Short Sentences Do Nothing…

…clearly:

Notorious schoolboy killer Adam Eastmond has revealed what drove him to stab another boy to death.

The 18-year-old has just been released from a youth detention centre only 18 months after being locked up.

Yup, a year and a half for stabbing someone to death. Welcome to the ‘justice’ system.

Eastmond says it was a fear of being attacked himself that led to him carrying a “Rambo-style” eight-inch knife on the night 17-year-old Gavin was killed in Parkfields Recreational Ground.

Well, when you join a gang, you can indeed expect to be attacked…

Today, Eastmond repeats the claim he made in court, before being convicted of manslaughter, that the attack was in self-defence.

In other words, no remorse, no appreciation of the sentence handed down; I thought they didn’t let them out until they had this?

He said: “I had recently joined D2M [the youth branch of Croydon thug gang Don't Say Nothing] and got into some trouble with a guy from our arch rivals Gipset.

“We had a misunderstanding. He took something from me. Other people started talking and I became paranoid and thought I was in serious danger.

“Gipset had a bad reputation for violence and I was scared. So I got my hands on a knife.

“I went to the [black] market and bought the blade for £10. I stuck it down the back of my pants and it made me feel safe.

“I never took the knife to school, but I carried it whenever I went out at night and at parties.”

Well, I can’t say I’d feel particularly safe with a knife stuck down my pants, but hey…

“I never pulled a knife on anyone and I never thought I would – I just liked to have it on me in case. And one day it all went wrong.

“I went out to a place I probably shouldn't have and there was an altercation, it was totally random.

“Somebody tried to rob me and there was a group of about 10 guys who went for me.

“One of them was Gavin. He took my knife from me and his friends beat me up and bottled me.

“I got out and I was stabbed with my own knife, but then I managed to get the knife back and I blindly swung it about and jabbed it in the air.

“I struck him in the chest, and then I landed the fatal blow in his neck. I ran off but his friend chased after me, and I was arrested later that night.”

These things ‘just happen’. Innit?

“In that split-second, my whole life changed beyond imagination,” said Eastmond, who now wants to make a career in music.

Yes. Because it’s all about you…

“Maybe 18 months doesn't sound a lot to people on the outside, but in that time I lost my friends, my childhood and my freedom.

“Worse still, I had robbed a mum of her son. I don't believe in regrets and I won't turn to Gavin's mum and say I'm sorry, because nothing can bring him back.

“But what I'm going to do is try my hardest to make sure it doesn't happen to another mum, by talking about it and spreading the message through my music and lyrics.”

*sigh*

Since his release on June 23 Eastwood, formerly of Greencourt Avenue, Shirley, has been relocated to another part of the UK where he lives with his parents and studies music technology.

He is banned from entering Croydon until 2010 but hopes those he has left behind still in the town's gangs will learn from his mistakes.

What mistakes? In any other country, he’d never see the light of day again!

He said: “To anyone who's prepared to listen, I want to say to them 'look at me, look how it's ruined my life'.

“Carrying knives isn't big and it doesn't solve problems, it just creates them.”

I suspect people will indeed be looking at you and how it’s ruined minimally affected your life.

And drawing the only logical conclusions from it…