Estate of decay

A few yards from where Kayser Osman was stabbed to death, scores of new homes are going up in the Church End estate, neat little two-storey affairs with gardens. Round the corner two bobbies are patrolling the estate, one black, one white. For a moment it is an image of peace and security. But the appearance is deceptive. This is one of the poorest, most crime-ridden parts of London and, according to many people who have to live here, it is no surprise 15-year-old Kayser was killed by a 14-year-old boy - with a knife brought to him by his cousin aged 11.

The older youth, now 15, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter on Monday, and was told he faces a long time locked up after sentencing next month. His cousin, now 12 - the youngest person to face a murder charge at the Old Bailey in modern times - was acquitted.

The killing followed a street scuffle in March. Kayser, whose family had come to Britain from their war-torn homeland of Somalia in 1989, had previously been bullied by other teenagers. The boy who stabbed him has a low IQ and at times lived an almost feral life after being brought from Jamaica to London.

The tragedy horrifies but does not greatly shock many residents of the estate in Harlesden.

Asked if the future looks positive, Pawan Gupta, a tenants' leader, gives a hollow laugh. "It's like a war zone," he says. At night the guns and knives come out. Mr Gupta reels off recent incidents: a man shot in the leg; another shot in the hand; the time masked gunmen came round looking for someone - fortunately they could not find him and drove off. Muggings and burglaries are rife.

Despite millions of pounds of government money poured into the area, it is still filled with symbols of decay. Graffiti covers every wall, the gardens of flats condemned to demolition pile up with broken bicycle wheels and old carpets. Every darkened stairwell seems to hide a youth doing a drug deal.

Anyone looking for signs of hope in this corner of north-west London, a stone's throw from the notorious Stonebridge Park estate, should avoid the place where Kayser died. A scrappy patch of grass next to a block of flats so shoddily built they resemble a giant Portakabin, there is no memorial, no flowers: just an abandoned fridge, an old cooker and half a broken chair. If someone wanted to prove how little they cared they could not have done a better job.

The deadening combination of crime, violence, poverty and despair has an inevitable effect on people's lives. Anne is a 36-year-old with five children who has lived on the estate 12 years. "If I could get out of this area tomorrow, I would," she says.

"It's not safe. There are a lot of teenagers with nothing to do. So they end up doing what they're not supposed to. I've seen drug deals. I've called the police twice and got no response. I don't think the kids care if anyone sees them. They realise the police are not a threat." After dark she will not let out her children, aged four to 16.

If a child gets a new bike, chances are it will be stolen. If a parent knows who did it, says Anne, they are too frightened to confront them. "You don't know what they will do." She, like just about everyone on the estate, would not give her full name or have her photo taken.

Ironically, Anne's family is one of those who have been moved to a new home. Four years ago, Brent council handed over 750 homes on the estate to Fortunegate Community Housing as part of an urban regeneration scheme. Fortunegate, a subsidiary of Ealing Family Housing Association, got £24 million government funding. "It's worse," Anne says. "I wish they had left me where I was." Mr Gupta cites people calling the police when they were being broken into, and failing to get a response.

Once it was his home: three times he called the police, and every time they failed to turn up the gang came back and had another go at smashing the reinforced glass on his door. The result, he says, is teenagers carrying weapons with impunity.

"I've heard of 10-year-olds with guns. They know the police aren't going to come round unless someone dies." And the two constables on the estate? It does not take a cynic to work out journalists would be around after the Osman verdict.

Community activist Cheryl Townsend has seen the problems from the other side - children who suffer from being brought up in such a tough environment, who have problems at school and are let down time and time again by the authorities meant to help them. "It's a nightmare for a child here," she says. "If they don't act in a certain way they stand out, and are more likely to be picked on by other children belonging to a crew."

There are still people who claim it is a good place to live. Mona, an Irishwoman who has lived here 14 years, says: "It's all right. My kids are all right. You keep your nose out of people's problems and you get no bother. Black, brown, no matter. But if you're messing about with drugs you're going to get bother."

Yet the more she talked, the worse it sounded: neighbours burgled while in their bedroom or near their flat; advice that children should not be left in the playground after 6pm.

"Yes, the young generation are wild. If you've got sense don't go in alleyways at night. All they want is money for drugs. No matter how they get it, they're going to get it."

That was the message from one of Church End's proudest champions.