KNIFE GANG NEEDS A HUG

THE devastated mother of murder victim Andrew Jaipaul has issued a message of forgiveness, insisting that her son’s killers need “love and cuddles” – and pleaded with his friends not to seek revenge.

Andrew, 21, was chased down by a pack of young men and teenagers – some believed to be as young as 13 – last Sunday as he walked near his home on the Andover Estate, in Holloway. He was stabbed several times as he desperately tried to escape.

In the wake of his killing, however, his mother Joanna, 52, a nurse at Chase Farm hospital, told the Tribune: “Believe me, all I want to do is hold them and cuddle them, give them a little cuddle.”

She also begged his friends “not to take revenge on any of the boys who did this to my son”.

Andrew was the middle son of Ms Jaipaul’s three children – as well as his brothers, Charles, 25, and Eddie, 16, he had a half-sister, Rachel, 38, from his father’s former partner.

Until now Ms Jaipaul has been far too upset to speak, and on Wednesday was still struggling to come to terms with her loss. But she has somehow found it within herself not to hate the boys who have caused so much pain.

Ms Jaipaul, a parishioner of St Mark’s Church in Holloway, said: “As a Christian I think, why should I go round hating these boys? Probably they see that my son had so much love, he had so much love that they wanted some of it, and they will get some from me – because what can I say, revenge is not mine. 

“I don’t mind when all the boys in the neighbourhood come here – they eat, they sleep, they eat, they drink, they eat all my food, they go away. I wish the boys who did this had that love as well. 

“If these boys had even half that love, they would have had love to give, and they probably wouldn’t have ever gone round and done such a thing, and think twice before they do something like this.

“Now I’ve lost my son. They are still here, but they are suffering, so God could forgive them. 

“I hope someone will love them, and show them what love is all about – somehow or other I want them to get a bit of love. 

“Who knows how they’ve been hurt? They have been hurt. They have this huge mountain on their shoulder to carry, this huge burden. I hope that God will forgive them. I will try and forgive them myself. If anyone sees them, don’t hurt them.”

Ms Jaipaul said she would forgive her son’s killers in time, but would “never forget them”.

• Police this week arrested seven young people, aged between 13 and 24, in connection with Andrew’s death. They have been bailed until August.

See Related:
• Grieving father says: ‘All I know is I miss my son. I want him back... he was our good boy’
• Naruddin Ahmed – ‘I felt stinging and thought: Oh this is crazy. I’ve been stabbed’

Published: 8th July, 2011
by PAVAN AMARA