It’s a tale of the worst — and the best — in Britain today. How the senseless killing of this cornershop manager by a teenage thug shattered two families ... but saved three lives and united a community
would have been different for so many people.’
There has been a wider effect on the local community — a creeping sense that Mill hill has become infected with the kind of youth violence they read in the press as happening elsewhere in the city.
There has been a spike in the number of crimes around Mill hill Broadway. A knife-wielding thief terrified a young female assistant in a frozen yoghurt shop.
Robbers also reportedly raided other business premises, including a steakhouse, a pizza restaurant and a mobile phone shop, as well as nearby houses. Such was the level of concern that a month after Mr Patel was killed, local MP Matthew Offord held a public meeting, where residents expressed alarm and demanded action.
Their perception that the suburb is no longer safe is proving corrosive. For example, an elderly couple of shoppers — residents in the area for 28 years — told me the attack had made them constantly ‘wary’.
At Daniel Footwear, an upmarket shoe, handbag and accessories store close to the scene of the attack, two female proprietors — who were fond of Mr Patel — said his death was symptomatic of the declining standards in the area. ‘ The frightening thing is, it’s children, not 30-year-olds, who are running the streets,’ one said. ‘The police can’t do anything — they just zoom off on their bikes.
‘Even the schoolchildren have got rowdier. They are oblivious to who is around them. A few years ago, I would have confronted them. Now, I wouldn’t dream of it because of what they might do.’
her angst is shared by Josh King, 33, owner of The Stag male grooming salon. Recently, he grappled with a thug who was high on cocaine and was trying to steal a woman’s food as she sat with her son outside a sushi restaurant. ‘What happened to Vijay Patel has massively affected us all and there has been a knock-on effect,’ he told me, reeling off a list of local crimes and ugly incidents he has witnessed in the past few months.
‘Once, this was the nicest high Street in North-West London — but it’s all changed. And to top it all, Mr Patel’s attacker was sentenced to just four years.
‘So, you’ve got a great guy who is dead, two kids with no dad, a wife who has lost her husband and gone back to India, and a kid who’ll spend a couple of years in a juvenile centre, mixing with hardened criminals and playing pool. It’s not right, is it?’
If anything good has come from Vijay Patel’s killing — the three lives saved by his donated organs apart — it is that it has cemented unity in this corner of London.
A week after his death, hundreds of people attended a candlelit vigil in his honour that had been organised by a Jewish butcher who put a message on Facebook. An uplifting multi-faith service was also held at the local catholic church and a collection has raised more than £50,000 for his family.
‘As is often the case in these situations, the community was brought together and the response was one of love triumphing over hate and fear,’ says the Rev Steven Young, priest in charge at St Michael and All Angels, Mill hill.
‘Going forward, it is my hope that despite awful incidents like this, we are able to focus on what unites us, rather than what divides us.’
MR PATEL’S bereaved family will doubtless share his sentiments. Nevertheless, they agree with police officers involved in the case who think the young killer got off lightly with a fouryear sentence.
Det chief Insp Luke Marks said: ‘We were hoping the sentence would be more than it was.’
As for the teenager himself, he was laughing as he and his friends ran away after the attack. In court, he showed no remorse.
When the Mail visited the home where he lived with his mother, no one would speak on his behalf.
Meanwhile, as a seemingly unstoppable tide of violence sweeps through London — as well as other parts of ‘Wild West Britain’ — the mindless killing of one shop worker stands as a harrowing symbol of how many lives can be ruined by one feral thug.