Violent crime 'struggle' earns Damilola Taylor father OBE

12 April 2012

The father of Damilola Taylor today dedicated his OBE to the memory of his son, who was stabbed to death, and his late wife.

Richard Taylor was given the award in the New Year Honours for his crusade against violent crime.

Damilola, 10, bled to death in a stairwell in Peckham in November 2000 after a gang stabbed him in the thigh with a broken beer bottle. His father and mother, Gloria, set up the Damilola Taylor Trust the following year. Mrs Taylor died in 2008 aged 59.

Mr Taylor, 62, said "I dedicate this award to the struggle started by Gloria and in memory of the loss of Damilola's life. It's a continual battle and won't be won until the streets are safe.

"It was a really big surprise to get the letter congratulating me on being given the honour. People have asked me whether I'm going to get [an OBE] over the years and I just thought, when the time came it would be given."

He added: "We have to support young people and do what we can to get kids off the streets to make our communities safer. People need to feel safe."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in