duncan Road, then grabbed the bat from a nearby house and launched a fresh attack.

A postmortem examination revealed that Mr Hadley had suffered a fractured skull and died from severe head injuries. There was evidence of at least 14 blows to the head. Melvyn died in hospital after the attack from severe brain injuries. Following his death, about 200 people packed into St Stephen’s Church, in Sinfin, for his funeral to say farewell to the man they had described as fun and a home-lover.

Dosanjh was jailed for eight years, but is eligible for parole after four. The court heard that Dosanjh had a list of previous convictions, including for drugs-related matters and three for possessing offensive weapons. At the time he killed Melvyn, he was also subject to a suspended prison sentence for matters including resisting a police officer and various driving offences.

James Houliston, 44, of Regan Way was beaten to death by a man described as a “dark-skinned Asian” by eyewitnesses in a busy Hoxton park.

Police announced that they were “keen to trace a dark-skinned Asian man in his late teens, who is about 5ft 11ins tall.” No follow up report ever appeared as to the outcome of this case.

Paramedics took two men to Stoke – on – Trent’s University Hospital. A 52-year-old man was pronounced dead on arrival and a 19-year-old was later discharged with minor injuries.

In the immediate aftermath of the above ‘neighbour dispute’ Stoke Police arrested four men. They arrested a fifth man and a 14-year-old girl. By the Sunday evening, the girl had been released without charge and two men, aged 32 and 19, had been released on Police bail; three other men, 49, 24 and 26 had been detained for questioning and a 49-year-old had been charged with Keith Brown’s murder.

A post-mortem investigation revealed that Keith had died from a single stab wound in the back.

What the above, stark, media information did not tell readers and viewers was that Keith Brown was a white man and that his attackers were a family of Muslim neighbours. A senior police officer acknowledged that the above dispute had built up ‘over the past couple of years’. The police also confirmed that the man charged with Keith’s murder would appear before magistrates on Monday 9th July.

On that date the Stoke Sentinel newspaper reported that North Staffordshire magistrates sitting at Fenton had denied bail to Habib Khan, a neighbour of Keith Brown’s from Uttoxeter Road, Normacot and that Khan had been charged with the murder. A District Judge ‘ordered Khan to appear at Stafford Crown Court on Monday July 16th. As of late – September 2007 Habib Khan still awaited trial. Four other men arrested for the attack were released on police bail pending further enquiries.

So convinced were Mr. Brown’s family that the murder, and the harassment that preceded it, was racially motivated, that they invited the BNP’s six councillors in Stoke to be the pall bearers at Keith’s funeral.

Since the stabbing and death of their 14-year-old son, by a gang of black teenagers on bikes, on the evening of 26th June 2007, Martin’s parents have condemned teenage gang violence and have called on Gordon Brown to halt Britain’s worsening knife culture. Mrs. Dinnegan has also criticised the way in which teenage gangs dominate her area at night and how Tollington Park has become a No Go Area for local residents.

Mrs. Dinnegan told the ‘thisislondon’ website: ‘It is horrendous. We are totally shattered.’ As a wall of floral tributes grew at the murder scene various versions of the incident were circulating. One version has Martin being chased by a group of up to 10 youths then fatally stabbed. Other versions place all the action at the above murder scene close to a fish and chip shop in which Martin often played on games machines.

The Dinnegan family were initially told by the police that Martin seemed to have been the victim of a robbery, by five black youths on bikes, which had escalated into a stabbing. However, Martin’s mobile phone was later found on the pavement so robbery was not the motive. The Police then told the family and reporters that Martin was a group of youths who got into a series of verbal exchanges with another group of 15-20 youths.

That row became a gang fight and resulted in Martin’s stabbing. However the stabbing developed a friend of Martin’s later learned that Martin was stabbed for looking or staring at a black youth. A friend of Martin’s told the family that a lot of youths were fighting and that he turned and saw Martin’s body on the ground. Two months before his death Martin had been assaulted in a similar exchange between youth groups.

A different version of his death has Martin walking away from the fight scene with two older boys.

Martin breaks away to buy chips and his two friends walk on. Unhappy about leaving Martin on his own his friends walk back and see him being attacked and falling to the ground. They run to help him and try to give pulmonary resuscitation. Their efforts and those of paramedics failed and Martin died at the scene.

The chip shop manager told reporters that he heard Martin calling out as he was stabbed: “What did I do? What did I do?” Martin’s friends were seen trying to put him into the recovery position but when he was moved his back was seen to be covered in blood. The chip shop manager now cannot sleep and recalls how Martin’s “lips were blue, his eyes were staring and his face was white.”

As Martin’s mother told the Islington Gazette, her son was attacked because he was looking the wrong way at one of a group of black youths who were on bikes: “it ended up with Martin being stabbed. I think he was knocked unconscious with a motorbike helmet then stabbed 4 times in the back. How horrendous is that?”

On 30th June 2007 a 15-year-old Islington youth appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court charged with murder. As the deputy head of Martin’s school, the St. Aloysius R.C. College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, spoke of Martin’s popularity and the school’s shock at his death a senior Police officer lamented the loss of another young life and papers like the Muswell Hill Times opened website condolences boards.

One school girl wrote of how she had secretly loved Martin and would now never know how things might have been.

Ben Hitchcock died after he was stabbed in a fight in Southend Road, Beckenham, at the junction with Calverley Close, at 11.36pm.

Eyewitnesses described youths wielding metal chains, poles and pick-axe handles in the fight, which is now the subject of a murder investigation.

