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MP Jeremy Corbyn |
MP’s plea for man who turned back on gangs
Accused jailed for part in attack that left victim brain damaged
MP Jeremy Corbyn made a heartfelt appeal in court on Monday on behalf of a man involved in a gang feud which left one dead and another with brain damage.
The youth, Yahya Salah, 21, was a friend of Mr Corbyn’s eldest son, Ben, from the time they both attended Acland Burghley School in Tufnell Park.
The Islington North Labour MP told Wood Green Crown Court that, while he was appalled by the violence shown by Salah during a gang attack in 2005, the young man had been extremely remorseful and was desperately trying to make amends by working in the community.
Salah, despite convictions for handling stolen goods and numerous breaches of Asbos and court orders, had so impressed as a youth worker that he had become a role model for other teenagers, the MP said.
“I don’t defend the activities of gangs. I deplore it, because my community suffers from the activities of gangs,” Mr Corbyn said.
“The events of that time were appalling and have to be condemned. But [Salah] has managed to significantly change around his life. He has realised that the only way [to change] is to not engage in this pointless gang culture.”
Mr Corbyn said that as a teenager Salah had been a visitor to his house.
“They are not angels, I know,” he said, as Judge Peter Ader challenged the glowing character references that made the accused “sound like peace campaigners”.
Mr Corbyn added: “He has given a lot of time to community work with young Somali people and shown a high degree of contrition.”
Despite the MP’s plea, Salah, from York Way, King’s Cross, was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to violent disorder.
The 2005 attack by the 13-strong “Camden Boyz” gang left 21-year-old Tottenham student Mohammed Nur for dead in the car park of a McDonald’s restaurant in Green Lanes, Harringay.
Mahad Adan, 21, of Hanley Road, Holloway, was jailed for eight years for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
In total, eight men pleaded guilty to violent disorder and five were convicted of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. They received 62 years’ jail between them.
The oldest member of the gang of 13 was only 20 at the time of the attack, which was launched by night bus from Camden Town after “bad blood” between Camden and Haringey gangs at a nightclub.
In the three years since the attack, several had made new lives at university or in work, as the judge acknowledged.
But the attack prompted a retaliation by a Haringey gang which led to an 18-year-old student being murdered in Camden Town in 2006, Judge Ader told the court. |
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