‘There’s no end to this because the police don’t care and we don’t care’: Inside London’s gang hotspot
London is on track for the worst year of teenage murders on record.
“The people who are in the gangs don’t seem to have any care for life in the way the general public do. They just don’t care,” says PC Jim Hare.
He is part of a Metropolitan Police unit specifically tasked with targeting gang violence in north London.
Twenty-seven teenagers have lost their lives so far in the capital in 2021. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old boy who was savagely killed with a sword. For now, at least, the grim record stands at 29 murders in 2008.
The main reason for this year’s deaths is gang warfare in some areas – hotspots. There are about 200 identified gangs in London. Each known gang and gang member is ranked by the Metropolitan Police by how violent they are.
This list, of course, is kept within the force, but I’m told that of the 20 most dangerous gangs in London, about seven are based in and around Tottenham. This means a handful of the most feared and violent gangs in the whole of the capital live on each other’s doorsteps.
This is the reason we chose to spend six months there, investigating why there were so many gang-related murders this year.
What we found was a tale of tension and division between two very different communities – the people who live there, and the Metropolitan Police.
‘I’m not a gang member, I’m a family member’
Moses showed me some of his tattoos. He pointed at one on his fist which reads ‘FMD’. “That means Farm Mandem, that’s my crew. Cause I’m from Broadwater Farm!”
Moses is very well known on ‘the Farm’. He has lived his whole life there and is equally respected and feared by the community.
I had spent several weeks trying to meet him. He pointed to another tattoo on his arm.
“This one says RIP Mark Duggan man,” he told me. Mark Duggan was shot and killed by a police officer during an operation in Tottenham 10 years ago.
“Mark was my good friend, bro. I’ve got so many memories of this guy. Like many memories, we went and met girls together. We grew up together.
“And then we’re portrayed as criminals, as gang members, as this, as that. But have any of those people that portray us as that ever spoke to us and asked us how we feel as a person?”
So what actually is a gang?
“A gang is a group of street-based young people who engage in a range of criminal activity and violence,” according to the Metropolitan Police’s website.
It continues: “They may also have any or all of the following features: identify with or lay claim over territory, have some form of identifying structure feature, or are in conflict with other, similar gangs.”
It’s the last part of that sentence that really rings true. The conflict between the sheer number of gangs goes a long way to explaining why there have been so many teenage murders in the capital.
In Tottenham and Haringey, for example, there are several high-profile gangs which all border each other.
Corey Newton was a promising young footballer who narrowly missed out on his dream of professional sport. He fell into what he called “street life” as a teenager.
The evidence of his lifestyle is plain to see. He has a large scar under his left eye.
“What’s that from?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” he replied. “Don’t worry about it.” Corey wants to move on but I won’t let him.
I persisted: “Come on, what happened? Is that a stab wound?”
“Nah, man,” he said. “Someone hit me in the face with a huge padlock because they wanted my watch.”
He held up a gold Rolex. “But as you can see I still got it,” he told me with a proud grin.
Last year three of his best friends were stabbed to death in separate incidents. Now 26, he told me he’s trying to leave that world.
“Is it dangerous for you to walk about freely in Tottenham?” I asked.
“Let’s just put it like this,” he says, “I could be walking around here late at night, and if certain gang members are out to do stuff to each other on that particular day, and they happen to bump into me, they’re not particularly asking no questions because the younger generation today, they don’t give a f*** about who you are.
“If their bredren has died and they’re coming back to get revenge, it doesn’t matter who the f**k you are, you’re here, innit. That’s it. You’re gonna get it.”
Corey insisted he wanted to leave his past behind him.
As we said our goodbyes, he said: “Thank you for letting me tell my story. No one usually cares about us.”
‘A lot of things happen here but no one will ever call us about it, because calling the police is not the thing to do’
PC Jack Wilson told me this as we drove into the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham. “This place is known for tensions between the residents and the police,” he added.