Ben, who was a Year 11 pupil at Kelsey Park Sports College, in Manor Way, Beckenham, was taken to Lewisham Hospital by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead. Lee Hitchcock, of Blean Road, Beckenham, said: “My son was loved very much by his family and many friends.

His last words were “Please help me, phone my mum.”

At a press conference at Southend Road, Detective Superintendent Simon Morgan said: “Up to 40 youths were involved in the incident which began when approximately six boys were barred from entering a party in a nearby location.

“Police arrived and the party was closed. A group left the party and the incident took place shortly afterwards. Neighbours from the flats overlooking the scene have described the “mayhem” of a “terrifying” incident. An ex-police officer, who does not want to be named, described how the incident unfolded.

He said: “We heard lots of shouting in the street and all of a sudden there were somewhere between 30 to 40 youths there. “There was one large gang who seemed predominantly black, who came from the direction of Lewisham.”The other gang came from the direction of Beckenham and seemed to be mixed. “They were carrying pick-axe handles, metal scaffolding poles and other homemade weapons and swinging chains above their heads.”They seemed to be big guys and they all pulled their hoodies up when they were around 50 yards away from each other.

Fourteen gang members were arrested in connection with the attack, including one girl. All 14, who are aged between 13 and 16-years-old, were bailed.

Tennyson Obih, 27, was charged with the murder of PC Jon Henry, 36, was stabbed after responding to reports of an assault in Luton’s George Street. Obih was also charged with the attempted murder of two window cleaners – Steven Chamberlain and David Knight.

Despite his police-issue body armour Pc Henry suffered stab wounds to the neck and died later at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

PC Henry, whose daughter Maggie was just under one year old at the time of the incident, had been on duty for less than 30 minutes before he was murdered.

Kate Beagley, 32, was killed in a frenzied attack as she sat on a park bench at a beauty spot overlooking the river Thames. Karl Taylor, 27, of Covent Garden, central London, a fitness trainer, was jailed for life in March 2008 for murdering her on their “first date” in May 2007.

Her naked body was found four days later with 31 stab wounds to the face and neck. After his arrest, Taylor led police to Beagley’s body dumped in nettles in Oxhey Wood, north of London. He had driven her there in the boot of her grey VW Golf car, which Taylor told police he had intended to steal when he met her.

The trial heard Taylor had gone on the date armed with a knife, which he placed up his sleeve as he sat with Beagley in the Roebuck pub in Richmond Hill, south-west London.

Peter Clarke QC, prosecuting, said Taylor told police he stabbed Beagley during an argument after telling her: “All I want is your car.”

He told police: “She pushed me away. She was grabbing me and I stabbed her in the throat. I constantly and consistently cut her in the neck because she was going for my face.”

Taylor removed her clothes and washed her body with mineral water before dumping it, the court heard. He later showed off the car to friends and family, and sold Beagley’s mobile phone to a friend.

Abderrahmen Dhaou stabbed Kynan Eldridge to death in a row over rent for a room at Dhaou’s home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. A judge sentenced Dhaou to jail for the public’s protection and said he would serve at least three years.

But Peter and Annie Eldridge said no sentence was long enough. Leicester Crown Court heard that Dhaou was an alcoholic cannabis user who was suffering from a depressive illness at the time. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

After the attack Dhaou, 36, a Tunisian national, daubed a message in Arabic on his living room wall for police to find. He said he had taken revenge on Mr Eldridge after being made to “look foolish”.

Judge Michael Pert QC said Dhaou would serve a minimum of three years before he could be considered for parole on a life licence.

The judge also recommended that Dhaou be deported on his release.

In a statement after the hearing, Mr Eldridge’s parents said: “This man has robbed us of our only child, our health and dreams for the future. “He’s received just three years – we’ve received a life sentence.”

Mrs Eldridge added: “This attack was a straightforward stabbing.

It was over something comparatively trivial but the attack was vicious, brutal and frenzied.”

The pair had been engaged but Abdullah, who could be freed after serving less than 12 years of the life term, had been jealous during their time together and cautioned for assaulting her. When Samantha called at his flat in Vallum Court, Elswick, Newcastle, to collect mail, the Iraqi-born Kurd launched a “relentless” armed onslaught.

Factory worker Abdullah, 30, lashed Samantha about the head with his heavy weightlifting belt, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He grabbed a long-bladed kitchen knife and used it on Samantha repeatedly as she fought in vain for her life.

And by the time Abdullah buried the blade through her heart, Samantha had suffered 14 deep stab wounds to her torso and more than 30 other injuries. Her killer, who had drunk a bottle of whisky, doused her and the bloodstained flat with petrol in a bid to cover his tracks. But he never lit the fuel and was found slumped with self-inflicted knife wounds beside Sarah’s body hours after the killing.

Jailing him for life, Judge John Milford said: “Not long after Miss Anderson arrived you attacker her and subjected her to a sustained assault with both a weight belt and then a large knife, stabbing her no fewer than 14 times.

“Against this attack she tried to defend herself but a wound to her heart caused catastrophic blood loss and death. You have taken a young life and devastated thereby her loving family.”

Judge Milford, who said he gave Abdullah credit for his guilty plea to murder and good work record since arriving in the North East in 2002, ordered he must serve a minimum of 11 years eight months before he can be considered for release.

Shortly after midnight, as Paul tried to halt the row and a crowd gathered around the two groups, a black teenager who had no obvious ties with the black female and her friend, lunged forward and several times stabbed Paul. Stabbed through the heart, Paul died instantly.

