Last week thursday an eighteen year old was murdered in what has to be the worst case out of all the teen murders we've seen in the U.K yet.

The university student stayed home to study and heard a knock at his door, he answered it and was ushered back into his house by a group of people who tied him up, took all the light bulbs out of the fittings, beat him up... tortured him before slitting his throat.

His mother came home later that evening assumed that her son had fallen asleep studying as the computer was on only to notice a trail of blood leading into another room, she hid as there was someone still in the house, as the person stepped outside she locked the door preventing him/her from getting back in, only to find her only son dead in the next room. The person she came across was female (I think, not asking for more details) Afro-Carribean around the same age as her son, eighteen to nineteen.

The family were friends of my aunt... Mothers don't tend to take such a nightmare as their child being murdered easy, many commit suicide soon after.

This is the ?4th? teen murder in edmonton this month out of a number of them in the past two years, I know some families ask the media to not cover their story as they don't want the attention but I don't think this is the case as it was saved a small space in the mirror on an abstract page after news on some celeb and given a short article in the observer... it wasn't on the news, at least to my knowledge.

This type of thing should/would have the community in an uproar just as the murder of that young girl who was kidnapped and murdered in a flat not so long ago would have. This should get the attention it deserves and yet no coverage... why? Am I missing something?

*Typed this out twice and lost it will edit*

Greetings Black Lion and please accept my condolences and shared concern.

I thought this had been covered on the news, but if you are saying that that was the previous murder and not this one, then it may be the authorities (police, local council) may have embargoed any publicity of this murder for their own reasons. So for example, if they have community safety intelligence that they feel would be jeopardised by media exposure, then there would be an embargo preventing media coverage until it is lifted.

You will probably be able to think of other circumstances where news coverage is embargoed all in the name of community safety - so for example, the murder that took place on the Cann Hall estate in Leytonstone; the trial went to the Old Bailey in February but you haven't seen any publicity on this have you? I don't for one minute minimise the seriousness of this crime and neither should the loss of another youth be ignored or down-grounded to another statistic. It may well be that the family have privately requested it isn't publicised particularly if they fear reprisals or don't want to be exposed publicly themselves.

Each local authority has a joint police/local authority community safety board where these very important and sensitive concerns are discussed. The manner in which it has been dealt with can be queried/challenged by contacting the community safety team in Enfield Council.

Point taken, although I don't see what good the menial coverage they have given it would do.

The story was covered by the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman, the Enfield & Haringey Independent, The Times. Capital Radio, BBC News, and ITN (and maybe by others). There is a thread on the story elsewhere on this messageboard (to which you have already contributed) which names our murdered son and includes links to media coverage.

There is no mention of the story on the Blacknet.co.uk website at the time of writing (although a GLA Press Release about Andrew Gilligan is reprinted in its entirety), nor is it clear to me how much coverage either The Voice or New Nation devoted to the story (maybe someone else can confirm).

It didn't get the coverage it deserved, it was given a backseat to a divorce settlement and their finding a ''missing'' person in her uncles bedroom. In my opinion it would have been a call to action in the community but in talking to people hardly anyone even knows it happened... thats not coverage.

Good. Went by too quietly for my liking... another case of someone with a mental illness perhaps, did sound out of character not something that'd happen out there. Didn't know he waited for her, family was talking about what had happened that she had come home and hid etc guy/someone tried to get back in, didn't want to ask anymore about it.

At least it wasn't some teen thing like I thought.

Black Lion - man you know when things are bad when we start feeling relieved that it wasn't one kind of killing over another.

The title of this thread was the same reasonings behind my thread about killings (teen victim/culprit) becoming normal to the degree they are not worthy of media headlines much less/more public attention. Reminds me of Boys in the Hood when Ice Cube says there wasn't even a mention of his brothers death in the papers. That's where this is heading.

BBC NEWS | England | London | Mother disturbed son's murderer



Ms Kirby-Jones told reporters that her son was "a joker" who wanted to be a town planner or a teacher.

She added: "He was always making jokes, always so helpful, so considerate and loving.

"He loved his books, he really enjoyed his university work, he was fashion conscious, loved clothes and was even a little vain."

Mother disturbed son's murderer
A woman who found her son murdered in their home had to defend herself from his killer, it has emerged.
Michael Alexander Jones, 18, was beaten and stabbed in the house in Edmonton, north London, on 3 March.

His mother Kathleen Kirby-Jones found his body but then had to barricade herself in a room when the suspect tried to attack her.

She paid tribute to her "considerate and loving" son. A 45-year-old man, from Lower Edmonton, has been arrested.

Police said Mr Jones had been hit by a machete-type weapon and believe it might have been a "targeted attack".

Ms Kirby-Jones found her son dead in the computer room of their house.

The attacker, who had been upstairs, then ran downstairs and tried to force his way into the room.

He fled after she called police on her mobile phone.


His father Michael said: "He was a role model to his nephews, cousins, and younger kids, every kid he knew looked up to him.

"He was always an avid reader, I gave him books and said 'this is what you can achieve'."

Ms Kirby-Jones added: "I cannot comprehend the anger, the hatred that this person must have felt to have done something like this.

"I just want the people who have done this to be caught."

Det Ch Insp John Macdonald said: "We cannot imagine a worse scenario for a mother to have to find her son murdered and then try to defend herself."


He added: "The level of violence and the activity carried out in the flat, such as waiting there for a period of time, is not consistent with burglary or even aggravated-type burglary.

"It looks like it was a targeted attack for some reason."

Detectives are still appealing for help in tracing some of Michael's personal possessions which are missing from the family home.

They include a gold chain, a ring and a pair of glasses.

The ring, also made of gold, had MJ inscribed on it, with three white stones embedded in the letter M.

The third item is a pair of glasses with gunmetal frames, which Mr Jones is seen wearing in the picture.

Officers are also looking for a blue 3 Series BMW with the registration number N118 FLA.

Police have said the car may be in one of the north-west London areas of Wembley, Willesden or Enfield.

The suspect arrested by police on Monday remains in police custody.

Black Lion - I've been close enough to a couple of cases where an apparent lack of media attention can be recognised as the fact that the police actually know a lot more than they feel it safe to portray.

Apparently some 45 year old man has been charged now and if the mother was in the house with the killer she would have told the police this from day dot and probably told them who it was as well. Some press just want the sensation of declaring the scoop while the police need a bit more discretion to do their thing.

The person who began the thread asserts that there has been "no media coverage".

The person charged with murder appears to be a 45 year old civil servant, from Gilbert Street, Enfield, north London.