The brothers who were found guilty today of killing 10-year-old Damilola Taylor have a string of convictions and gained a reputation for violence at an early age.

Brought up by their single mother in Peckham, Ricky and Danny Preddie were prominent members of a gang known as the Young Peckham Boys that terrorised the North Peckham Estate at the time of Damilola’s killing.

Although some members were as young as twelve they were all veterans of the streets. Many had spent their short lives in childrens homes or with foster parents and were no strangers to the legal system.

All had previous convictions for street crime.

They rampaged freely through Peckham bullying other youths and demanding their mobile phones, cash, trainers, caps, jackets and even mopeds. If the victim dared to stand up for themselves or show disrespect then a weapon, usually a knife, would be used to back up the their threats.

If that wasn’t enough then the preferred punishment was known as ‘juking’, or stabbing in the leg, perhaps because it would never usually be serious enough to cause death. But in Damilola’s case the shard of glass severed a major artery just above his knee.

Ricky, then only 13, is believed to be the teenager who stabbed Damilola with a broken beer bottle.

Danny, then aged 12, had the reputation of being even more lawless than his older brother. Detectives believe it was his desire to steal Damilola’s distinctive silver puffa jacket that led to the fatal confrontation.

He had also tried to rob the ten-year-old schoolboy at the very same spot a few weeks earlier, the court heard.

Danny had already carried out an attack on a 13 year-old boy five months before the killing of Damilola. He demanded money from the youth and then hit him with a baseball bat around the legs before walking off. He was convicted of assault with intent to rob at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court.

The Preddies and two brothers from the 2002 trial were at the Old Bailey a few months before Damilola’s death, charged with indecent assault.

They were accused of assaulting two girls aged 10 and 12 in a park in 1999, but the case was thrown out by the judge because it should have been dealt with by a youth court.

Ricky Preddie, 19, had a history of 24 offences committed on bail by the time he was re-arrested last year over Damilola’s killing, and both teenagers were actually in custody for other offences when they were re-arrested last year in connection with Damilola’s killing.

Danny Preddie was sentenced to three years' detention at Inner London Crown Court in March last year for conspiracy to commit robbery. He was part of a "steaming gang" who went through trains, threatening and robbing passengers. He threatened to cut one victim in the face before stealing £5.

A few days later, the gang threatened another victim, who had a knife pushed towards his stomach as his mobile phone and £15 were stolen.

In November 2000, aged 12, he had five impending prosecutions, three for assault, and was being kept on bail at a children’s home within two miles of where Damilola was attacked.

He was under 24-hour curfew and was being watched after escaping by jumping over a garden wall on a number of occasions.

A policeman who worked in the Peckham area at the time said: “They were the scum of the earth. Whenever there was a robbery, one or other of the Preddies was involved.”

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