By April 2007, Bath Police had arrested 11 people and had arrested and interviewed a teenager regarded as the chief suspect.

None of the twenty or so witnesses who saw the stabbing, however, had yet named or fingered the above teenager and an entire community, wrote a Guardian journalist, was apparently living in fear of the teenager and his cronies. Police officers seeking Paul Kelly’s murderer still had no real evidence with which to charge their prime suspect and a wall of silence contrasted starkly with the anonymous A4 leaflet flyposted around Bath which named the alleged teenage killer.

A frustrated senior Police officer said that the case and the public’s fear of gangland retribution were unprecedented but it was hoped that a large reward and a Crimewatch reconstruction of the murder would persuade someone to break that silence. In early May a senior Police officer told BBC News On-line that the silence remained unbroken but that he was confident that the murderer would be traced and convicted.

The author of the poem on the leaflet implied that there was a racial motive to the killing. This led to race relations officials and activists saying that Bath’s ethnic minorities are not fairly served by municipal and other community services and that there is underlying racial tension.

Telford man Neil Williams’ body was found in Stirchley on 6th April, some twenty miles from where Andrew Owen’s body was found. Like Owens, Williams was robbed and murdered while walking home from his local pub.

The accused had also been arrested for a string of similar robberies in Sedgley, Telford and Dudley.

Rickell Patterson, of Norland Close, St Ann’s, is accused of murdering journalist Timothy Smith in Upper Parliament Street, at around 6.30pm.

Lynne Tayton, prosecuting, told Nottingham Crown Court that Patterson, nicknamed ‘Rizzle’, stabbed Mr Smith in his chest after the collision and a 30-second scuffle.

Patterson, then 16 now 17, was one of four black youths who then fled on their BMX bikes, the court heard. Patterson answered no comment in his police interview but provided officers with a prepared statement in which he denied intentionally killing Mr Smith and said the older man was the aggressor after their collision.

“The defendant claims he only meant to stab him in the arm,” Ms Tayton said. Patterson disposed of the knife in a flooded area of Sycamore Park, from where it was later recovered by police. Ms Tayton said the defendant also changed his top because it had blood on it. Smith, a court reporter previously employed in Leicester, had moved to Nottingham to seek freelance work.

At the time of the incident he was reading a bus timetable and eating a cheeseburger having spent the afternoon surfing the internet at Nottingham Central Library.

South African nationals Gabriel Bhengu, 26, and Jabu Mbowane, 25, of Wolverhampton, were charged with the murder of Andrew Owen, 42, from Sedgley, West Midlands.

He was the victim of a robbery and murder committed by the two while walking home from his local public house.

A 21-year-old woman, Kashia Allen, also of Wolverhampton, was also charged with conspiracy to rob.

Thomas was shot, in the chest, while, with others, chasing Hallroy Reid, 40, and Damian Ellis, 25, the two would-be robbers who fled the scene after the £11,000 wages cash failed to appear at its usual time. Thomas Fahey, a former postal worker, died six months after the incident in January 2006. He left behind a partner and a 6-month old daughter.

In April 2007 Reid, unemployed and of no fixed abode, of Battersea, and Ennis, a barber of Dick Shepherd Court, Brixton, were convicted of murder and pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of a firearm. Reid, an illegal immigrant who admitted to firing the murder weapon but denied intent to kill, pleaded guilty to also taking part in another robbery.

He was jailed for life, with a minimum of 35 years before being deported. Ennis also got a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years before being deported. Two others were arrested and charged with conspiracy to rob the Fahey family firm.

Also convicted was Ashley Sestanovich, a one-time Grimsby, Manchester City and Sheffield United footballer who was a body double for Arsenal player Thierry Henry in a Nike advert filmed in Rome.

Sestanovich (25), is part-Croatian and part Ghanaian. Both he and Carl Gibbs, 26, were accused of planning the robbery, Gibbs being a company employee who allegedly supplied information about pay day activities and routines. Gibbs, who was cleared of the conspiracy charge, was accused of giving such information to Sestanovich;

Sestanovich, in turn, was said to have passed the information to a Jamaican gang which was carrying out robberies across London.

When a group of teenage Asians – one of whom was only 14 – got into an argument with 67-year-old Alan Sheard one of the youths attacked the elderly white man. Alan fell to the pavement and struck his head on the kerb.

One witness, a shopkeeper who is a Councillor’s son, said that Alan Sheard was felled by a single punch. Among the small group of helpers who went to Alan’s aid was Lib-Dem councillor, Riaz Ahmed. Mr. Ahmed told reporters that Alan was unconscious and bleeding and that the injured man made no sound. As the youths fled the scene, running along Thornbury Avenue, Mr. Ahmed placed his jacket over Alan Sheard.

According to the councillor, other helpers said that Alan had been racially abusive towards the teenagers.

This assault, the police asserted, was not a gang attack. It was also too early to infer a racial element. On Tuesday 3rd April 2007, a police team held a press conference at the crime scene.

The next day, a senior West Yorkshire Police officer confirmed that ‘Two men aged 23 and 19 have been arrested in connection with the death and are currently being questioned by detectives from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team.’ On 4th April, a Police spokesman said that the above men remained in custody and that detectives had interviewed but had not arrested two youths aged 12 and 14. On the same date, the 19-year-old suspect was released on police bail pending further enquiries and the 23-year-old male had been released without charge.

Alan Sheard left behind an elderly mother, in a nursing home, and a daughter.

