John Boyega opens up about schoolfriend Damilola Taylor's death in BBC documentary

Damilola: The Untold Story sheds fresh light on the killing of 10-year-old Damilola in south London in November 2000.

In the documentary, the Star Wars actor, along with many of the boy’s other childhood friends, recall Damilola’s final months and the years of youth violence that followed his death.

Boyega, 34, was just eight when Damilola died and he was one of the last people to see him alive.

Damilola Taylor was stabbed to death at the age of 10 (PA)

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Damilola was on his way home from the library when he was stabbed in the leg with a broken beer bottle and left to die in a stairwell in Peckham, in what became one of London’s most high-profile killings.

It took six years and three trials for brothers Danny and Ricky Preddie, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the stabbing, to be convicted of manslaughter.

The boy’s parents reached out to Boyega’s father, a prominent figure in the local community, to ask that Boyega and his sister, Grace, look out for Damilola.

Grace Boyega also features in the new documentary

BBC / Optomen TV

The three quickly became firm friends, attending Oliver Goldsmith Primary School - with Boyega joking that Damilola had a “crush” on Grace.

On the evening of his death, the three had been at a local library after school, before Damilola left to go home.

Shortly afterwards, he was found, bleeding heavily just metres from his home in a stairwell on the estate, and he died at King’s College Hospital.

When the police came to tell the Boyegas that Damilola had died, Boyega recalls his sister’s “crying, screaming” reaction, and that he was “frightened out of my mind”.

“I didn’t know kids could die,” he added.

John Boyega speaking during the documentary

BBC / Optomen TV

Following Damilola’s death, Boyega stayed at home much more.

He told the documentary: “I liked my room, I liked chilling in our house, in our flat. I would just draw, sketch or I’d be playing with action figures.

“At least I’m safe at the end of the day. Damilola was a Nigerian like me, lived down the street with my parents, same textured hair as me. It could have been any one of us.”

The actor said that Damilola's death made him realise how quickly life could change, and encouraged him to pursue his own ambitions.

The documentary will air on Monday evening on BBC2

BBC / Tunde Taylor / Optomen TV

Speaking about the youth violence in Peckham during the time, Boyega said: “You just start fixating on it, and then it feels like you’re waiting in a line and it's like a random thing when it just picks random individuals.

“One day you’re with this guy in the same class, and then the next day the person is gone.”

He added: “It was a consistent thing on my mind. Everyone’s going to get stabbed. ‘I’m next.’ I was on a timer.”

He said there were “no B, no C options” - from the moment of Damilola’s death, he pursued a different life, and received a scholarship to Theatre Peckham at the age of 10.

The documentary will air on Monday October 5 at 9pm on BBC Two, and is available to watch on iPlayer now.