Ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was murdered in an act of gratuitous violence born of cruelty and bullying, Britain's Old Bailey central criminal court heard today.
The jury of seven men and five women sworn in on the full trial's opening day were told Damilola was confronted by a group of youths as he made his way home from his local library in Peckham, south east London, on November 27th, 2000.
Perhaps initially attracted by the distinctive coloured jacket which Damilola was wearing, the boys accosted him. He was stopped, surrounded and trapped, prosecutors said in opening remarks.
The jury heard that one of the boys grabbed a beer bottle, broke it and handed it to one of his accomplices. Within moments Damilola, who had arrived in Britain from Nigeria just four months earlier, was left fatally wounded with blood pumping from a pierced artery in his thigh.
He bled to death in a stairwell 200 yards from his front door.
Four teenagers, one aged 14, two 16-year-old brothers and a 17-year-old deny murder, an alternative manslaughter charge and assault with intent to rob.
Prosecutors said the murder was witnessed by a 13-year-old girl who knew three of the attackers and had seen the fourth round the south east London estate.
The quartet cannot be identified for legal reasons and law chiefs have made special changes to the courtroom and trial proceedings to avoid exposing them to intimidation, humiliation and distress.
The judge and barristers will not wear customary wigs and gowns. The defendants, who will be accompanied by parents or guardians throughout the trial, will sit at separate long tables below the dock.
The trial is expected to last between two and three months.