WOOD DENE ASBO - STANTON WRITES TO LABOUR 'SPINNERS' (Southwark Liberal Democrats)

Southwark Liberal Democrats <info@southwark-libdems.org.uk>

WOOD DENE ASBO - STANTON WRITES TO LABOUR 'SPINNERS'

January 26, 2007 12:00 PM

The Liberal Democrat Leader of Southwark Council has written to two senior Labour politicians to complain about the way they are 'spinning' the ASBO given to convicted Wood Dene killer Diamond Babamuboni.

Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman was widely reported as claiming that the Babamuboni was banned from the Wood Dene estate. She claimed that if the Council policy had been different then local residents would have reported his presence and the killing might not have happened.

And at the meeting of the Council's Scrutiny committee earlier this week, Nunhead Labour councillor Althea Smith repeated the claim that Babamuboni's ASBO covered the Wood Dene estate.

The actual ASBO documents have now come to light and show that, although Babamuboni was banned from Peckham town centre and from an area around Dulwich, he was not prohibited from entering the Wood Dene estate.

"Harriet Harman has been exposed for her shameful 'spinning' of this tragic killing," said Cllr Nick Stanton, Liberal Democrat Leader of Southwark Council. "As an experience solicitor and minister, she should have known better than to be so slipshod with the truth. Althea Smith is similarly wrong and I have written to them both with copies of the actual ASBO documents showing the limit of the area that Babamuboni was banned from."

"It is also ridiculous to suggest that this killing could have been prevented by the publication of the details of the ASBO, even if it did cover this area. If local people did not call the Police when they saw youths with guns and balaclavas, it is crazy to suggest that they might have done if they knew one of the youths had an ASBO."

"Both Harriet Harman and Althea Smith should apologise for their misleading statements. Such statements can only bring more hurt to the family of the victim as they imply that actions by the Council could have prevented this tragedy."