Marchers commemorating Martin Dinnegan stage a walk for peace in week of three stabbings

Published: 1st July, 2011
by PAVAN AMARA

A THREE-mile peace walk – commemorating murder victim Martin Dinnegan – was held in the same week there were three stabbings.

About 50 people, led by Martin’s mother Lorraine, 43, peace campaigners Valerie Flessati and Bruce Kent and Labour Town Hall leader Councillor Catherine West, took part in the march which started from St Mellitus Church in Finsbury Park on Saturday.

The day after the walk 21-year-old Andrew Jaipaul was stabbed to death on the Andover estate – only a few streets from where the peace walk began.

A fortnight ago, a 28-year-old man was seriously assaulted in Tollington Place, this time only yards from the start of the peace walk.

The victim told police he was in Wray Crescent Park with a friend when he was approached by a group of men, who chased him into Tollington Place.

The victim sustained multiple stab wounds, including a punctured lung, and was taken to a London hospital. He remains in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

He was one of three victims of knife crime last week, including a 16-year-old stabbed in Barnard Park, Barnsbury. None received life-threatening injuries. Ms Dinnegan, whose 14-year-old son Martin was stabbed to death in 2007, said on Saturday: “We organised to meet up here a while ago, so it’s shocking and horrifying that another stabbing happened only down the road a few days ago. 

“It just shows how much we need a peace walk in this area. 

“There’s a mix of everyone on the walk – police, local authority representatives, businesses – and that’s because we all have common values. We will do what we have to do to stand up to violence.”

Ms Flessati, 81, who organised the walk, said: “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We are making a stand for international peace.”

Mr Kent, 82, said: “Like countries, children should not carry weapons. Our culture celebrates violence in films, posters, on the TV, and we are about celebrating peace heroes and heroines. 

“That is what we need to show kids, that we can live together peacefully.” The walk finished at Holy Trinity peace garden, in Granville Road.

See Also:
• Another Islington mum in mourning
• ‘There has to be a safe place on Andover estate to run away to’