The father of a 16-year-old boy murdered by a mob of teenagers has said his family are in deep shock.
Nick Pearton was stabbed and beaten as he tried to escape up to 10 attackers in Sydenham, south-east London.
Witnesses said a gang of boys armed with knives, baseball bats and sticks chased him across a park. The heavily bleeding victim staggered into a fast food shop on the opposite side of a busy road calling for help.
His mother, Kim, who lives nearby, was alerted by his younger brother and ran to the shop. The boy’s father Vince said his family were too shocked to talk about what had happened.
Fighting back tears, he said: “There’s nothing I can say, we can’t take it in.”
One neighbour who had been comforting the Peartons described them as “totally shell-shocked”.
She said: “It’s been a terrible shock. We are a really tight-knit community. We all know each other. It is just what it has come to these days. No-one can believe what has happened.”
The attack took place at about 6.15pm on Wednesday in Home Park Recreation Ground, off Sydenham Road.
One witness said Nick cycled to the park to face members of a rival gang after another confrontation earlier in the week.
The 16-year-old boy said: “There was a fight over something silly. Nick was lying on the floor of the chicken shop bleeding. His mum came out screaming ‘my baby boy, my son’. I didn’t see him get stabbed, just on the floor.”
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