Morning:
13°c
Murdered by drunk racist
Jack Lefley and Samantha Cairns18.08.08
A boy of 17 was killed in a racist attack in the street, his friends claimed today.
Nilanthan Murddi was slashed across the throat by a drunken white man who moments before is said to have hurled racial insults at him.
The teenager was chatting with about six friends in Sumner Road, Croydon, in the early hours of Saturday when a minicab pulled up at traffic lights.
The passenger, who was arguing with the driver, exchanged words with the group before being driven away. But he came back shortly afterwards and a fight broke out in which Nilanthan, known to his friends as Nilo, was stabbed.
Amir Butt, 23, said: "A minicab pulled up and there was a guy in the back who was really drunk who started shouting, 'You f***ing Paki'.
"Our friends were there and said, 'Look, mate, we don't want any problems, just go away because you're being racist'. Then the same guy came back and walked towards Nilanthan and threw a punch. He must have had a blade in his hand because he ended up with a slashed throat."
Nilanthan, from the Tamil community, is the 23rd teenager to be murdered in London this year and the 17th to be fatally stabbed. His friends tried to save him before ambulance crews and police arrived. Abi Uthayakumar, 17, said: "It was a little blade but blood just went everywhere. I took my shirt off to help and it was soaked right through."
Local councillor Mike Selva appealed for calm today. He said: "I am very concerned about community reactions because of the different races involved. It's very shocking."
The teenager's father, Ramuppillai, was said to be "inconsolable" while his mother Kalaimagal could be heard wailing inside the family home in New Addington. She had been at her sick mother's bedside in India when she was told of her son's death and flew home immediately.
Nilanthan's sister, Santhiya, 18, said her brother had recently given up studying A-levels at Langley Park School to work as a waiter at the family's Royal Masala restaurant in Purley.
She added: "My brother is gone but every day, every second we will be thinking of him. My mother is destroyed. My father cannot accept his only son is dead. He just keeps repeating the words, 'He's gone' over and over again."
Santhiya added: "He was kind and would do anything to help anyone."
Met detectives are trying to trace the driver of the minicab, a blue Ford Mondeo. Some residents claimed Nilanthan was connected to Tamil street gangs but police said there was no reason to suspect the attack was gang-related. Scotland Yard initially said there was nothing they were aware of to suggest the attack was racially motivated but are keen to hear from any new witnesses.
Detective Chief Inspector Tim Grattan-Kane said: "Anyone who saw the disturbance is asked to contact police."
A 31-year-old man arrested on Saturday was released on police bail pending further inquiries. Anyone with information should call the incident room on 020 8721 4066 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Reader views (11)
Nice to know that people in this country are so positive and tolerant! A 17 year old lad gets stabbed to death and all witnesses say he did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time yet you all blame him! You should be ashamed of yourselves.
If this country is broken it's because of uncaring, bigoted people like the previous three commentors - not because of young people, terrorists or even this Government (and I'm no fan).
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK
Why are all the people trying to pin the blame on the murdered boy? He’s friends and him were not the ones carrying knifes at 1.00am.
These people who write these comments are low life scum!
- James, Nw London
To Keith, You have a typical mentality you are sick,there is no evidence that the boy was in a gang, where you there at the time of the incident? No, so you don't know what happened, his friends said that the white drunk guy made racist insults, accept the fact that there are white people who are racist and until a member of your family gets killed is a racist attack then you will realise! To Sarah it doesn't matter what time of the night you hang out till no one has the right to kill someone!
And to Jimbob, there are people who use racist language in Croydon.
None of you have condemned the murderer shows how sick you all are!
Nilesh
- Nilesh Verma, london
It's amazing how people can make such heartless comments about a story in which a young man has died. The police have said it's nothing to do with gangs. Do you not believe there are racist white drunk people who can do this? Head in the sand methinks.
- David, London, Uk
"The simple fact that the attacker was white and the victim non-white makes it racist, doesn't it?" - Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
No Keith, saying 'You ******* Paki' before murdering someone makes it racist. Unless I'm horribly mistaken.
The increasing ambivalence of a large segment of London's population towards the street violence is pretty sickening. In every single comment here so far, the authors have more or less implied that, despite the narrative in the article, this poor lad somehow deserved it because:
- He was young
- He was loitering on a street at night
- He was associated with a gang (even though this did not appear to have anything to do with the murder)
Last time I checked, whilst being young and loitering on the streets isn't the world's greatest idea, it doesn't necessarily mean that you deserve to get murdered.
People need to stop dismissing or ignoring such crimes as being 'deserved' and actually try to make a positive contribution to the city, to try and help turn matters around. There are plenty of youth mentoring and other such schemes around. If we're ever going to solve this issue as a city, we have to first stop finding excuses and recognise that this is everyone's responsibility.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall
I'm not sure whether I'm disturbed about the attack itself, or the reactions of Jimbob and Sarah the most.
- Kristina, Soho
Yes, fair enough this might not be a true account of what actually happened but it doesn't change the fact that this man in the minicab murdered him. There's no way that it can be justified.
- Tara, London, UK
Racism cuts both ways, not just the conventional PC view about how bad the White English are to everyone else.
.....far from it in my experience!
- Cap, london, uk
Gang of teenagers hanging around the streets in the early hours of the morning and then they are surprised when trouble happens. Why do they think the majority of the population don't hang around the streets "chatting" in the middle of the night. Because the rest of us know it's a bad idea!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
"Some residents claimed Nilanthan was connected to Tamil street gangs but police said there was no reason to suspect the attack was gang-related"-of course they don't, it's far easier to pin a "racist" murder on a white man. The simple fact that the attacker was white and the victim non-white makes it racist, doesn't it?
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Our friends were there and said, 'Look, mate, we don't want any problems, just go away because you're being racist'
Yes, yes of course they did. That is exactly how people talk in Croydon.
- Jimbob, Kensington