There are many reasons for this tension.
The relationship between the Met and the community in Tottenham had been simmering for years, but it really broke down in the 1980s.
In 1985 Cynthia Jarrett, a 49-year-old black woman, died from heart failure after police entered her flat in the Broadwater Farm estate.
This led to a mass riot the following day in which PC Keith Blakelock, a riot officer working there, died after being stabbed 40 times by at least two knives and a machete.
Twenty-six years later, in 2011, a local man was shot and killed by a police officer during an operation. His name was Mark Duggan.
PC Keith Blakelock (L) and Mark Duggan
“The two things that everyone talks about around here are PC Keith Blakelock and Mark Duggan,” Inspector Niall O’Neill told me.
He runs the Met’s Violence Suppression Unit (VSU) in Haringey, and is known as “the Guv”. The unit was created in 2020 to specifically target violent and gang-related crime.
“Both incidents have affected policing here ever since. I know the public’s trust here isn’t what we’d like it to be, but we’re working really hard at it,” he added.
I spent several weeks with the unit during a troubled summer of violence. Their job is a difficult one. They are tasked with suppressing violence in an area known for it.
Not only that, but Insp O’Neill tasked his officers with connecting more with the community. Ease those tensions, bridge gaps, form relationships. But that is easier said than done.
While on patrol with the team I asked: “How do the wider community greet you guys when you go into their area?”
“Most of the time, terribly,” PC Hare answered.
“I personally think there’s a huge split in this area between police and the local community, which I don’t know if policing can do more to improve that. As a unit we really try to focus on it because that’s one of the keys to getting people to help us.
“A lot of people here don’t want to speak to us, a lot of the gang members don’t want to speak to us, or even the older community members don’t speak to us because maybe they feel the police are racist or we don’t do things correctly or we do it illegally.
“I’ll be honest, in my short time in the police, I don’t feel like I’ve met any racist police officers. The way we work is completely against that.”
I asked: “Do you enjoy your job?”
PC Dan Freeman replied: “Getting a knife out of someone’s pocket or out of a bag is why we do this. There’s no better feeling that. They’re only carrying that knife for one reason from my point of view.
“I’m not going to lie, right now, it’s the worst time to be a police officer, certainly in my career. The hostility towards police is the worst it ever has been.
“I’ve had my doubts along the way, of course, but we’re here to help people. That’s our job. We’re here to make people safe. And I love that idea.”
‘If you’re a white person then the Met are a police service. If you’re black, then they’re a police force’
Ken Hinds is a community activist in Tottenham, who was there for the 1985 and 2011 riots.
I asked him how the community would respond if police came to the area asking for information on a crime.
“Who the f**k are the police?” was his response.
“If you’re a white person then the Met are a police service. If you’re black, then they’re a police force”
The previous night, I was with the police as they drove into the Broadwater Farm estate for a routine patrol. “This is a completely different place at night. It has a very different atmosphere,” PC Freeman said as the team stepped out the van.
Seconds later, a group of young men saw the unit and run away. “We have runners!” PC Wilson shouted into his police radio.
The group of young men lost them, but two other members of the police unit ran around to the opposite side of the estate.
PC Freeman tackled one of the young men to the ground. “Hands behind your back now!”
He handcuffed him and told him he’ll be searched for weapons and drugs.
Seconds later, two young men gathered around and started watching. Then a third. Then a couple of older members came out to watch. I asked: “Why do they surround you guys?”
Insp O’Neill said: “They’re trying to intimidate us, they think they’re going to stop us doing our job.”
PC Hare continued: ‘You’ve got to be careful around here as the community will just come out from nowhere, asking what you’re doing.”
The community made their feelings clear. The police were not welcome there.
I met local resident, a woman called Paulette Campbell. Her son Marcel, 30, was murdered in a stabbing in 2018.
But Paulette was also at the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985. She told me: “So they locked up all of us black people in there, don’t you think that was gonna build a rage?
