'Just give me the £50,000' - Damilola witness

The key witness in the Damilola Taylor murder trial has been heard exclaiming 'Just give me the £50,000'.

On a police interview video, she joked with a teacher "gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme" as she made a grasping notion with her fingers.

The court has been told that a £50,000 reward was put up by a British newspaper after Damilola was ambushed on the North Peckham Estate by gang out to rob him.

The jury in the Old Bailey trial has watched the sequence on the video.

During a break in the interview, the 13-year-old girl chatted with a teacher who was acting as an "appropriate adult" to look after her interests.

Mark Dennis, prosecuting, has told the jury it will have to decide how much the reward had helped or motivated the girl to come forward.

Before jury members began viewing the tapes, defence barrister George Carter-Stephenson QC, told them to watch out for references to the reward "which we suggest are important".

Damilola, 10, from Nigeria, was left to bleed to death on a stairwell after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle in November 2000.

Two brothers aged 16, their 17-year-old friend and a 14-year-old youth deny murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob.

The prosecution says the girl, who was 12 at the time, was the only witness to the attack.