Can the fight against teenage knife crime be won?
Pinned to the school gates is a poster of a young boy smiling. Alongside is another picture, but this time Zac Olumegbon looks almost solemn. Written above his photograph, in block red capitals, is the word murder. Below, is a notice from Scotland Yard requesting information about a getaway car used by the four young men who chased Zac, 15, from the gates of Park Campus School in West Norwood at 8.50am two weeks ago and stabbed him in a garden nearby. Zac was the 13th teenager to be murdered in London this year, equalling the total for 2009. His death has provoked an increased police presence on the streets of Lambeth, parliamentary debates and moved the prime minister to describe Zac’s fate as “absolutely horrific”. Yet to contextualise David Cameron’s vow to make knife crime a priority, it is necessary to return to another set of school gates, this time seven miles north in Maida Vale. Here, outside St George’s comprehensive, 15-year-old Learco Chindamo stabbed headteacher Philip Law
