John Boyega, one of the new young stars of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was one of the last people to see Damilola Taylor, the 10 year old schoolchild shockingly murdered on the streets of London by a gang in 2000, alive.
Damilola Taylor’s horrifying death made national headlines 15 years ago, and Taylor’s father has revealed that Boyega and his sister Grace would have been some of the last people to see his son alive, as they were very close as children.
John Boyega was a close friend of Damilola Taylor, the schoolchild shockingly murdered in London in 2000
Richard Taylor told the Daily Mirror on Wednesday (December 23rd): “Damilola and John and Grace were so close. They were looking after him when he arrived in the UK, because they went to school together. The three of them were captured in the CCTV recording that the police used when they asked people to come forward to assist with the investigation.”
Taylor, who attended the London premiere of The Force Awakens last week alongside Boyega’s proud family, added: “Grace became so close to Damilola – it was almost like boyfriend and girlfriend. They were the last to see him. They wanted to escort him home, but he said he was going to be OK. They left him by the junction then he went around the corner and the gang were waiting for him.”
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Damilola was killed with a broken beer bottle by a gang as he walked home from school in South London in November 2000. He was found bleeding to death in a stairwell near his home, and two workmen tried to resuscitate him in vain. Two teenagers were convicted of his manslaughter in 2006.
This revelation comes soon after Boyega, who plays former Stormtrooper Finn in the new movie, nominated the Damilola Taylor Trust as one of the charities that will share in the £1.35 million raised by the initiative ‘Star Wars: Force for Change’. “Recently there was an email from the US saying that John had nominated the Damilola Taylor Trust to receive a donation from the film’s launch. I was overwhelmed. It filled me with joy.”
Taylor concluded: “I thought ‘Oh wow, Damilola could have been working with him as an actor.’ Damilola was acting in primary school – in Christmas plays, school plays, reciting poems and all that kind of thing.”
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