Dying Damilola's last words

The last words of Damilola Taylor were "I'm okay, I'm okay" as he lay bleeding to death after being stabbed by a teenage gang, the Old Bailey heard today.

The 10-year-old had been ambushed and attacked in a "deliberate and controlled act of violence," and then callously left to die, it was claimed.

But he bravely insisted he was all right to a workman who had followed a trail of his blood to the stairwell of a block of flats in Peckham. Damilola was slashed with a broken beer bottle as he lay "trapped and helpless" surrounded by four older boys, the jury was told. A deep gash severed a major artery but as he started to bleed to death the gang simply ran away ignoring his pleas for help, the court heard.

Damilola collapsed less than 200 yards from his front door. He died within one hour of the attack, the court was told.

Damilola's parents Richard and Gloria watched from the back of the court this afternoon. Mark Dennis, prosecuting, said the gang alleged to be responsible for their boy's death had been waiting in a quiet Peckham side street for a young and vulnerable victim to rob. They picked on the tiny figure of Damilola because of his distinctive silver jacket.

Mr Dennis said: "In what can only have been a deliberate and controlled act of violence Damilola was stabbed in the left thigh just above his knee as he remained trapped and helpless.

"The response of all four boys was simply to run away leaving him lying on the pavement crying out for help. Not one of the boys went to his aid or summoned help or displayed any concern. It was an assault prompted by the motive of robbery but culminating in an act of gratuitous violence born of cruelty and bullying." The attack in November 2000 was witnessed at a distance by a 13-year-old girl who said she thought she knew three of those responsible and had seen the fourth around the North Peckham Estate. She took the brave decision a month later to ignore peer group pressure and contact the police, the court heard.

She saw the four defendants standing in a circle around Damilola. They were clearly unfriendly and one of them was pushing him.

One boy broke away, went up to some railings and returned with a bottle which he had broken against the railings and handed it to the boy who had been pushing Damilola.

Two of the four then turned away, one appearing to be acting as a look-out. The witness ducked out of sight so as not to be seen watching a street mugging.

"She did not, therefore, see who actually inflicted the fatal wound nor was she able to see whether any other weapon had been produced during the final assault," said Mr Dennis.

She saw the boys run off and heard Damilola crying for help. She ran after them then returned to see if Damilola was all right, having last seen him trying to sit up on the pavement and not realising how seriously he had been hurt.

In fact, Damilola managed to drag himself up three flights of steps. "Given his condition that must have been a very difficult and slow effort on his part because he was bleeding quite profusely by now," said Mr Dennis.

Carpenter Guillermo Casal, following a trail of blood up the staircase, came across Damilola who collapsed. He rushed to help.

"Damilola was obviously in a terrible state - the only words he was to utter thereafter were 'I'm okay, I'm okay - words indicative of a rather plucky and brave young boy," said Mr Dennis. "He was of course far from okay."

As he tried to help him, Mr Casal saw three black youths who apparently knew something about what had happened as one of them made eye contact with him and made a deliberate gesture with his hand across the top of his leg - where Damilola had been stabbed.

"You will need to consider whether these three youths may have been associated with the four defendants that afternoon and had just been told what they had done and they were coming to look for themselves and to see the aftermath," Mr Dennis told the jury.

Several workmen tried to help the boy and a policeman's efforts efforts to give mouth to mouth were unsuccessful.

The reason for this became clear at post mortem when it was found that a glass marble had been placed in Damilola's mouth. Despite all efforts he was pronounced dead in hospital an hour later.

The following day a pathologist found he had died from a single wound "caused by a combined stab and cutting action".

Four boys - two brothers now aged 16 and the others, one 14 and the other 17 - plead not guilty to murder, manslaughter and assault with the intention to rob.

They sat in the centre of the specially adapted courtroom at desks alongside their legal teams. The two brothers, one in a suit the other in shirt sleeves, looked around the court, the 17-year-old was slumped in his chair and the youngest just looked bewildered.

The jury was told that Damilola had been born and brought up in Lagos, Nigeria with an elder brother and sister. The family travelled to Britain just a few months before his murder so that his sister Bemi could receive specialist treatment for an illness at King's College hospital.

When it was clear that Bemi was going to need prolonged supervision and treatment the family decided to stay with relatives in Peckham to be close to the hospital.

On 6 September 2000 Damilola started at the Oliver Goldsmith primary school in Peckham Road, Camberwell, and in the weeks he had left to live he apparently made good progress with his work and was well liked by his teachers.

"He always seemed to be smiling and was never disrespectful," said Mr Dennis, and Damilola made friends and showed no signs of bad or disruptive behaviour.

But in November he became unsettled and complained to his mother about "a degree of bullying" as a new boy at school, but he buckled down and joined the computer club at Peckham library.

The judge told the jury today that he and the barristers were not wearing wigs and gowns as they would in a normal trial "to take in to account the age of the defendants." Warning the jury not to discuss the case with anyone apart from themselves, Mr Justice Hooper said: "This trial is going to attract a considerable amount of public interest so when you are at home or out, you might see somebody who wants to discuss the case - simply say you are not allowed to discuss this case.

"From now on you are the judges."

The trial continues.