John Boyega has spoken about the lasting trauma of losing his childhood friend Damilola Taylor, revealing that the schoolboy’s killing kept him awake at night.
The Star Wars actor was eight years old when 10-year-old Damilola was fatally attacked in Peckham, south-east London, on 27 November 2000.
Boyega and his sister Grace were among the last people to see Damilola alive, having spent time with him only hours before his death.
“It kept me up at night because I was just with the guy,” Boyega recalled in an interview accompanying the new BBC documentary Damilola: The Untold Story.
Friends separated hours before killing
Boyega remembered Damilola as an energetic and charismatic child who had recently moved to Britain from Nigeria.
The two boys attended Oliver Goldsmith Primary School and were part of the same south London community. Damilola was particularly close to Boyega’s sister.
On the day he died, Boyega and Grace were with Damilola before he went to Peckham library. Grace reportedly suggested that they should walk him home because it was becoming dark, but Damilola said he would go home after visiting the library.
The friends then went their separate ways.
A few hours later, police arrived at the Boyega family’s home and told them Damilola had been attacked.
Boyega has said that, at such a young age, he struggled to understand how someone could be present one moment and gone the next.
Damilola died after being wounded in the leg with a broken bottle while walking home. The injury severed an artery, and he collapsed in a stairwell on the North Peckham Estate.
Documentary revisits Damilola’s final months
Boyega discusses the killing in Damilola: The Untold Story, a new 74-minute documentary examining the schoolboy’s life, death and legacy.
The programme features testimony from Boyega, his sister Grace, Damilola’s brother Tunde and other childhood friends.
It also places the killing within the wider context of youth violence affecting south London at the time and examines how Damilola’s death changed the lives of those who knew him.
Boyega said the tragedy gave him an early awareness of how quickly young lives could be lost and influenced his determination to pursue greater ambitions.
He has previously described his friendship with Damilola as life-changing, saying the schoolboy’s personality left a lasting impression on the people around him despite his short time in Britain.
Six-year wait for justice
Damilola’s killing became one of Britain’s most prominent criminal cases, but his family endured a long and difficult struggle for justice.
Brothers Ricky and Danny Preddie were eventually convicted of manslaughter in 2006, six years after Damilola’s death and following earlier failed prosecutions.
Damilola’s parents, Richard and Gloria Taylor, subsequently established the Damilola Taylor Trust to campaign against knife crime and create opportunities for disadvantaged young people.
Richard continued campaigning against youth violence after Gloria’s death in 2008. He died in March 2024 at the age of 75.
Boyega has supported efforts to preserve Damilola’s memory and ensure that he is remembered as more than the victim of a notorious killing.
Damilola: The Untold Story airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday, 5 October, and will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
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