- A son is killed by a street gang and the dad and police try to find out who murdered him, the local neighbourhood won't talk through a moral street code.
- ***Based on a true story***
On 7th August 1997 while walking home drunk with his sisters boyfriend,17 year old Jamie Robe makes an off-the-cuff remark to a nearby boy who is kissing a girl. As a result of this exchange,Jamie is brutally attacked by a gang of at least 6 youths on South Londons tough Ospery estate. The gang beat Jamie with weapons including cricket bats,baseball bats and pool cues, they take it in turns to punch and kick their helpless victim and one of the youths stamps repeatedly on Jamies head. He dies later that night of his injuries. Even though the attack takes place late at night there are still plenty of people who witness but who fail to intervene and stop the attack, however, none of the witnesses come forward out of fear of reprisals from the gang and their families. Jamies father,Stuart Robe (James Nesbitt) begins a poster campaign in an attempt to get witnesses to his sons murder to come forward but he and the police hit a "wall of silence". Eventually, through the efforts of DI Tony Cottis, DC Ian Ashby and DC John Weighill along with the help of local MP Simon Hughes, 4 witnesses come forward, 3 Turkish men who own the Kebab shop in which the attack took place outside of and 19 year old Tracy Broughton, the girl who one of the youths was kissing that night, agree to testify in court against the gang on the condition that they get rehomed and remain anonymous. With these witnesses secured, 6 chief suspects are targeted, Aaron Cole,David Huggins,James Pearce,Steven Plank and Ryan Moorville (Moorvilles real name was not used for legal reasons) were all arrested while the 6th youth Soloman Inkser (again real name not used for legal reasons) went on the run. The case against the accused hits a problem when one of the turks pulls out after an error on a document reveals the identities of the witnesses ,however, the other witnesses agree to continue. With the whole case reliant on the witnesses testimonies the defence attempts to discredit them, he accuses the turks of only testifying in exchange for their uncle who is living in the country illegaly to be allowed to stay and he picks on the fact that Traci changes her statement several times and who also said she thought Huggins brother was present during the attack even though he had a rock solid alibi placing him elsewhere. Eventually, Cole,Pearce and Huggins are all found guilty of murder while Plank and Moorville are found not guilty due to a lack of evidence. Each of the guilty men are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that they serve at least 12 years. As a result of his involvement in the case a contract of £10`000 is taken out on the life of Simon Hughes (to this day in 2013 Mr Hughes remains alive) who is put under a 24 hour armed guard. At the time of the movie (2004) Soloman Inkser remains on the run.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content