Ben Michael Kinsella (27 October 1991 – 29 June 2008) was a 16-year-old student at Holloway School who was stabbed to death in an attack by three men in June 2008 in Islington. The significant media attention around his murder (the 17th stabbing death of a teenager in London during 2008) led to a series of anti-knife crime demonstrations, a raised profile for the government's anti-knife crime maxim "Operation Blunt 2" and a review of UK knife crime sentencing laws.
Life
Kinsella was born to cab driver George Kinsella and his wife Deborah, a school secretary. He had a half-brother, three half-sisters and a younger full sister. Like his older half-sister Brooke Kinsella, who played Kelly Taylor in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2001 to 2004, Kinsella had been involved in acting and he had a bit part as Tyrone Dooley in a 2004 episode of The Bill. He was a popular and academically gifted student. Friends spoke of his caring and comical nature, adding he was "full of energy" and that he was "the life and soul of his class".
Before his death, Kinsella had become concerned about knife crime after being threatened whilst working part-time at Zebedee's Cafe in Islington, where he prevented the theft of a mountain bike. He wrote a letter to the then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as part of his English GCSE coursework, urging him to stamp out knife crime and suggesting parenting classes, curfews and youth clubs as possible solutions. The letter was later forwarded to Brown by his family. He had also written a creative writing piece in which he imagined his own death from stabbing.
In August 2008, it was reported that he had passed all of his GCSEs, receiving two grade A*, three As, four Bs and one C.
As an aspiring graphic designer, Kinsella had also produced a design of the letter "K" that later became a symbol against knife violence and the logo of the Ben Kinsella Trust.
Attack
On 28 June 2008, Kinsella was out celebrating the end of his GCSE exams with friends in Shillibeers Brasserie Bar (now called 'The Depot N7'), North Road, London. During this time, an altercation broke out between his friend Alfie and a man named Osman Ozdemir over the phrase "What are you looking at?" Having been separated by a door supervisor, a friend of Ozdemir, Jade Braithwaite, was heard saying phrases including "Tell your boy if he wants trouble, I've got my tool on me and it will open you up", "I'll stab people up", "If you want it, I'll give it to you" and "Don't you know who I am?". Braithwaite was also said to be frequently motioning to the inside of his jeans as if he had a weapon. The altercation between Alfie and Ozdemir went outside the bar, where Ozdemir and another of Braithwaite's friends were glassed. Braithwaite and his friends subsequently fled the scene.
Shortly before 02:00 on 29 June, Kinsella and his friends decided to return home. When they noticed they were being followed his friends began to run. Kinsella however did not, it is thought because he knew he had nothing to do with the earlier disturbance. He then crossed over the road in order to distance himself. He was then jointly cornered between two white vans by Braithwaite, Michael Alleyne and Juress Kika. As the three closed in on him he was heard pleading, "What are you coming over to me for? I haven't done anything." Moments later, Kinsella was kicked and punched to the ground, receiving 11 stab wounds to the chest and back in a period witnesses testified to be only a five-second duration. Two wounds entered his lungs (causing his lung to collapse) and another inflicted with such force that it went straight through his third rib, splitting it, before entering the top of his heart. His pulmonary artery had also been punctured and some of his wounds were nearly deep. His hands also suffered stab wounds, indicating that he tried to fend off the knives. CCTV footage showed Kinsella stagger from the scene where he was supported by his friend Louis, the son of Birds of a Feather actress Linda Robson. Kinsella was pronounced dead at 07:24 as a result of blood loss from the numerous stab wounds.
Demonstrations
After Kinsella's murder, an estimated 400 teenagers joined a demonstration to highlight concerns over the UK's growing knife crime culture. 16-year-old Brooke Dunford organised the event via Facebook; they marched from Islington Town Hall to the site of Kinsella's murder at the junction of North Road and York Way, passing by Shillibeers nightclub in silence. The crowd were heard chanting "What are we here for? Ben. Why are we here? No knives."