Mother calls for detectives to work with social services

The mother of a schoolboy fatally stabbed in the chest while playing football said authorities should have seen the “warning signs” surrounding her son’s killer.

David Idowu, 14, was murdered yards from his house in Southwark in June last year. The church-going A-grade pupil had been due to give a speech opposing knife culture at a public speaking competition.

Congo-born Elijah Dayoni, 16, was jailed for a minimum of 12 years at the Old Bailey in January. He was already under a supervision order for shoplifting. He moved to Britain in 2000 and in the two years before the killing he had also mugged a man, been excluded from school for a replica gun and carried out a burglary.

David’s mother Grace, 49, said: “The warning signs were there. Social services, the police and the education system need to work closer together to identify these children. David didn’t know his killer. He was picked out for wearing the wrong uniform.”