'Put them in army', says stepmother

3:20am Sunday 6th July 2008

Relatives of a 16-year-old knife victim gathered at the spot where he died as his stepmother called for violent teenagers to be forced to join the army.

The stepmother of Shakilus Townsend, who would not be named, spoke out after he was stabbed and beaten with a baseball bat by three teenage boys in Thornton Heath, south London, on Thursday. He died from his injuries a day later.

Slamming British prisons as a "luxury", his 36-year-old stepmother said: "There's no punishment and that's why the children do what they do.

"We as parents are very angry because nothing is being done and every single day we're burying a child. When these youths commit these crimes they must be sent to Iraq."

She claimed the 75 extra Metropolitan offices deployed to tackle knife crime were merely "a drop in the ocean".

She visited the scene of Shakilus's murder with other relatives, including his father Derek.

Paying tribute to the teenager, she said: "He was a good boy doing what teenagers do, not what thugs do. He was a well-behaved and mannered boy. He just didn't deserve it at all."

She said Shakilus's father had taken the news of his death "very very badly" and that she had warned the boy of the dangers on the street.

Police say Shakilus was approached by three boys and a girl before he was attacked.

The girl is said to be black, in her mid teens and was wearing a floral dress.

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