ONE of schoolboy Damilola Taylor’s killers toasts his early release from
prison — as he loafs around in a park with a bottle of lager.
Swaggering Danny Preddie, 23, emerged from a bail hostel where he has hidden
from the world since he was freed from jail two weeks ago.
Preddie, looking beefy and powerful after months of prison workouts, joined
another ex-offender in the park for a Corona lager.
He looked relaxed as he strolled around in a navy baseball cap, blue t-shirt
and jeans. Preddie and elder brother Ricky, 24, got eight years in October
2006 for the manslaughter of Damilola, ten.
Preddie was given early release after serving five.
Nigeria-born Damilola had been in the UK for only a few months when he was
attacked by the Preddies, aged 12 and 13, on his way home from school in
November 2000.
He was left to bleed to death from a stab wound in his thigh on a filthy
stairwell in Peckham, South-East London.
Ricky was freed on licence last September but recalled to jail six months
later for breaching his parole. His brother served a further eight months
for assaulting a fellow prisoner.
Preddie is allowed out of the bail hostel, which is in an affluent area of
West London, from early morning until 11pm.
Ex-gang member Preddie, who is on Jobseeker’s Allowance, gets his own double
room at the hostel with a TV and access to a communal games console.
He has made friends with another ex-offender in his 20s. The pair are often
seen chatting as they smoke in the hostel’s garden. Preddie is banned from
visiting the South London area where Damilola died or associating with old
gang mates.
Gary Trowsdale, head of the trust set up in Damilola’s name by his family,
said: “As long as Danny is remorseful, the system has deemed he can be
released.
“Let’s hope he manages to stay out longer than his brother.”
At the time of Damilola’s killing, the Preddie brothers were on bail for
robberies and thefts and were meant to be under supervision by social
workers.
