What is so hard to believe. I dont find Mr Brown's story hard to believe at all. RIP to the young boy but at the end of the day he was trying to rob/ beat up/ kill Mr Brown. Since when does robbery not end up in a fight. Sojme people are not having being robbed just on principle regardless of the stakes.

Maat - the impression I got was everybody involved all knew each other or at least knew of each other. Dwaine was going through a phase, some people come out of it some don't. Anyone of them dudes at the scene could have been the dead one.

I've got a lot more background info but nothing really justifies anything. If nothing else it makes you appreciate that Dwaine could have been the son of anyone here and appreciate even more the scrapes many of us went through growing up but fortunately lived to tell the tale.

Saying that, for all the scrapes, most never went out robbing. The headline news is one thing but the drama closer to the ground is something else. I visted Dwaines gone too soon site and some of the stuff you read in there tells it's own story.

If mr brown didn't intend 2 kill Dwaine, then i guess all should be jiggy.
it was self-defence.

but if Dwaine, was no longer a threat to Mr brown (assuming his attemps to mugg him were thwarted)..then Mr brown wenr for him, then..thats wrong..

all in all it shows crime doesn't pay.!
and if Mr brown version of events is true, let it be a deterent 2 those who wanna be street-thugs!

Incognito: this is the point that young people don't appear to either grasp or understand...that the penalities for their 'phases' is heavier than for their white peers...and that the more they **** up before waking up to smell the coffee..the less control they will have over their choices in later life..if they get through alive that is...sad... this is cultral and physical suicide on a grad scale..forget Bridgend we have children committing self enflicted suicide on themselves and each other..

K - they don't see it and do not have the mental capacity to understand it. They'll talk about it but there's no real comprehension beyond being thugs. All these hood see are parents grafting away like idiots who struggle to afford a holiday when all it takes be be a millionaire is a hit rap song. Today's music industry has a lot to answer for, we grew up with it, this generation grew up in it so their perception of normal is different.

Robbing is an occupation, an artform, a skill, something to take pride in. Prison is a tea break - for bone idle people they see it as being kept, with food, exercise and a bed to sleep in for 23 hours of the day, it's a youth club, just a different arena to carry on the war outside.

On the streets Dwaine is seen as just another casualty, a consequence of the game and I have no doubt he had that same understanding of that game. But if there is one thing I could never understand is how 24+ year olds get caught up killing teenagers....this all goes back to hustling and buying and selling drugs.

Croydon Man Acquitted Of Murder Slams Heartless Justice System (from This Is Local London)

any body that purposely engages in gang violence deserves death … I’m so tired of hearing the bitiching and wailing mothers complaining about not being able to control their kids, bah!, perhaps if they’d bother to close their legs a few years earlier we and others like me wouldn’t have to deal with their phucking bustard! offspring to begin with ..

Calm down son. Many families have many children who would fit your critique yet they don't turn out to be gang members.

First reports were that Dwaine got stabbed twice which kind of questions how he could walk onto a knife. Also word is this was some tit for tat thing, a consequence , a retaliation, piece of revenge etc. What this says about Otis and what he done to bring this on himself is one thing but then it could easily be the case that people tried to take liberties with him once before and this time he was ready to defend himself. There's a lot more to it than the headline but either way it's a pity.

One of the rules of the game is there is no honour amongst thieves. Think it was two days after Dwaine died his flat got burgled and don't be surprised if you find out it was the same boys he went on the mission with.

Dwaine got stabbed twice which I believe was the whole basis of the prosecution in that twice indicates intent - where that got lost in the proceedings who knows but society is having to change, the system is using Dwaine as an example to gang members, it's the 'victims' who now need to be seen as protected so for any guilt Otis may have it's his innocence the system is almost being forced to sell - Dwaine was on trial not him, rightly or wrongly is up for argument but within context I guess it's both right and wrong.

Killer speaks: 'if you live by the sword - you die by the sword'
by Leon Watson And Lindsay Burns

A DAD-OF-TWO who stabbed a teenage mugger to death in self-defence has warned: "If you live by the sword, you die by the sword."

Otis Brown knifed 18-year-old Dwaine Douglas in the heart when he was attacked by the teen's street robbing gang.

The 23-year-old - who picked the blade up off the floor - was cleared of murder and manslaughter this week after a jury accepted he was protecting himself.
Otis told the South London Press:"This is going to live with me for the rest of my life, but I've got to move on.

"I feel so happy it is all over,but I will still be looking over my shoulder wondering what might happen to me.I've got two children to look after and that is the important thing.

"I feel so lucky that it [the verdict] has worked out this way because it could have been so different. I could be in prison."

Speaking about Dwaine's death, Otis said: "I don't know whether I feel guilty or not because of what happened. But he did not deserve to die.

"Then again if you carry knives and get involved in that kind of thing you probably will. If you live by the sword you will die by it."

The teenage victim, from the Tulse Hill Estate, had planned to mug Otis on May 18 last year after being tipped off that he could be carrying jewellery,cash and drugs.

But after being stabbed in the scuffle when Otis fought back, Dwaine staggered towards his brother Junior's getaway car, collapsed and died in hospital.

Otis insisted the robber "walked on to" the knife as he waved it about in fear for his life.

Anti-gang charities told this week how the case showed carrying a knife for protection can put your own life in danger.

Youth worker Simon Jones,from the kids charity Kickstart, said: "I would say about 70 per cent of the time, the person who is carrying the knife is the victim of their own weapon.

"Most youngsters we have discussions with think the chances of their own knives being turned on them are slim.

"But in a lot of situations there is a struggle and they end up being stabbed with their own weapon."

He added: "In his situation it was one against many and he had to do what he could to survive. It was wrong that he picked up the weapon in the first place, but you have to look at it from his point of view. It could have been him who was killed."

Otis, from Thornton Heath, smiled and waved at friends at the Old Bailey's public gallery on Wednesday as the victim's family stormed out of court.
He had denied the charges.

(Source: South London Press, 29 February 2008)

I think Mr brown ought to have kept his own counsel on this issue.....

Why is it titled, ''killer speaks'' if he was found not guilty on all accounts and used the weapon in self defence?

Horrible experience, not sure about their tip off, bit suspicious but I can't say I wouldn't do the same if I was attacked and had the chance to defend myself. Would find it difficult to live with afterward though.