John Boyega Recalls Being One of the Last to See Damilola Taylor Alive

Boyega's first public account

John Boyega, who grew up on the same south London estate as Damilola Taylor, appears in a new BBC Two documentary describing the hours and days around his friend's death in November 2000. According to the Yahoo News UK and Irish News reports on the film, Boyega says he was one of the last people to see Taylor alive before his friend was fatally injured on 27 November 2000.

Boyega told interviewers that the tragedy left him afraid to go outside for years afterwards, a reaction he attributed to the fear that spread through the estate once news of the killing broke, AOL's report on the documentary said. He also described Taylor as having an aspirational side and a confidence he called special, saying his friend's outlook had a personal impact on him.

Who was Damilola Taylor

Damilola Olufemi Taylor was 10 years old when he was fatally injured on 27 November 2000 on Blakes Road in Peckham, south-east London, while walking home from Peckham Library, according to the Wikipedia summary of the case. He had moved to the UK from Lagos, Nigeria, only months earlier, in August 2000. He died later that day at King's College Hospital from blood loss after an artery in his left thigh was severed during the attack; the same account attributes the injury to a glass bottle, while Irish News described the attack as a stabbing.

The convictions

The investigation and prosecution took nearly six years to conclude. An initial 2002 trial ended in acquittals after the prosecution's key witness was judged unreliable, and new DNA evidence in 2005 linked two brothers, Ricky and Danny Preddie, to the attack, per the Wikipedia account of the case.

Following their son's death, Damilola's parents set up the Damilola Taylor Trust to campaign against knife crime, and his father, Richard Taylor, went on to serve as an anti-knife crime envoy and received an OBE, according to the Wikipedia page on the case.

From Peckham to Hollywood

Boyega, now 34, attended Oliver Goldsmith Primary School with Taylor and was around eight years old at the time of the killing. AOL's report on the documentary notes that, shortly after the tragedy, Theatre Peckham offered Boyega a scholarship that set him on the path to acting, a career that later took him to the Star Wars film series.

Why Boyega took part

Boyega said he agreed to appear because he believed in the intentions behind the project and considered it both a positive and an informative film, according to Irish News. He added that making the documentary gave him what he described as a significant perspective on life.

"Damilola: The Untold Story" is directed by Alex Thomas and focuses on the final 24 hours of Taylor's life, as well as the impact of his killing on the Peckham community, according to AOL's coverage. The film airs on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Monday, 5 October 2026, at 9pm, a broadcast date confirmed by Yahoo News UK and Irish News.