“And that rage was bubbling and bubbling and it just exploded.”
Paulette was one of the 359 people arrested and questioned over the murder.
She said: “I was stigmatised by the police when they kicked in my door, arrested me and took me into the station for three days and terrorised me for the death of a police officer I don’t know about, all because I lived on Broadwater Farm.”
I asked Paulette if she would ever forgive the police. “I don’t think so, no,” she replied.
During my six months in Tottenham, I asked everyone I came across for a solution. Here’s what some of them said.
Insp O’Neill: “I think it’s a long-term problem. It’s never going to be fixed overnight. I think we just always have to keep working at it. How do we make that better? It’s with the community’s help.”
Corey Newton: “There will be a solution but I’m not the person to tell you what that is. I might not even live to see the solution.”
Moses, the Broadwater Farm resident: “There’s no end to this because the police don’t care, and the community don’t.”
PC Hare: “There will be a solution to this problem, but it’s going to take for both sides to engage and sort out together.”
Teenage deaths in London in 2021
• Anas Mezenner (aged 17) died after being stabbed on 20 January 2021
• Romario Opia (aged 15) died after being stabbed on 26 January 2021
• Hani Solomon (aged 18) died after being stabbed on 12 February 2021
• Drekwon Patterson (aged 16) died after being stabbed on 19 February 2021
• Ahmed Beker (aged 19) died after being stabbed on 27 February 2021
• Tai Jordon O’Donnell (aged 19) died after being stabbed on 3 March 2021
• Mazaza Owusu-Mensah (aged 18) died after being stabbed on 6 March 2021
• Ezra Okobia (aged 14) died in a house fire (classed as homicide) on 6 March 2021
• Nikolay Vandev (aged 19) died after being stabbed on 8 March 2021
• Hussain Chaudhry (aged 18) died after being stabbed on 18 March 2021
• Levi Ernest-Morrison (aged 17) died after being stabbed on 11 April 2021
• Fares Maatou (aged 14) died after being stabbed on 23 April 2021
• Abubakkar ‘Junior’ Jah (aged 18) died after being shot on 26 April 2021
• Daniel Laskos (aged 16) died after being stabbed on 7 May 2021
• Taylor Cox (aged 19) died after being shot on 9 June 2021
• Denardo Brooks (aged 17) died after being stabbed on 11 June 2021
• Jalan Woods-Bell (aged 15) died after being stabbed on 11 June 2021
• Tashawn Watt (aged 19) died after being stabbed on 26 June 2021
• Camron Smith (aged 16) died after being stabbed on 1 July 2021
• Tamim Ian Habimana (aged 15) died after being stabbed on 5 July 2021
• Keane Flynn-Harling (aged 16) died after being stabbed on 6 July 2021
• Demari Roye (aged 16) died after being stabbed on 11 July 2021
• Stelios Averkiou (aged 16) died on 10 August after being stabbed on 1 August 2021
• Alex Ajanaku (aged 18) died after being shot on 21 August 2021
• Hazrat Wali (aged 18) died after being stabbed on 12 October 2021
• Kamran Khalid (aged 18) died after being stabbed on 28 October 2021
• On Thursday a 14-year-old boy, as yet unnamed, was stabbed to death in Croydon
Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has joined Reform UK, the party has announced.
The announcement of the party’s first member of the Senedd was made on Tuesday at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, Powys.
The annual event is Europe’s largest agricultural show and attracts thousands of visitors every year.
Laura Anne Jones was initially a member of the Senedd for the South Wales East region between 2003 and 2007, before returning in 2020.
She is the second high-profile defection from the Conservative party, after former cabinet minister David Jones joined the party earlier this month.
(L-R) Nigel Farage, David Jones and Laura Anne Jones at the news conference
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the latest defection was a “big step forward for Reform UK in Wales”.
Speaking at the news conference, Ms Jones said she had been a member of the Conservative party for for 31 years but that the party was now “unrecognisable to [her]”.