Truszczinsky had earlier watched a group of men launch a ‘psychopathic and homophobic’ attack on Aylett. The assault was carried out because one of the men wrongly believed that Russell was a homosexual.

Russell’s corpse was found in a post-mortem examination to have sustained ‘multiple injuries consistent with a serious assault’. These injuries included ‘brain injuries, a shattered nose and nine broken ribs’.

It was also established that Russell had been alive when his body was bundled into the wardrobe. On 30th March 2007 Truszczinsky was convicted of Russell’s murder and jailed for life.

18-year-old black youth Curtis Delima and a 15-year-old were later charged with murder and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Remanded in custody, at the Old Bailey, until 2nd July 2007, Hampstead financial trader Wang Yam was charged with but denied Allan’s murder. In denying the offence, Wang Yam also denied impersonating the murdered man and obtaining £20,000 by deception. He was also charged with burglary and theft and with handling stolen goods.

After Allan’s death his body lay undiscovered until concerned third parties called the police. The dead man’s injuries, including serious head injuries, were confirmed by a post mortem.

A BBC report noted that Allan Chappelow’s works as an author included two books about George Bernard Shaw. A report by mediabistro.com proves altogether more revealing. Noting how Allan was once known for his books about George Bernard Shaw and, also, for his 1955 novel Russian Holiday the website speculated that Allan ‘likely died of head injuries’ and that ‘the murder may be due to identity theft.’

According to a June 2006 mediabistro report: ‘It was said bank officials tipped off Police after becoming suspicious that Mr. Chappelow had lost money through a series of bogus transactions.

He is believed to have reported the theft of some of his mail to the police early last month after returning from a trip to America. And in the days leading up to the discovery of his body £10,000 is reported to have been transferred out of one of his bank accounts by a man claiming to be him.’

Ebanezer Adesina was on licence when he ferociously attacked Roger Hare after the profoundly deaf grandfather asked him to move his legs so he could get off a train.

The 20-year-old was released early from a three-year jail term for robbing two men. While in jail, he broke a fellow inmate’s jaw and was sentenced to serve 15 months concurrently for the attack.

Adesina, who was unemployed, was on the same train as 61-year-old Mr Hare, who was returning home after an evening discussing charity events in London on February 20 this year.

As he stood up to leave the train at West Dulwich station in South London, Mr Hare politely asked Adesina to move his feet so he could pass by.

Disabled Kevin Beckingham was throttled to death at his carer home in Nithdale Road, Plumstead, by Khorram Azim, 34, of Wood Place, Chislehurst Road, Sidcup. The Old Bailey heard how Azim killed Beckingham with his own hands using a choke hold from the American martial art of catch wrestling.

Azim had been hired by Beckingham as a personal fitness trainer, and, after taking advantage of the disabled man’s hospitality, brutally murdered his victim and then tried to pin the blame on his best friend.

Azim, who was described as “manipulative” and “aggressive”, stabbed Mr Beckingham in the neck after choking him to death, to make it look like he had been killed by an intruder.

Prosecuting, Victor Temple said Azim had “staged managed” the murder scene, with Beckingham found lying face down and his arm outstretched towards a syringe.

Beckingham could not use a syringe and had no need to use one.

Paul’s and his friends were out celebrating the New Year when, just after midnight, they got into an argument with a black woman and her friends. Paul did his best to separate the two sides and things quietened down.

However, after a few minutes the row started up again. It spilled out into the street outside the pub and, once again, Paul was seen trying to calm things down. Despite his easily perceived role as peacemaker, a black youth, who had not been associated with the original argument, emerged from the crowd and began stabbing Paul repeatedly.

One of the blows pierced his heart and he died almost immediately.

In March 2007, Paul’s killer had still not been apprehended, even though many of the pub-goers must have known his identity.

Diane, 21, was a cheerful and attractive soul who allowed the homeless Ahmed to be her lodger.

35-year-old Ahmed, it was alleged, strangled his young landlady in her home on Cheetham Hill’s Galsworthy Avenue. Ahmed was arrested, charged with her murder and remanded in custody pending the above hearing.

The North East Manchester Advertiser reported ‘Mrs Hullah, originally from the Newcastle area, is believed to have moved to North Manchester in the last two years.’ She often sat at her window smoking, liked chocolates and ‘kept herself to herself.’

The nemadvertiser on-line edition added ‘Her sudden death has shocked and worried members of the multi-ethnic community in the area.

David Driscoll, a 31-year-old father of three of Lowestoft Road, Watford, died from a stab wound shortly after police officers found him in a flat in Oxhey Drive, South Oxhey.

The above duo appeared at St. Alban’s Crown Court on 12 December 2006. Walsh had earlier appeared before magistrates in Watford. Also charged in late – 2006 was Nathan Bruce, Knox Road, Clacton-on-Sea.

All three men were due to appear at St. Alban’s Crown Court on 16 March 2007. Nathan Bruce appeared before St. Alban’s magistrates on January 7th 2007.

By February, 2007, Police had charged Thaimloll Conteh (19) of Croxley Road, Hoxton, London. On 07 December 2006, the Police also announced the arrests of two women. The elder woman, in her 40’s was bailed until 31 January 2007.

The younger woman, in her 30’s, was released without charge.

Three men have been jailed for kicking a teenager to death over a row when he bumped into them in the street.

Ian Page, 19, was killed on the Edgware Road, north London, in November last year, following a night out with friends.Yateman smirked in the dock as the victim’s father Kenny Page read out a victim impact statement, telling how he had gone “through hell” over his son’s death.

