Croydon: This part of London was a teenage murder hotspot – then something remarkable happened

Three days have now passed since Croydon was dragged into the country’s spotlight, once again, for the wrong reasons.

The unimaginable murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Elianne Andam was too brutal and cruel for anyone to ignore.

And so it became the focus of a nation.

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But here we are today – 72 hours later – and most of the journalists have disappeared, onto their next story, and with them the cameras and microphones.

The crime scene has reopened, gone with it the blue and white police tape this community has seen far too often.

We are, after all, in the south London borough that so hates its nickname as the knife crime capital of England. A label once warranted.

“Croydon used to be so bad. So many kids were being murdered – and we felt every single one,” youth worker Anthony King told me.

“But we’ve worked so hard in the past two years, which is why young people haven’t been dying on our streets. This is why this one has been so hard to take. This has hit us in a different way. It’s so cruel.”

In 2021 more teenage murders happened here than any other area of London. There was too much blood, too many tears.

But then something remarkable happened.

The local community joined forces with the police and social services to roll out a revolutionary programme that would reach out to the young gang members who were responsible for the killings.

It worked. In 2022 there was not one single teenage murder here. It was a huge success, endorsed by the Mayor of London and rolled out in every troubled area in the capital.

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It led to even more success.

Then, on Wednesday morning, on a busy street in broad daylight, Elianne was killed on her way to school in front of her classmates.

It was the first teenage murder in Croydon in 22 months.

The previous victim was 14-year-old Jermaine Cools who was stabbed to death in 2021 with a machete, just around the corner from this week’s atrocity.

“This week has shocked this community to its core. We’ll never get over this. But we can’t forget the progress we’ve made – and we’ll keep fighting for our children,” Anthony added.

Jermaine’s father Julius doesn’t quite share the optimism.

“None of these people know what it’s like to lose a child,” he told me.

“They keep telling people things have changed here. This week has shown that it hasn’t. Nothing has changed.”

There is no doubt this borough has changed the way communities in London tackle knife crime.

But, for now, the blood and tears have returned to Croydon.

And this time, the victim is a young girl.