Teen acquitted over boy's murder

Damilola was attacked on his way back from a school computer class

LONDON, England -- A judge has ordered the acquittal of a teenager charged with murdering 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, whose stabbing on a south London housing estate shocked many Britons.

Judge Anthony Hooper directed the jury to find the 17-year-old not guilty of murder and other charges after throwing out the evidence of the main prosecution witness on Wednesday.

The trial of two 16-year-old boys and one 15-year-old continues. They all deny charges of murder, assault with intent to rob and manslaughter. None of the defendants can be identified because of their age.

Nigerian-born Damilola was attacked on his way home from a computer class in Peckham, south London, in November 2000. He bled to death in a stairwell after he was stabbed in the leg.

The prosecution's only witness to the attack -- a 14-year-old girl, contacted police a month after Taylor's death to say she had seen four teenagers attack him. But she admitted during their trial that she had lied to detectives about some details. And on Wednesday, the judge told jurors they should ignore her testimony.

"My conclusion is that no reasonable jury, properly directed, can be sure that account of what she saw in Blakes Road, is reliable," he said.

The girl, who was 12 years old at the time of the killing, had described some details that she could not have known if she had not been near the scene of the killing, the judge said.

"There is no independent support for her account that she was there and able to see the incident which led to Damilola's death," he said.

"The highest it could be put is that she could have been in the vicinity at the time.

"In some cases, support can come from the fact that a witness described a fact that they would be unaware of if not at the scene.

"There is no dispute, that the core information she gave to police was in the public domain."

The girl's name has not been released because of her age.

Damilola's killing was front-page news in Britain, and prompted soul-searching on topics ranging from the deprivation of inner cities to school bullying.

Prosecutors say the group set upon Damilola, allegedly slashing his thigh with a broken bottle and jamming a marble into his throat.