Andre Campbell, 24, his half-brother Lloyd Henry, 20, and Jermaine Yateman, 19, were convicted over his killing at the Old Bailey. Campbell and Yateman were both found guilty of murder, and jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.

Henry, who was convicted of manslaughter, was sentenced to eight years. Both he and Yateman were sent to young offender institutions. They were part of a gang, captured on security camera footage, that dragged Mr Page to the floor then kicked him as he lay motionless beneath them.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, said: “What we have seen on that CCTV is chilling and it is scary. “It is totally unacceptable and the public have every right to be concerned about the increase in this sort of violence. “This was selfish thoughtless, group violence. It was deliberately continued when there was no possible danger. It was unwarranted and it led to catastrophe.”

The judge told all three men: “This is a tragic case for all concerned. After an inoffensive evening of enjoyment with his friends Ian Page, 19, died a sudden, brutal and totally unnecessary death at your hands. “The spark that cause the flare-up was we never properly identified but on any view it was pretty inconsequential.” After some “shouting and posturing”, Campbell went off to a kebab shop to get help from his brother and friends.

The gang returned to where Mr Page was, isolating him in a corner and chasing off his friends before dragging him off and kicking him until he was unable to get up. As his assailants fled they each laid a final kick into his prone body, before Yateman returned to rob him of his gold bracelet and attacked him again.

Mr Page suffered severe brain damage and died four days later in hospital.

Lorraine Beasley, Ian Page’s mother, described how he “loved life” and “had time for everybody. When my son’s life was taken, part of my own life was taken as well,” she said.

In December 2006 Nigerian immigrant Kristoph Emmanuel Aluya appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court charged with the late-November killing of 38-year-old department store worker Grace Moore.

Aluya (23), who had earlier been remanded in custody, pleaded Not Guilty.

On that date, Aluya said that he understood the charge but otherwise did not speak. A Belfast detective told reporters that the evidence against Aluya, of Church Road, Churchfield, Carlow, South – East Ireland, was conclusive.

A city centre shop worker, Grace Moore was stabbed to death in her Erris Grove, Blacks Road, West Belfast, home.

Her body was found by her daughter. Aluya applied for bail but was again remanded in custody and ordered to appear by video link on 21 December 2006.

Karen (37), a trainee manager, broke off her long-term relationship with Martin at Christmas 2005.

She was found in her home, on 26 February 2006, dead from multiple stab wounds and with her throat slit.

Martin, a 38-year-old impersonator of the black Portsmouth footballer Sol Campbell, was homeless when he appeared for sentencing, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, on 22 December 2006. Sentenced to 14 years for the murder of Karen Hartshorne, Martin had also been convicted of attempting to murder Karen’s new partner, Paul Round.

Taking into consideration Martin’s mitigating plea that he had been depressed at the time of the Hartshorne killing and had not planned the murder, the Judge told Martin that because of Karen’s injuries Martin posed “a risk of serious harm to the public.

”After the murder Martin had clambered onto a motorway bridge and threatened to commit suicide.

These were the grisly elements of an Old Bailey murder trial which heard how 21-year-old Chingford man, and locally known music producer, Richard Holmes was shot dead, on 04 November 2005, by acquaintances of the rapper MC Durty Goodz.

Otherwise known as Dwayne Mahorn, the above rapper was himself cleared of murder and of manslaughter. The killing allegedly had its roots in a conversation during which Mahorn told a 16-year-old fellow DJ and rapper that he was losing face because of accusations about him in a song written by a teenage rapper friend of Richard Holmes.

Mahorn’s friend confronted the younger man and insisted upon an apology. The younger man refused and the dispute escalated. That night a group of Mahorn’s acquaintances surrounded Richard Holmes and some of his friends. The pro-Mahorn group was armed with a sub-machine gun. As Holmes and his friends ran off, Holmes was shot in the leg and back. He later died of his wounds.

A Scotland Yard report quoted by Chantelle Fiddy’s blogspot noted that “A post-mortem held at Walthamstow Mortuary gave the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the heart. He also suffered two further gunshot wounds to his left thigh and upper right arm.”

At the Old Bailey black killers Anthony Green and Carl Dobson were tried for Richard’s murder. Essex man Green and Stratford accomplice Dobson were each given a 30-year minimum sentence.

Richard Holmes was a Tottenham Hotspur fan who had played for the local (Chingford) Rovers team and had been a talented schoolboy footballer.

A senior police officer leading the investigation said “Carl Dobson and Anthony Green walked onto the estate without disguise and they opened fire in full public view. Richie (Holmes) was unarmed and running away as he was shot from behind.” According to the local press, a handgun was held to Richard’s head before he was shot in the back as he tried to escape.

The killers, had wrongly banked on witnesses being too scared to give evidence against them. One witness, ironically, recognised one of Holmes killers from a music video channel programme. Local Councillor Laurence Wedderburn told a newspaper that he had extensive evidence, from constituents, of a ‘climate of fear’ in the Chingford Hall area.

Such a crime, he argued, was inevitable and he had long believed that a ‘major catastrophe’ was brewing.

Mostly ignored by the left-liberal media, Billy Gregory’s stabbing and subsequent death left his family shattered and numbed.

Two years before Billy was glassed in a Earl of Chatham pub, Woolwich, attack which saw him die from two puncture / slash wounds to his throat, Billy’s 19-year-old brother Terry was killed by a knife – wielding black man.

At 01.00 a.m. on Christmas Eve 2005 in the lavatory of Woolwich’s Earl of Chatham pub, Billy Gregory was stabbed by a 30-year-old Vietnamese male.

