Average age of murdered teenagers is just 16

The average age of teenagers murdered on the streets of London is just 16, an Evening Standard study has revealed.

We also discovered that children as young as 13 are being charged in connection with the deaths.

Even before the murder of 14-year-old Jack Large - who became the 25th teenager murdered in the capital this year - senior police officers described 2007 as the worst in living memory.

Jack, who died after being knifed on a Chigwell estate on 30 November, was one of 16 teenagers stabbed to death.

Another eight were shot and one was beaten to death.

Evening Standard study discovered:

• The ages of those charged in connection with the killings range from 13 to 22, with the average being 17.

• Sixteen of the victims were black.

• The youngest victims were both 14 - Jack and Martin Dinnegan, who was stabbed to death by a group of youths in Holloway in June.

• Out of the 25 murders, there have been charges in 14 cases.

• Arrests have been made in nine of the remaining cases.

• In the only remaining case there have been no arrests.

• In the only other case there has been a conviction - Courtney Daley, 18, who was jailed for nine years in August after being found guilty of the manslaughter of 18- year- old Dean Lahlou. The budding entrepreneur was stabbed four times in the chest while walking back to his family's home in Broadwater Road, Tottenham, on 9 January. Daley, who claimed he had acted in self-defence, was cleared of murder.

Detectives from Operation Trident, which tackles crime in the black community, and the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command admit there is growing concern that children are carrying guns and knives from an increasingly young age.

There are also fears about the ease with which teenagers can get their hands on powerful weapons such as automatic handguns or even sub-machine guns like Uzi-style Mac-10s. More than 50 children have been arrested for serious gun crime in London this year. The concerns about teenage gunmen led the Met to launch a hard-hitting advertising campaign aimed at children.

Commander Dave Johnston, head of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime unit, said: "While the murder rate continues to drop in London, we are deeply concerned about the trend of young people willingly carrying or using weapons. Often it is over very low-level disputes involving issues about respect or some minor matter."

The Met has one of the best detection rates for murder of any police force. But Mr Johnston stressed it is committed to trying to prevent the violence.

He said: "We are continuing to work with our partners to get a better understanding of the dangers, to encourage people away from carrying weapons such as knives and guns."

Mr Johnston said young people often did not set out to kill but by carrying a weapon, they made fatal injuries almost inevitable.

"Young people carry weapons out of bravado," he said. "The families who lose young people to murder have their lives ruined. The lives of those young people involved and their own families are also ruined. There are no winners."

As part of the crackdown on the teenage killings, Scotland Yard has launched an operation to tackle armed gangs across London.

It features a combination of tough enforcement measures and more radical initiatives taken from gangbusting tactics used in the US. These include "ceasefire summits" in which gangs are summoned to face-toface meetings with police chiefs and community leaders in an effort to halt their violence. The families of victims say the community itself needs to take the lead.

Delroy Elliott, whose 17-year-old son Anton Hyman was shot and stabbed to death in 2004, said: " The community need to stand up to these youths. Adults need to face them and speak to them about what they are doing. We need to go on the street and tell them our experiences, to show them how to better their lives."

Mr Elliott was supported by the brother of 17-year-old Rizwan Darbar, an A-level student and youth worker who was stabbed to death for a mobile phone in West Ham Park, Plaistow, in October.

Tausif Darbar, 19, said: "I know firsthand at least seven people who have had their kids or family friends threatened with knives by teenagers.

"It is to do with a lot of things with this generation. They are born with low family morals, have a lack of respect for authority, a lack of role models and may live in poverty. That is what hurts the most. Rizwan was the total opposite. He wanted to help kids and he had a lot of good role models and a good future ahead of him. He wanted others to realise their own futures."

THE 25 VICTIMS