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Stabbed boy, 16, dies in arms of his mother after London gang fight

06 May 2010 21:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A teenage boy died in the arms of his mother after being stabbed to death by a gang of youths in south London, APA reports quoting telegraph.co.uk website.
Nick Pearton, 16, was attacked with such force that the blade of the knife snapped inside his body, police sources said.

His mother Kim Wooley, found him after he staggered to a shop near his home in Sydenham, and she cradled him as he died.

The victimâ€™s father, Vince Pearton, said the family was in deep shock.

"There’s nothing I can say, we can’t take it in," he said.

The stabbed boy was the seventh teenager to be killed in less than six weeks in London, and the 10th this year, raising new fears about the scale of gang violence.

Friends said that the victim died after a dispute between rival groups in a pre-arranged fight at a children’s playground in Sydenham.

Witnesses say a gang of up to 10 attackers armed with knives, baseball bats and sticks chased him across the Home Park Recreation Ground.

A former girlfriend, who asked not to be named, said Nick had gone to help friends after hearing of the planned fight with a rival gang. She said: â€œThis other gang came down to Sydenham and Nick’s gang went to fight them. He hadn’t realised it was happening and got a phone call.

â€œHis mum and girlfriend kept saying â€˜don’t go, don’t go.’ But he rushed out on his bike to help his mates. That’s when he was stabbed. They [mother and girlfriend] went after him and found him in the shop covered in blood. They were trying to save him before the ambulance arrived but he was just lying on the floor.â€

Nick was studying construction and maintenance at a local college and was one of the youngest in a family of around seven children.

According to his Facebook page, he attended Sedgehill School, in Lewisham, south London, until last year.

Dozens of tributes were paid to him online and a tribute page set up on the social networking site attracted more than 400 members.

Friends described Nick, known to some as Dred, as a "loud and bubbly" boy who always made people laugh and would be "dearly missed" by many.

Neighbour Lynn Brackley, 47, said: "I live just around the corner from where it happened and I came outside when I heard screaming.

"The woman screaming was actually my friend Kim who is Nick’s mother.

"She was so unbelievably distraught at that point I can’t even imagine the state she would have been in when she went to the hospital and she was told her son was dead.â€

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said several teenagers have been arrested but declined to provide details.