Billy, of Hickin Close, Charlton, was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sidcup but died there, on Christmas Day, as doctors fought to stop severe bleeding. He was attacked just half a mile from where his brother Terry was killed in late-December 2003.

On 30th October 2006, at the Old Bailey, 31-year old Thu Nguyen was found Guilty of the murder of Billy Gregory. Sentencing Nguyen to life imprisonment Judge Ann Goddard condemned the “unspeakable grief and suffering” which he had brought the Gregory family.

Celebrating with friends on Christmas Eve 2005 Billy Gregory was in the Earl of Chatham pub, Woolwich, when he and Nguyen, of King’s Court, Upton Park, East London, became tangled in what for Gregory was a provocative verbal exchange.

Later, in the toilets, they had another, reportedly minor, exchange. Without warning, claimed the prosecution, Nguyen plunged a glass into Gregory’s neck .

According to BBC News On-line: “Mr. Gregory used his shirt to try to stem the flow of blood from a deep neck wound but he collapsed and later suffered a massive stroke.”

Nguyen, who, the court heard, had a history of similar violence, was charged with murder and first appeared in court, at Greenwich Magistrates Court, on 26th December 2005. He was remanded in custody until a Old Bailey court appearance in early April of 2006.

The Gregory case caused great local controversy because, as noted, Billy’s brother, 19-year old lifeguard Terry, was also stabbed to death, outside the Albion pub in Woolwich, on 23 December 2003. Two juries failed to reach a verdict and 65-year old George Edwin, who was charged with Terry’s murder, walked free. Terry’s killer is yet to be brought to justice.

A local authority cleaner from Beckton, Stephen was caught up in a pub brawl. Followed outside by, it was believed, three black men, Stephen was stabbed and later died in hospital. The three men ran off. Local detectives began a murder enquiry and called for witnesses to come forward. Two men were subsequently arrested and released on Police bail.

In November 2006, 51 – year-old Lincoln Peter was also arrested.

On 11 November Peter, of Cape Close, Barking, was remanded in custody at a Saturday sitting of the Stratford Magistrates Court.

Samantha had previously shared her home with her 29-year-old Iraqi Kurd boyfriend, Ari Abdullah. Samantha, also 29, first met Abdullah in 2003. An asylum seeker whose status had expired on 27 October, 2006, he had lived with her from 2004.

The couple separated in July or August 2006. Samantha had since moved out of the area. The tower block flat in which her body was found was that of her ex-boyfriend. Samantha had called by to collect mail but was attacked by Abdullah who beat her about the head with a weight lifting belt and killed her. The gruesome find was made after a neighbour of the Kurdish ‘ex’ reported a strong smell of petrol. Detectives arrested Abdullah on suspicion of murder.

Questioning continued the following day. Police established that Samantha’s ex-boyfriend had lost his asylum seeker status but had re-applied for the continuation of that status. Detectives meanwhile gathered local CCTV footage of the route which Samantha had walked from her from her Buffer Bear Nursery, Newcastle, place of work.

Abdullah, a body builder and factory worker, was later sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after just 12 years.

Working his patch in Manchester City Centre, David (43) approached two men – one of whom was East European, the other of mixed race – asking for money. A vicious punch left the Lincolnshire-born beggar in need of an ambulance. Taken to Hope Hospital he clung to life for two long weeks but finally died from that injury. Manchester Police launched a murder enquiry and appealed for witnesses.

The two men involved in the scuffle were asked to come forward.

The mixed race male was described as being of light skin colour, clean shaven and of thin build with a long face. Aged 23 to 25, he is 5’10” tall and was wearing a hooded white or beige anorak which hung below his waist. The East European had dark features and very short black hair.

He wore a camouflage jacket and dark blue jeans. He was said to be 5’6” to 5’8” tall.

Convicted of murder, fellow Colchester resident Andrew Fredericks was sentenced to life and will serve at least 15 years. Mark Fredericks was found Not Guilty of murder but was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter. The duo, both black males, had been arrested in connection with an argument about alleged shoving – in a Nationwide cash point queue at the Hunwicke shops on Colchester’s Greenstead estate – which had led to Westley Odger being murdered.

Criticising Britain’s ‘terrible sub-culture of drugs and knives’, Judge C. Bell, Q.C., blasted the ‘angry, uncontrolled people’ who routinely carry weapons and to whose random violence we are all vulnerable.

Westley Odger’s death, he said, was ‘a needless waste of life.’ Westley’s mother, Ann, said that his death had permanently affected the entire family and all because of this one barbaric and cowardly act.

In September 2006, Havant’s Leigh Park, near Portsmouth, was the scene of a fight between a group of young white men and the Asian staff of the Spice of India takeaway.

19-year-old Daniel Easterbrook was found unconscious in the yard behind the takeaway. He died after the fight, which raged in the Greywell Shopping Centre, in Cosham’s Queen Alexandra Hospital. Police later arrested a 26-year old Asian male and charged him with Daniel’s murder.

Alongside a tribute to Daniel from his distraught mother the BBC carried a Police statement that they wanted to hear from a 35 – year old, tall, blond white man who they believed had vital information. The Police, who had sealed the crime scene, were calling on the local white and ethnic communities to remain calm. They also announced the release on bail of a man arrested the day after the Spice of India street fight.

In November 2006 the above Asian male was still in custody and local police arrested two more men. On Monday 13 November two men, aged 43 and 40, from Worthing in Sussex appeared before magistrates in Portsmouth.

