Relative Of The Killers Of Damilola Taylor Receives Award, Despite Boast Of Robbing On The Internet

A relative of the killers of Damilola Taylor has been awarded an OBE despite boasting about robbing people in an internet video.

Former drug dealer Chris Preddie – the cousin of brothers Danny and Ricky Preddie who killed ten-year-old Damilola – appears in the footage claiming to have mugged victims with his gang.

Mr Preddie, 24, was listed in the New Year Honours for his work helping young offenders.

But the award has angered Damilola’s father, Richard Taylor, who said he was ‘totally against’ Mr Preddie receiving it

Mr Preddie, of Finsbury Park, North London, was involved in gangs and sold cannabis until the age of 16. He then began working for Crimestoppers as a campaigner and is now a rap poet who tries to save teenagers from crime.

He claims to have been raised in North London  and had no contact with his cousins, who are from Peckham, South London. But in a five- minute internet documentary about him in 2007, it is claimed he grew up in the South London neighbourhood where ‘Damilola was murdered’.

The documentary adds that Mr Preddie left Peckham only after his cousins were convicted of the killing.

In the video – called His Life In Rhyme – Mr Preddie is seen walking around Peckham where he says he spent his childhood.

In one scene, he walks under a railway arch where he claims he and his gang used to ‘rob’ people and take drugs. He says to camera: ‘These are the parts where we just used to smoke, hang out, wait for victims to come, so that, basically, rob people and stuff like that. I think this was like the  robbing grounds.’

But when asked by this newspaper if he robbed anybody, Mr Preddie replied: ‘I never per se robbed anybody. If I did rob anyone, I would have got arrested and I would have got a criminal record, so no. I was obviously peer-pressured, and sometimes you fall to peer pressure. Once again, she [the documentary reporter] placed it in my mouth.’

murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor who was
stabbed to death by
Chris Preddie's cousins

When we asked if he grew up in South London, Mr Preddie said he ‘spent time there’ as his maternal grandmother was from the area.

Mr Preddie’s mother, Mauricia John, criticised Mr Taylor for saying her son should not have been honoured.

‘Damilola Taylor’s dad is p****** me off now,’ she said. ‘I feel sorry for him but my boy’s a good boy. If Damilola’s dad messes it up for him, I’ll go and see him personally.

Mr Taylor said: ‘I don’t want to engage in a war of words with her. I have made a principled comment, where I said Chris Preddie should not get this award. There are people who have done really good work after losing their loved ones in the community. They should get the honour, not him.

‘As far as I know it was a Preddie that robbed me of a loved one.

Damilola died in November 2000 after being stabbed in the thigh with a  broken beer bottle.

The Preddie brothers were convicted of manslaughter and jailed for eight years in October 2006.

Danny, now 23, has since been freed, but Ricky, 24, who was released in September 2010, was recalled to jail last March for breaching his parole.