She said the Conservative Party “wasn’t the party that [she] joined over three decades ago” and that she could “no longer justify” party policy on the doorstep.
Ms Jones said Wales was “a complete mess” and that she now wanted to be “part of the solution not the problem”.
Reform is still without a leader in Wales, but Ms Jones did not rule herself out of the running for that position.
The defection comes with less than a year to go until the Senedd election, when voters in Wales will elect 96 members to the Welsh parliament for the first time – an increase of more than 50%.
Recent opinion polls have shown Reform UK and Plaid Cymru vying for pole position, with Labour in third and the Conservatives in fourth.
Ms Jones said she had not notified the Conservative Party of her defection before the announcement.
The party’s Senedd leader Darren Millar said he was “disappointed” with the announcement and that Conservative members and voters would feel “very let down by her announcement”.
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A former City worker is facing jail after he was found guilty of volunteering to spy for the Russians when he ran out of money in retirement.
Howard Phillips, 65, from Harlow, Essex, handed over the home address and landline for Grant Shapps, his local MP and then the defence secretary, during an undercover sting by MI5.
He told two officers posing as Russian agents he wanted to work in intelligence to avoid a “nine-to-five office” job after clearing out his savings by retiring at 59.
Howard Phillips. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Phillips was found guilty of assisting what he believed to be Russian intelligence service agents, in breach of the National Security Act.
Dressed in a dark suit and dark coloured tie, he shook his head and looked around the court as he was found unanimously guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court after four hours of deliberation.
He now faces a lengthy jail term after offering to provide logistical support for Russian agents across the world in the increasingly desperate hope it would bail him out of his money worries.
Jocelyn Ledward KC, prosecuting, said Phillips was “struggling financially” and seeking “interesting and exciting work for easy money”.
Phillips, who is divorced with four grown-up children, became an insolvency practitioner in 1986 and had worked for Bond Partners in the City. He had become self-employed in 2011 and then worked as a manager in the charity sector before moving to GDPR compliance in “semi-retirement” in 2018.
Phillips explained that he sent out hundreds of CVs and applied online, adding: “I was avidly seeking employment but none was forthcoming.”
He filled in an online application form for MI5 in 2014 and again in 2024, because he “wanted to act in the service of my country”, but found that they required a university degree.
Phillips began writing a series of increasingly fanciful letters to Conservative Party ministers, offering his advice on how to influence the electorate, and to Hollywood actors – including Tom Cruise and Jennifer Aniston – asking to meet and talk about how to get into the movie business.
However, his financial situation was “decreasing rapidly”. He had used up all the money he had gained from the sale of a property. He had a balance of £25,126.09 in his bank accounts on April 29 2023 but by May 20 2024 it had dropped to £374.48 after using his savings to pay off Santander credit card bills.
Phillips as he was arrested. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Phillips was filmed from multiple angles in an elaborate undercover operation which saw two MI5 agents adopting Russian accents to pose as agents of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, even though he had never heard of the organisation.
On 15 March last year, Phillips volunteered his services to the Russians in a letter intercepted by MI5.
In messages on WhatsApp, he claimed his name was David Marshall and said he was a “fully pledged British citizen, born in the UK to British parents and British grandparents etc” and had “several situations of utmost benefit to convey and offer”.
He added that he was “semi-retired” but had “connections in high places”.
Phillips was asked if he could prepare a document on a USB stick that would explain how he could assist Russian intelligence and deliver it to London on 4 April last year.
Jurors were played a covert recording of a meeting between Phillips and “Sasha” and “Dima” – two undercover MI5 officers – at the London Bridge Hotel on 26 April in which he told the men he wanted to work for Russia in exchange for financial independence from the UK.
He was arrested by plain-clothed officers in a coffee shop near King’s Cross station on 16 May last year.
Phillips denied materially assisting a foreign intelligence service to carry out UK-related activities under the National Security Act 2023.
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