Balil was charged with Lisa’s murder and with two counts of attempted wounding with intent. She committed the offence on 22nd August 2006 and appeared at Manchester Crown Court on 1st September. She was found Guilty on 7th February 2007.

On Friday 16th March she was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 15 years before being eligible for parole.

The stabbing followed a loud argument which involved Bilal – who has a 5 – year old daughter and lived with her Portuguese boyfriend – when Bilal began to act aggressively, punches were traded.

Later, believing the argument to be over, the Bamfords were sitting in Lisa’s kitchen when Bilal entered through the back door waving a kitchen knife.

Yelling that she was going to kill everyone in the house and trying to hit Lisa’s daughter, Bilal first of all delivered the fatal knife blow to Lisa’s neck. She also slashed the neck of Lisa’s sister’s boyfriend when he tried to stop Bilal. Eventually, Bilal was removed from the house. Lisa later died in Oldham’s Royal Hospital.

The argument, witnesses said, continued an earlier falling out over the two women’s children playing together and about untrue stories which Bilal had allegedly been spreading about Lisa’s daughter.

Bilal had previously been close to the Bamfords, the latter helping Bilal, a refugee, with decoration, furniture and other household items. Bilal had claimed asylum and had been granted refugee status in February 2006.

Tucker, said the BBC, was not found in any of his usual haunts and was thought to have left the UK. Police later admitted that there was no documentary evidence to prove that Tucker had left the UK but they did not rule it out and duly alerted both Interpol and all UK ports and airports.

Tucker, who shot Woodhams with a blank-firing starting pistol, converted to fire live ammunition, which has never been found, was labelled a dangerous fugitive who should not be approached.

Prior to the shooting Peter, 22, had been the target of “a long campaign of violence and intimidation” and was believed to have had a recent argument with Tucker and a group of youths outside a local row of shops.

Peter had told the police of his fears not just for his own safety but for that of his partner and their young child.

Police wanted to question Tucker both about the above argument, shortly before Woodhams was shot, and a January 2006 incident in which Woodhams, again harassed by a group of youths who had stoned his car, was stabbed in the throat and slashed across the face. The neck wound narrowly missed his jugular vein.

There has been some basis for arguing that in their early handling of Peter Woodhams’ various contacts with Tucker the police ignored both Peter’s fears and repeated telephone calls which his fiancé Jane Bowden had made, after the stabbing, unsuccessfully asking the Police, over a period of five weeks, to take a statement.
The police were reputedly given anonymous tip-offs naming several suspects who had boasted of the January attack.

It was also argued that the police failed to treat the gang’s harassment of Tucker, especially in the seven months between the stabbing and the shooting, as being racially motivated. In August 2006 the Metropolitan Police apologised to Peter’s partner and family and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, IPCC, announced that it was beginning an investigation into the police’s handling of the case.

A family friend said that the police had done too little, too late and had ‘blood on their hands’.

On 28th March 2007 The Times reported that “Nine officers face an independent misconduct inquiry into allegations that they failed to investigate the assault.”

Peter Woodhams left behind a grieving fiancée and a 3-year-old son. In the early evening of 21 August 2006 Peter had confronted Tucker and his gang. Tucker was heard to make threats. A few minutes later, he went to Woodham’s house. Woodhams went outside, speaking to the youths in Leslie Road, and was shot. He staggered towards the family home, in Tallis Close, Canning Town, but collapsed in the garden. He died there a short while later.

The day before his sentencing Bradley Tucker pleaded guilty to manslaughter and told the court how he had meant only to scare Peter Woodhams, that he did not think the gun would actually fire a bullet. Tucker’s teenage look-out accomplice was found Not Guilty of murder and manslaughter.

A senior police officer told reporters that officers were continuing their belated investigation of Peter’s January 2006 stabbing.

The pattern of police officers turning a blind eye to or minimising the suffering of white victims of racial harassment and violence is, however, so common that it is all too likely that the proper lessons will not be learned without further such tragedies and a prolonged campaign for white civil rights.

The attack occurred at 10.15pm on Saturday 12th August 2006. The killer ran off. Peter, of Blenheim Road, E6, and Adrian, said a Newham Police website statement, were taken to hospital. Adrian was treated and discharged. Peter, who left a wife, a 16-year-old daughter and twin 3-year-old girls, later died in hospital.

Witnesses described the attacker as being slim and of mixed race (the Police website statement said ‘dark-skinned and of Mediterranean appearance’) and 6’3” tall.

He looked to be 30 to 35 years old.

In October 2006 Newham Police said that they wanted to question 47-year-old Terry O’Neil. O’Neil, Jones and Rowe had all been in the Victoria pub before the stabbing. On the night of Peter’s death, O’Neil had been wearing a dark blue zipped tracksuit top and a dark baseball cap.

The public were urged not to approach O’Neil but to report any sightings to the Police.

On 22nd December 2006 BBC News On-line reported that mixed race Newham murder suspect Terry O’Neil had been arrested in Amsterdam. O’Neil, who had still not been charged, was arrested at least a week before the news of his detention.

He would be returned to the UK, said the BBC, in the New Year.

Robbed, kicked and punched to the ground Steven Jeeves, 39, was overwhelmed when six or more men leapt out of a car, near some local shops, and pounced on him.

John Jeeves (23) tried to protect his father but was unable to. John was uninjured but Steven, suffering from the bad beating and from fatal stab wounds, was rushed to Hemel Hempstead Hospital. He died there in the early hours of Tuesday 26th July.

