MACHETE MURDER IN PARK FULL OF PLAYING CHILDREN
TEENAGER KILLED BY YOUTHS ON MOPED
A TEENAGER died after being stabbed repeatedly with a machete in front of terrified families at a playground.
Victim Stefan Appleton, 18, was attacked by youths who rode up to the children’s area in Islington on a moped just after 6pm yesterday. He was stabbed several times in the chest and back at Nightingale Park, Canonbury, as children played nearby. His attackers fled through the warren of paths around New River Green estate and he tried desperately to cycle home but collapsed in a pool of blood 50 yards around the corner.
Neighbours rushed to tend his wounds and give first aid before air ambulance medics arrived. The former St Mary Magdalene Academy pupil was taken to a hospital
in east London, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. He is the second teenager to be murdered in the affluent area of north London in the past three months.
One mother who was at the scene said: “It was sunny and children were all out playing. Then this happened.
“My six-year-old son was there and saw it. He was terrified. Everyone was terrified. These people just don’t care who they hurt.”
A witness said: “There was more than one boy. They were riding on a moped flashing a weapon at him.”
Local Sandra Phillips, 45, said: “I was at home when I heard someone shouting, ‘Help, help’, and I looked out of the window.
“I saw the boy on the floor. He had collapsed and his bike was next to him. I tried to put pressure on the wounds to stop the bleeding. He’d been stabbed at least three times, probably more.”
She added: “I did everything the 999 controllers asked me to do.”
The play area and surrounding streets were cordoned off last night as detectives began investigations. They were seen to recover a large-bladed weapon which had been stashed nearby.
Tributes to the killed boy poured in on Twitter today as friends said Stefan was the innocent victim of a turf war between rival gangs in the area, which is a mix of deprived council estates and multi-million-pound townhouses.
Emily Meddings, believed to be his girlfriend, tweeted: “My heart is broken. Never felt a pain like this.” She added: “Thought I’d wake up and it would all be a dream. miss u already x”. A friend who visited the scene today said: “Stef was a nice boy and not a troublemaker. He did not bring this on himself or anything like that. He is from a nice family.”
Last night about 40 young people gathered to lay flowers and pay tribute to Stefan. One said: “He was quiet and polite and would always say hello. He was never in any trouble.
“He was killed because he lived here and other people came into the area to cause trouble. They went after the first person they saw.” Stefan’s death comes less than three months after
‘I was trying to stop the bleeding. He’d been stabbed at least three times, probably more’
Sandra Phillips, witness
Alan Cartwright, 15, was stabbed to death as he cycled along Caledonian Road with friends on February 27.
Paul Connery, Isling ton council’s head of crime and community safety, said both Alan and Stefan were the victims of a power struggle between gangs following the jailing of leading members of the Easy Cash gang.
He said: “There is rightly concern in the community about what is happening but everything is being done to stop this shocking violence.”
Detectives from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command today said they were keeping an “open mind” on motive and appealed for witnesses.