Damilola trial expected to last three months

Four teenage boys today pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor.

The boys - one aged 14 and the others aged 16 - also denied assault with intent to rob and manslaughter.

A jury will be sworn in on Tuesday and the trial is expected to last three months.

Nigerian-born Damilola was attacked on his way home from a computer class in Peckham, south London on November 27, 2000.

He bled to death in a stairwell after he was stabbed in the leg.

Damilola’s father’s father Richard Taylor sat at the back of the court during the preliminaries to the trial.