Ricky Preddie, one of the men who killed 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, the Nigerian boy who relocated to Britain with his family in search of a better life, has been sent back to prison for the fourth time since his conviction.
Preddie, 30, is being held in Wormwood Scrubs, West London, after being charged with two driving offences, but failing to attend the magistrates’ court for his trial.
He was convicted in his absence and sentenced to six weeks, as well as an additional four weeks for missing his court date.
Preddie served just four years of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2006 after he and his brother Danny, aged 13 and 12 at the time, stabbed Damilola in the leg with a broken bottle as the schoolboy walked home from a library in Peckham, south London, in November 2000.
He was first released in September 2010 but recalled to custody in March 2011 after returning to Peckham from his west London bail hostel in breach of his licence conditions.
Then in October 2011, he beat up another prisoner, but a Parole Board hearing on December 23 decided he should be released on January 25, 2012.
He lasted just 16 days before being taken back to prison for again violating his parole by going to areas he was banned from and visiting friends from his old gang.
He was let out in July 2012, being hauled before the authorities again in December 2013 for five months, following a high-speed chase on a stolen motorbike.
Meanwhile, his brother Danny was released from prison in 2011.
A friend told The Sun on Sunday: “Ricky wants to move on but he just can’t help himself.
“He’s back inside for a fourth time, but nobody would be surprised if that became five in the near future.
“He just can’t seem to escape his past.”
Following his third stint in prison, Damilola’s father Richard Taylor, whose wife Gloria died in 2008, said: “Preddie has proved he cannot be rehabilitated. He should now stay in prison.
“If he had been jailed for life for killing my son in the first place, we wouldn’t have this prison merry-go-round.
“What will it take before the Probation Service realises he is hooked on a life of crime? I hope they act before it is too late.”
