The BBC Panorama documentary on the deaths of two teenage boys in Woolwich shocked many viewers – but for a former local councillor in the area, what she saw came as no surprise.
In the hour-long programme, which was broadcast on Monday, Daejaun Campbell’s mother accused Greenwich Council social services of failing to help the 15-year-old get away from the drug dealers that had groomed him before he was murdered on Eglinton Road in September 2024.
Kelyan Bokassa, a friend of Daejaun’s, was murdered on a bus in Woolwich Church Street the following January. The 14-year-old had also been groomed, and his mother also believes he was let down by the authorities.
Social media posts showed both boys had visited a block on the Barnfield Estate where a flat appeared to have been used for drug dealing, Panorama reported.
The council’s leader, Anthony Okereke, said he understood the “anger and devastation” of Jodian Taylor and Marie Bokassa, but could not comment until reviews into the cases were completed. The council told the BBC the reviews would be published by the end of next month.
The former Shooters Hill councillor Ivis Williams, whose ward included the street where Daejaun died, told The Greenwich Wire on Monday evening she had seen “so many similar experiences in my local community”. As a local councillor, had attended a vigil held in Eglinton Road after Daejaun’s death.
“I watched it with my children, my son who is 24, and my daughter, who is 14 and between them they have far more direct experience of this than I do,” she said. “They have seen it in schools and while growing up on the Barnfield Estate. It is only by God’s grace that so many of our young people manage to stay on the right path, it can’t be easy for them.
“As I said back when Daejaun was murdered in Shooters Hill ward during my time as a councillor, it is absolutely heartbreaking, and urgent action is needed to protect young people. It is deeply sad that the schools and authorities so often fail to intervene early enough.”
Taylor told Panorama that as Daejaun slid deeper into gang culture, she asked Greenwich Council to move him out of the area, even offering to give up parental responsibility. But the council said he did not qualify for that level of intervention.
By the time the council accepted the seriousness of the situation, with Daejaun regularly going missing, a new social worker missed two important meetings to make a plan for his safety.
By the time social services emailed to rearrange the meeting, Daejaun was dead. One of his killers, Imri Doue, was known to the police and council as another victim of grooming.
Nobody has been brought to justice for grooming Daejaun or Kelyan.
In a lengthy statement, Okereke said: “Knife crime is not a problem specific to Greenwich, but we were appalled by the violence that took place on our streets.
“We’re never doing enough until there are no knives in pockets, which is why we’re supporting outreach programmes, educating young people, working with mental health teams in schools and providing practical solutions like weapon amnesty bins.
“Two separate statutory child safeguarding practice reviews are currently under way exploring the partnership involvement with both boys, which will be published imminently. Because of this, it would be premature to comment in detail until we have established the facts and circumstances surrounding their lives.
“We have been in contact with both families to offer our support and update them on the review process.”
The documentary was broadcast just 11 days after the council confirmed plans to close three staffed adventure play centres as part of budget cuts. It insists that the revamped service will be an improvement on what came before, despite the loss of staff. Opposition councillors are challenging the decision.
Williams, who resigned last year after falling out with the Labour leadership over plans to sell council land in her ward, told The Greenwich Wire: “I do hope that Greenwich can allocate sufficient resources in the upcoming budget cycle to ensure that effective prevention measures are properly put in place to minimise the risk of children exploitation and grooming.”
The borough’s Labour councillors were warned in advance about the documentary in an email from the cabinet member for children’s services, Adel Khaireh, telling them what the town hall’s response was and what it was doing.
But the eight Conservative, Green and independent councillors only found out about the broadcast from other sources – even though all the borough’s councillors are considered “corporate parents” with legal responsibilities towards children in care, which Kelyan Bokassa briefly was, according to Panorama.
One councillor frustrated at being kept in the dark was Williams’ successor, Green councillor Tamasin Rhymes, whose Shooters Hill ward includes the Barnfield Estate, which was at the centre of the documentary.
Rhymes said before the programme was broadcast: “As a council we owe it to Keylan, Daejaun and so many others to not play politics with their memories. It’s completely unacceptable and symptomatic of the way Greenwich Labour treats its residents and their representatives for this to be a political discussion.
“Our thoughts are, as always, where they should be, with the victims of violence and their families.”
Asked why Rhymes and other councillors had not been told about the documentary, a council spokesperson emphasised it was policy to keep cabinet members and the council leader informed. They said: “A briefing was sent to senior council officers, along with the leader. The relevant cabinet members have been briefed throughout the process.”
Knife Crime: What Happened to Our Boys? is on BBC iPlayer.
BBC London report used by arrangement with BBC Local News Partnerships. Amended at 11.30am to clarify who sent the email to councillors about the programme.
📩 Follow The Greenwich Wire on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn or Threads. You can also sign up for WhatsApp alerts – or subscribe to our emails through the blue box above.
You must be logged in to post a comment.