Dea-John Reid deserves justice

But after all the protests about George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and fury about the slave trade, how much has really changed?

Judging by the reaction to the killing of Birmingham schoolboy Dea-John Reid, not much.
I can’t understand why people are not furious about this. Here is what happened.

Dea-John, a 14-year-old black boy from Birmingham, was killed by a gang in the city in 2021. The case went to trial last year.

It is a really shocking story.

He was killed one evening in May, following an earlier altercation between two groups of teenagers. Accounts of the earlier dispute vary, but nothing could justify what happened next.

Dea-John was chased down a busy street by a group of five males, including two grown men. Witnesses reported that racial slurs were shouted during the case. One member of the gang, 14 at the time, killed him with a knife.

A 14-year-old black boy chased by five people and stabbed to death: his mum said he was “hunted by a lynch mob reminiscent of (1988 American film about a racist murder) Mississippi Burning”.

Following the earlier altercation, the boy who killed Dea-John had phoned George Khan, 38, who was drinking in a pub with 35-year-old Michael Shields. They collected the three boys in Khan’s car and “set off to hunt down the Dea-John group” the court was told. “Khan carried out the plan to seek retribution forwards and actively encouraged the attack,” the prosecuting barrister said.

According to a witness, Khan pointed and shouted, “Oi, you n*****s.” The court was told that a witness heard one of the gang shouting that they were “going to get the black bastard”. Dea-John and his friends ran but he went in a different direction from the group to get away.
Khan and the other defendants ran after him.

A witness said the men had their tops off and used them to cover their faces while carrying weapons. One was brandishing what looked like a screwdriver. Khan allegedly shouted “bang him out” and “f*** him up” to one of the teenagers. The court was told that the group prevented him from escaping.

This 14-year-old lad had asthma, ran out of breath, was caught, stabbed and killed. Imagine it: chased by adults, cornered, stabbed and killed. All of it taking place on the streets of Birmingham fewer than two years ago.

And then: four of the five defendants — who all chased him — were found not guilty by an all-white jury. The fifth, now aged 15, was convicted only of manslaughter and is likely to be free in less than three years.

Someone in Birmingham said to me: “A gang shouting racist abuse, a black boy stabbed. What lessons have been learnt?”

Tensions were running high after the attack. Dea-John’s mum, Joan Morris, called for calm in the black community. They listened because they trusted the authorities. Imagine how disappointed and let down she and her family must feel now.

Surely the adults responsible should not be free to walk the streets of Birmingham.
I can’t understand why this is not a national scandal. Why am I the only person to speak about it at any length in Parliament? Why is the media not campaigning about this?

What can ministers, the police or CPS do to bring at least Khan and Shields to account for their roles?

Is it right to have an all-white jury in a city as diverse as Birmingham, sitting in a case where a black boy was killed by a gang said to have hurled racial abuse?

Are there any campaigning lawyers or journalists who will take up this cause?