'Kamikaze kids with nothing to lose'

The trial has shone an unforgiving light on the working-class communities trying to rub together in unfashionable south London, but there is much more to Peckham than the picture of urban decay painted in court.

Millions are being spent on redevelopment which has seen old estates pulled down and replaced by tidy houses. New amenities have been built. The modern public library, where Damilola spent his final hours, is one of them.

New policing schemes have seen more officers recruited and patrolling. Ideas like the Karrot Initiative are trying to break the vicious cycle of low expectations among children and reward good behaviour.

Yet there is a male youth culture which is violent, nihilistic and misogynist, with codes, morals and values far beyond youthful rebellion.

Casually but expensively dressed teenage gangs might smash a window, steal a car, break into a flat or sell drugs. They take protection money from children and have been known to demand sex as payment in kind. They have also been known to stab each other. A lot of it is criminal. Most of it is mindless.

Camilla Batmanghelidjh runs Kid's Company, an independent youth project in Camberwell. " We call them Kamikaze Kids," she said. "Like suicide bombers they have nothing to lose. Many have been subjected to violence. Initially they hope for change but when it doesn't come they lose the capacity to feel. They say, 'I don't care if I go to prison or if I die'.

"There is one group I call the lethal lot. They do the stabbings. The non lethal lot are the 'business' kids, who may go to school but may also run for an adult drug dealer."

She says there are as many as 1,000 rootless, anti-social and potentially dangerous youths in the area and tells of the combination of factors required to turn a youth in difficult circumstances into someone who disrupts, threatens or kills. These include bereavement, family violence, poor living conditions and poor health of a parent.

Their situation means there is not a conspicuous amount of sympathy for Damilola. "For our kids, being attacked is the norm," she said. "Some say, 'We get stabbed all the time and no one pays any attention'." What is clear from police is that a small group of people are responsible for an alarming number of crimes.