Police arrested and questioned seven black youths. On the Thursday a 20-year-old man was detained on suspicion of murder. Prior to that arrest police had arrested and would subsequently charge with violent disorder, Shingi Maenzanise , 20, of Dunlin Road, Hemel Hempstead and a 17-year-old juvenile.

A third male, Babatunde Onanuga, aged 18, of Wootton Drive, Hemel Hempstead, was charged with perverting the course of justice.

On the Saturday following Steven Jeeves’s murder, Hemel Hempstead Police sought a detention order and asked that all three men be remanded in custody. A 15-year-old also appeared before the same court the time he was sixteen was found guilty of the murder. A quiet, homely, man Steven Jeeves almost never went out socially. His outing to the Herald Sporting Club, in Henry Wells Square near his Penrose Court, Grove Hill home, was a rare treat.

Steven left a widow and six sons aged 11 – 23. He also left a baby grand-daughter.

CCTV footage identified a number of witnesses and, especially, some witnesses who chased Curran’s killer.

Curran had lived in England since moving from Ireland in 1971. This Is Local London Today reported that a section of the Victoria Line was closed for forensic examination from the Friday till the Monday. Bala, a schizophrenic and recently a voluntary patient at a East London psychiatric hospital, pleaded Not Guilty to the murder of an unknown person. His Not Guilty plea to murder was viewed by the Judge as ‘proper and appropriate’ and Bala pleaded Guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He made no application for bail.

Observer staff writer Amelia Hill wrote that Bala – who had been seen frequently at the City and Hackney Centre for Mental Health – faced life in a secure unit. A senior psychiatrist at the above hospital Bala told the Observer that Bala “had been released from the hospital on leave because he seemed well. He was a very unusual case: the voices in his head had dampened down. His behaviour came completely out of the blue.”

Just days after the publication of the Government’s own disturbing report on avoidable deaths, Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, told the BBC that the Bala – Curran case was yet another scenario in which a person may unnecessarily have lost his life.

“There are 55 homicides and 1300 suicides committed each year by someone with mental illness or disorders who had been in contact with mental health services.” A Curran family statement mourned “a good man, loved by all.”

RAF Lyneham’s Flight Lieutenant Stephen Keen was one of that minority. Stabbed in the neck and throat, in a house in Tiverton, Devon, Stephen, 54, later died in hospital.

Police arrested and charged with murder one Francesco Matta, a Sardinian who gave an address in Cagliari. Matta, 55, appeared before Essex Magistrates.

Shocked and stunned, Stephen’s friends and family staged a vigil beside the growing display of cards and flowers begun by local townsfolk.

After seven hours of intense discussion, stated a Chiswick local news website, the jury recently decided that Griffith was Not Guilty of manslaughter and the 6’2” doorman walked free from court.

Although Griffith (30) was found Not Guilty the incident provoked much local controversy. Kevin Griffith had only just completed his doorman training and was not yet fully licensed when he worked his first shift at O’Neill’s pub in Ealing.

Earlier in the evening, with a group of friends, 27 – year – old Ealing man Nick Padget had been drinking in Chiswick. They made their way to O’Neill’s bar and by 01.00a.m. Nick Padget was the worse for wear and drunkenly, though, reportedly, not offensively, buttonholing and speaking to strangers.

Round about 01.00 a.m., as shown on CCTV, Griffith was ushering Nick and friends out of the pub but had targeted Nick for special attention and was marching him out in an armlock.

According to Griffith, Nick had called him both ‘a jobsworth’ and a ‘w****r’.

Nick had allegedly slapped Griffith, though some witness evidence stated that Nick had merely brushed Griffith’s face.

Whatever the reality of Nick’s behaviour the prosecution argued that Nick, being bumblingly drunk and, at 5’ 8”, standing 6 inches shorter than Griffith, presented no real threat to the dark-skinned doorman. Griffith, the prosecution continued, had over-reacted in anger and frustration and had delivered a needlessly forceful punch which was, for Nick Padget, a death blow.

Taken to Ealing Hospital Nick later died there and Griffith was charged with manslaughter.

Other issues raised by the prosecution were that having hit Nick Padget Griffith allegedly did not call an ambulance and did not tell fellow pub staff about the incident. He was also, when later questioned by his boss, said to have denied hitting Nick. All these matters notwithstanding the Old Bailey jury decided that Kevin Griffith was Not Guilty and the family of Nick Padget must have been left wondering how they would now lay to rest their understandably confused emotions.

We have included the killing of Nick Padget in this list on the basis that, had a powerfully-built white doorman been involved in the death of a defenceless coloured victim, the case and its lack of resolution would have become a cause celebre for the –anti-racist’ left and would without doubt have featured in the IRR list.

Neither the doctor nor experienced police officers had ever before witnessed such savagery. A police source was quoted as saying that John had been killed while trying to defend his 84-year-old neighbour Barbara Coliver. Barbara had been disturbed and confronted by a man in her home. Police officers arrived after midnight and found two blood-covered bodies on the floor. According to the IC London website, a neighbour said that John Cooper Taylor “was butchered. Even experienced Police officers had never seen anything like it.”

Taylor was widely respected by other residents in his closely-knit Croydon community. A handyman who undertook all sorts of repairs for his neighbours, John helped other elderly residents and also made weekly collections of recycling materials. His death shocked a community still reeling from the recent knifing of a young woman.

Homeless Rafiq Hassain Kasmin (48) was remanded in custody, till 02 October 2006, by Croydon magistrates. He faced charges of murder and attempted murder and was referred for trial to the Old Bailey.