BGT STAR: I SAW TRAGIC HEAD DIE
Killing haunts Tokio
Picture: MICHAEL LECKIE
A BRITAIN’S Got Talent hopeful told last night how he is haunted by the memory of his school headteacher’s murder.
Pianist Tokio Myers will wow the TV judges tonight with his unique classical-pop mash up.
But the 32-year-old has revealed a tragic secret. In 1995 when he was just 11, he witnessed a killing which shook Britain.
His headteacher Philip Lawrence was stabbed at the school gates as he tried to help a pupil being attacked by a gang. Tokio was practising in the music room at St George’s High in Maida Vale, north-west London at the time of the attack.
He said: “Out of nowhere the school door was kicked open and my music teacher Mr Morgan came in and dragged me out.
“As I left the room I saw the headmaster coming into the atrium area next to the music room and he was collapsing on the floor and there was blood and all that stuff.
“My music teacher covered my eyes to make sure I didn’t see that much and escorted me out the back of the school to a safe place and said to me, ‘Go home’.”
Mr Lawrence died from his stab wounds later that night.
Learco Chindamo, who was 15 at the time, was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey the following year and jailed. But the nightmare image of seeing Mr Lawrence dying has stayed with Tokio. He added: “You will always remember that moment.”
Tokio said his music had saved him from a life of crime. He admitted: “I could have ended up in gangs or been dead or in jail.”
In the mid-2000s the budding musician joined a band which toured with Amy Winehouse.
Tokio claims he grew close to singer Amy, who died in 2011, and worried her life might take a tragic turn.
He said: “I had a close relationship with Amy. I did witness a few things along the way. It was shocking.”
Britain’s Got Talent is on ITV at 8pm tonight.