Friday, July 18, 2008

Facebook taunts lead hoodie gang to stab teenager yards from home

A teenager was stabbed to death in the street in a dispute over insults traded on the Facebook website by rival gangs.

Freddie Moody, 18, was found bleeding to death outside a row of town houses worth up to £1million, one of which is owned by Tory justice spokesman Edward Garnier.

The victim is thought to have been attacked by up to eight youths because a gang from another estate blamed him for abusive messages posted anonymously on the social networking site.

His killing near his home in Stockwell, South London, on Thursday evening saw him become the 21st teenage fatality in the capital this year and the fifth in the last month.

Teenagers who knew Freddie said anonymous profile identities had been set up to leave abusive messages on other youths' pages, with one accused of being homosexual.

Barimah Yaw, who hosts an African radio show in the area, said: 'It happens all the time  -  these kids are using internet sites to insult each other to the point where it's become a form of fighting on line.'

A police source confirmed that accounts on Facebook and sites such as MySpace and Bebo were being looked at.

Freddie, who was nicknamed 'Mischief', had told his mother, Mary, that he was going out for a few minutes and would be back for dinner.

Half an hour later a neighbour rang her doorbell and said he had been stabbed.

Detectives said he was knifed in the stomach by up to eight youths in hooded tops.

He was apparently trying to run home when he collapsed. Neighbours tried to staunch the bleeding with towels.

Sharon Smith, 23, said: 'Everyone was trying to talk to him to keep him awake. You could tell he wasn't going to make it because his eyes were just rolling back.'

The teenager died shortly afterwards in St Thomas' Hospital, surrounded by his family.

A tribute page set up on Facebook described him as 'a true fallen soldier', a phrase associated with murdered gang members. But friends and relatives insisted he was not involved in criminal behaviour.

Freddie went to Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham until he was 16, beginning a one-year business studies diploma course at Kingston College last September.

Staff said he had made a 'positive contribution', but he dropped out two months later over what a spokesman called 'external issues'.

He lived with his mother, stepfather Ernest Amoakoh and younger sister Tamara.

The area where the stabbing happened is close to two large estates but also near the enclave of Edwardian town houses, one of which is owned by novelist Will Self and another by Mr Garnier.

The MP said he arrived home from the House of Commons on Thursday evening to see the teenager's body lying under a blanket yards from his front door.

He said his house had been broken into several times, two of his three children had been mugged just outside, and he has also had cars stolen.

'Clearly this is a desperate tragedy for the victim's family, but on a wider level it is a prime example of what David Cameron has been saying about Britain's broken society.'

Police arrested a 16-year-old in nearby Brixton soon after the attack but are seeking several other suspects.

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