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Facebook 'can help police stop teen murders'
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent29 Oct 2008
POLICE are targeting social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace to try to understand more about teenage murders.
Detectives believe the sites may be useful in predicting and even preventing killings.
They also revealed that 89 teenagers have been charged with murder in London in the past two years, many of them under special laws aimed at targeting gangs.
Scotland Yard is using the "joint enterprise" law to prosecute young people who get caught up in killings even though they may not have wielded a knife, fired a gun or struck a blow.
Meanwhile, the last two years have seen a record number of teenagers killed in the capital. In September, Craig Marshall, 19, became the 27th this year when he was attacked outside a tower block in Acton. Last year, 26 teenagers died.
Met head of homicide Commander Simon Foy said detectives were becoming more skilled at investigating and prosecuting gang murders. The Met's conviction rate for teen killings is more than 90 per cent.
But he said the force was looking at new ways to try to prevent deaths: "Whenever we have a murder we analyse whether there were events that could have predicted or prevented these events. One thing we are looking at are social networking sites. There is a lot of information about these events on these sites.
"I am not saying that there are murders being organised on Bebo or Facebook, but there is a lot of evidence and information from these sites about kids talking about what went on. We may be able to understand more about what happens in the build-up to these murders."
Police are increasingly using the internet as "open source" intelligence to investigate crimes of gang culture and youth violence.
Latest figures show that last year 53 teenagers were charged with murder in London. Six were aged only 13.
So far this year up to 12 October 36 teenagers have been charged with murder.
Recent statistics on knife crime show it has fallen by 10 per cent after the Met launched a huge stop-and-search operation. Detectives are cautiously optimistic after recording four weeks without a teenage murder.
Mr Foy described how the force was seeking to use the joint enterprise law. He said: "Youngsters will get charged with murder if there is strong evidence of their active participation, and we are getting better at that.
"When you get lots of kids ganging up on someone, which ends in their death, you will get the suspect who carries out the stabbing but you also get people running after the victim, tripping them up or shouting, 'kill, kill'.
"If we can prove there is a sequence of events and someone played a role in those events then we will charge them with murder."
This year, nine cases are awaiting trial where there are two or more defendants.
In May, three teenagers were convicted of murder and two of manslaughter after Paul Erhahon, 14, was attacked near his home in Leytonstone by a gang in April last year.
The Old Bailey heard some of the 17-strong mob were as young as 13 and older members were urging them to attack, shouting, 'Go on youngers'.
"The Met is pretty good at catching those responsible quickly and charging and convicting them," said Mr Foy. "We are employing that ruthlessness and remorselessness in catching these people.
"We hope this is a deterrent. We are inviting these children to think twice. There is nothing dignified about seeing young children weeping in court when they are convicted of murder."
