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Final farewell to fun-loving Ben as friends don day-glo glasses
MORE than 1,000 mourners – many wearing day-glo sunglasses and colourful clothes – paid their last respects to schoolboy Ben Kinsella on Friday.
Ben, 16, was stabbed in York Way, Holloway, last month while trying to run away from trouble outside Shillibeers bar.
After weeks of peace marches and vigils, friends and relatives remembered him in happier times at the funeral service at St John the Evangelist Church in Angel, which was followed by a private ceremony at St Pancras Cemetery in East Finchley.
Many of those who lined the streets and crowded around the entrance of the packed church wore the day-glo sunglasses that were an essential fashion item for fun-loving Ben.
Other mourners wore colourful clothes in a break with traditional black, led by Ben’s sister, EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, wearing bright yellow.
In a heartbreaking card, she wrote: “Benjamina I love you – you were a beautiful star & now you will shine even brighter. I miss you so much. I love you even more. B x.” EastEnders stars Gillian Taylforth and Michelle Ryan attended the funeral.
Father Jim Kennedy called on the community not to let Ben’s pointless killing be in vain.
Recalling a “superb” letter Ben had written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on him to act over teenage killings, Father Jim said: “I want everyone to make a commitment to Ben that we will try to change the world.”
Part of the letter read out during the service was a tragic premonition of Ben’s own death, with its description of what it feels like to be stabbed and to die in the streets.
Father Jim called for those carrying knives to be given a sentence that “reflects the seriousness of the situation”. Ben’s purple coffin, decorated with a gold K, was carried out of the church to the Calvin Harris tune Girls, featuring the chorus “I get all the girls, I get all the girls”.
It wasn’t the only painful reminder of a young man cut down as his life was just beginning. Cheeky cards from friends and moving quotes on the order of service painted a picture of a young, popular man who loved life.
Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, are due to appear at the Old Bailey in October charged with Ben’s murder. |
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