The mother of a 15-year-old machete murder victim accuses social services of failing to help get her son away from drug dealers who groomed him.
Joelle Taylor claims Greenwich Council refused to accept that Daejaun Campbell met their threshold for assistance until it was too late and failed to provide support for his family.
His friend, aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa, 14, nicknamed Grippa, featured in a YouTube video titled Gotta Eat, in which he was seen crouching beside a floral tribute to Daejaun.
Then on January 7, Kelyan was also fatally stabbed by two 16-year-old boys with machetes on a bus in the same borough.
Daejuan Campbell
Metropolitan Police
Both killings were linked to street gang culture.
Ms Taylor, whose son was exploited and groomed by older youths, told BBC Panorama: “There were so many opportunities to have safeguarded him, protected him, and they failed him.”
The programme said it had seen evidence that a Greenwich social worker eventually assigned to Daejaun’s case failed to turn up to two crucial meetings in the weeks before he was killed.
It is said when Ms Taylor emailed social services to say she was desperate for help, they failed to reply, until she chased them again a week later.
A day after his murder, according to the documentary, the council emailed Ms Taylor to rearrange one meeting, unaware that Daejaun was dead.
Daejaun Campbell’s mother, Joelle Taylor, speaks to the media outside the Old Bailey
PA Wire
Greenwich Council told the BBC it understands the “anger and devastation” of the parents of Daejaun and Kelyan, and that while knife crime “is not a problem specific to Greenwich”, it is “appalled by the violence that took place”.
Because of two ongoing safeguarding reviews, the council says it is “still unable to comment” on the circumstances.
The Standard approached the local authority for a statement.
In October, Imri Doue, 18, of Brumwell Avenue in Woolwich, was locked up for life with a minimum term of 21 years for Daejaun’s murder and having a machete.
His co-accused Marko Balaz, 19, from Sewell Road, Abbey Wood, received 11 years for Daejaun’s manslaughter and drugs offences.
Panorama – Knife Crime: What Happened to Our Boys? Is on BBC One at 8pm on Monday, February 9 and available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
