The real Damilola verdict

After six years of investigations, trials and re-trials, a jury at the Old Bailey in London found two brothers guilty of the manslaughter of Damilola Taylor. How the tragic death of a 10 year-old boy on a council estate in south London came to be an epic tale of national importance says a lot about the state of British society today.

Little Damilola was found bleeding heavily in a stairwell in Peckham in November 2000 and died despite efforts to save him. Four boys stood trial in 2002 for his murder but were acquitted when it became obvious that the main witness, a 14 year-old girl referred to as 'Witness Bromley', had constantly changed her story and been induced to present a certain version of events by the police. Meanwhile, the two boys that were convicted on Wednesday had been arrested as early as December 2000 but important forensic evidence linking them to the crime was overlooked and they were not charged until January 2006.

The case is an important one in illustrating two themes. The first is the maudlin obsession with death, best illustrated by the reaction to Princess Diana's death, but repeated by one high-profile case after another ever since. We have all been encouraged to share the pain of those bereaved in a manner that has become narcissistic and unhealthy. Living in Peckham, I often cycle past the Damilola Taylor Centre. When it was opened in 2001, Tony Blair said, in an echo of his post-Diana 'People's Princess' comments: 'Damilola Taylor lived briefly and died needlessly but in his short life and in the manner of his death he touched many people's hearts.' It is unclear to me why a 10 year-old, whose only claim to fame was an untimely death, should warrant having a local landmark named after him - except to show what a screwed-up sense of memorial we have today. The death of an innocent like Damilola Taylor was perfect fodder for such an outlook, with politicians happy to leap on the emotional reaction to it to further their own agendas from the need to tackle thuggery and 'lad culture', to the dangers of the 'me first' generation and the importance of community.

The other theme in the case was the panic amongst police officers desperate to be seen to be taking the death of a black person seriously after the fiasco of the Stephen Lawrence case. Having been branded as 'institutionally racist' by the Macpherson Inquiry, the Metropolitan Police were determined to be seen to be acting - to the point where basic rules of investigation were bent and broken.

The lesson to be learned is that turning the death of a little boy into a circus can only draw out the agony of the parents and compromise the possibility of a fair trial.

Trials and tribulations, by Jennie Bristow

Damilola: a boy-meets-ghoul story, by Mick Hume