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Ben Kinsella’s father being comforted by the teenager’s great uncle Des at the Old Bailey |
Ben family: ‘young offenders get easy ride’
THE great uncle of stabbing victim Ben Kinsella believes Islington Council must do more to stop teenage criminals re-offending – and he wants to send in one of his siblings to sort out the system.
Des Kinsella, 52, told the Tribune young criminals are getting an easy ride and more and more re-offenders are being allowed to slip through the net.
He said he would like one of his family to sit on the board of Islington’s Youth Offending Team (YOT) – which monitors supervision conditions imposed on young offenders after they are released from prison – helping to single out potential troublemakers.
Mr Kinsella told the Tribune: “Islington Council need to get some proper people on this team. Who are they? They are not family members of victims of knife crime. They would be looking more to stopping them from re-offending. That is why knife crime just keeps repeating itself.”
One of Ben’s killers, Michael Alleyne, was being monitored by staff at Islington YOT who had agreed to implement a less strict supervision regime.
Problems facing YOT over re-offending rates were raised by the Tribune in August 2008 after it emerged that Joseph Chin, who stabbed 14-year-old Martin Dinnegan to death in Holloway in 2007, had been downgraded in the same way.
The Tribune has learned that following the murder, an independent review of the system found a breakdown in communication between youth workers on the team and probation officers working for the court service.
The report, from the Youth Justice Board, has led to an overhaul of procedure.
Ben:‘Families of victims can help stem knife crime’
A MEMBER of Ben Kinsella’s close-knit family has criticised the Town Hall over its monitoring of young criminals – and pressed for families of victims to be given a role in sorting out the system.
Ben’s great uncle Des, 52, told the Tribune not enough was being done to stop young offenders falling back into a life of crime and the focus was too heavily on cushioning their return to society.
He was speaking after an Old Bailey judge sentenced three of Ben’s killers to a minimum of 19 years on Friday. Michael Alleyne, Juress Kika, both from Holloway, and Jade Braithwaite, from Camden Town, were all known to Islington’s Youth Offending Team (YOT).
“Islington Council need to get some proper people on this team,” Mr Kinsella said. “Who are they? They are not family members of victims of knife crime. If they were, you wouldn’t get this situation where the focus is more of helping the offender. They would be looking more to stopping them re-offending. That is why knife crime just keeps repeating itself.”
He said the family had been shocked to learn Alleyne had recently been released from a young offenders’ institution and that his supervision programme had been downgraded in the days before the attack.
Mr Kinsella said: “At the sentencing he was shouting at us as he was led away. There was no hint of remorse. He was clearly not the type of boy who was just going to stop committing crime.” The detective inspector in the case, John Macdonald, told the Tribune that Alleyne was “naturally violent”.
Mr Kinsella added: “Everything has got too lax. There need to be stronger deterrents because these lads are not frightened about getting caught. They have no value for life.”
Asked if one of his family would work with Islington YOT, he said: “I am sure one of us would be interested. Our niece is heavily involved in campaign group Mothers Against Murder and Aggression. She would be delighted to help.”
Lib Dem council leader Terry Stacy said yesterday (Thursday): “I will shortly be meeting the Kinsella family. One of the issues we’ll be discussing is how victims of crime and their families can be more involved.”
Alleyne had been released from Werrington young offenders’ institution three months before the murder. A former pupil of Highbury Grove School, he had served half of an 18-month sentence for dealing heroin and crack cocaine. The 18-year-old was given a curfew and ordered to wear an electronic tag as part of his supervision order. But days before his murder the conditions were downgraded by probation officials working for the courts service.
Mr Kinsella said: “The fact is he wouldn’t have been out and able to stab Ben if he had not been released early.”
Kika, a former pupil of Highbury Grove, was wanted by police over a stabbing in Gillespie Road, Highbury, 10 days before the attack. Braithwaite had been sentenced to a year behind bars for a violent mugging of another schoolboy, but this was later changed to a community order.
The problem of re-offending rates and communication between Islington and the courts surfaced during another Old Bailey trial last August. Joseph Chin was serving a 12-month supervision order for violent robbery when he stabbed Martin Dinnegan, 14, to death in June 2007.
Chin, 16, was meeting face-to-face with Islington’s YOT on a daily basis, 25 hours a week. But, just like Alleyne, in the days before Martin’s murder Chin’s level of monitoring was “lowered” to just one day a week. Just like Alleyne, his curfew restrictions were cancelled and his electronic tag removed.
It is felt Islington YOT – a group of 50 youth experts set up to stop offenders falling into a life of crime – could have done more to warn the probation officials not to downgrade supervision of Alleyne and Chin.
But the Tribune has learned of a breakdown in communication between Islington YOT and the probation service. An independent investigation was launched by the Youth Justice Board after Alleyne was charged with the murder. It led to an overhaul of the system and probation officials now sit on the board and an officer works on a day-to-day basis with the team in its Highbury headquarters.
A council spokeswoman said: “Information sharing between the council, police, probation services and others has been improved, not least through setting up a ‘Bronze’ multi-agency group which co-ordinates services to young people at risk of committing violence. We now have a probation officer based with the YOT and a senior manager from London Probation serves on the YOT management board.”
Michael Mackay, manager of Islington YOT, said the probation service was now “embedded” in Islington’s system.
Ben was stabbed 11 times after celebrating completion of his GCSE exams in Shillibeers Bar, in North Road, Holloway. A council spokesman said this week that metal detectors were now being used during late-night events at the bar and CCTV had been improved.
J Man, the goalkeeper whose mum watched every match
AS a boy, Jade Braithwaite distinguished himself as a promising player for St Pancras Football Club in an Islington youth league.
He was named Player of the Year three times and won a haul of medals for “The Saints” youth teams until 2003 when he was snapped up by scouts at Arsenal.
It seemed he had a bright future ahead of him, but just four years after leaving the club he adored, the saint had turned sinner.
Jade, or “J Man” as he was known locally, was 19 at the time of the stabbing last June. He was branded a “coward” by the judge during sentencing on Friday and described as the “weak party” by the detective in the case, after he cracked under interrogation and began blaming his mates for the knifing. He looked terrified as he was led out of the court in handcuffs to the cells.
It was not the first time he had been in trouble. In 2007, he was given a one-year sentence for a “cowardly and vicious attack” on a schoolboy. It was later changed to a community order. He had admitted repeatedly punching the boy and stamping on his face.
Dozens of his early football matches for “Super Saints” in the Camden and Islington Youth League were chronicled in the sports pages of Tribune’s sister paper, the Camden New Journal. A match report of a cup clash with Lyndhurst in August 2001 said: “In the end, Braithwaite proved the hero of the hour after making two magnificent saves in a nerve-racking penalty shoot-out.”
It was his first match in goal – he normally played centre back – but he obviously got a taste for it because it was his talent between the sticks that attracted Arsenal’s youth scouts. In 2003, he spent seven months on trials at Highbury. It would have been exciting times for the youngster because manager Arsene Wenger’s famous youth development project was beginning to define the Premier League club.
But he did not quite make the grade and began training as a coach in Chalk Farm and working with a team in Primrose Hill.
Old acquaintances said they were “gobsmacked” to hear he had been involved in a murder. He was remembered as “polite” lad, an “awkward” lanky beanpole and a team player. He was cherished by his mum, who attended every match he played as a boy. She was in the public gallery on Friday to see him start his life sentence.
Something happened to Braithwaite as he entered his late teens. Whether he fell in with the wrong crowd is unclear, but the phone call he made to accomplices Michael Alleyne and Juress Kika that night last June will haunt him forever.
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