the times | Saturday October 17 2020 2GM 13
News
A builder who was cornered by a gang
of attackers and stabbed three of them
to death is thought to be the first person
to face no charges after a triple killing in
self-defence, The Times can reveal.
Gurjeet Singh, 30, was heading home
down a dark alley from his local gurd-
wara in east London when his path was
blocked by four men armed with knives
and a hammer.
Mr Singh produced a knife and in a
clash that lasted about 13 seconds he left
three of the men with fatal wounds.
Scotland Yard confirmed the ex-
traordinary decision not to charge Mr
Singh with murder or manslaughter
after the man who survived the
bungled attack was jailed for conspira-
Man faces no charges after triple killing
cy. A fifth man who acted as a driver was
also jailed.
A source said that clear footage of the
incident from nearby CCTV showed
that Mr Singh was fighting for his life as
the men attacked with weapons includ-
ing a hammer. The source said that Mr
Singh “went all Bruce Lee” as he
defended himself.
It is understood that the group, most-
ly made up of unskilled labourers, had
fallen out with Mr Singh over a busi-
ness deal. Family members said that
they had been rowing over money.
Mr Singh suffered a number of
wounds fending off the four armed
assailants, including a 5cm cut to the
left side of the head, a cut to the fore-
head and to the back of his head and
what a court was told was “a crushinjury” to the top of his head thought to
have been sustained from the hammer.
He also sustained a wound to his hand.
The three dead men, all fellow Sikhs,
and two survivors had spotted Mr
Singh at the gurdwara in Ilford after a
dispute the night before at a communi-
ty event to celebrate the birth of a baby
at a nearby venue called Krystel Ban-
queting.
Harinder Kumar, 22, Narinder Singh,
26, and Baljit Singh, 34 — no relation to
Mr Singh — were found in pools of
blood in scenes likened to a warzone.
Louis O’Donoghue, 40, a scaffolder
who arrived at the scene soon after, said
at the time: “It was just chaos. It was like
something out of a movie. Horrific. It
was like a bad day in Bosnia.”
The two men who survived the bun-gled attack were sentenced in August.
The attackers had lain in wait at 7pm
on January 19 along Mr Singh’s path
home for about 10 to 15 minutes before
launching the ill-fated attack.
Sandeep Singh, 29, an unskilled la-
bourer from Romford who is not a rela-
tion to the victim, was in the UK illegal-
ly, having overstayed his visa. He was
jailed for four years in August for
wounding with intent and will be de-
ported back to India after his sentence.
His brother, Harpreet, 27, the ap-
pointed getaway driver on the night,
had also overstayed his visa and will be
sent home after a 12-month jail sen-
tence for the same offence.
Despite never bringing charges in
relation to the deaths, the Met police
did charge Gurjeet Singh with posses-sion of an offensive weapon in a public
place and he was remanded in custody
for trial in February.
The jury at Snaresbrook crown court
found him not guilty in August. Mr
Singh could not be reached for com-
ment yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the Met con-
firmed that Mr Singh had initially been
arrested for murder, but was charged
only with possession of the knife, for
which he was subsequently cleared.
In 2018, a pensioner who disturbed
two men burgling his house in south-
east London was released without
charge after stabbing one of them to
death having been threatened with a
screwdriver. Richard Osborn-Brooks,
79, killed Henry Vincent with a knife in
Hither Green early on April 4 that year.John Simpson Crime Correspondent
Four hundred years ago the Mayflower
left Southampton for the New World,
destined to change history.
Today, however, in the city that bade
it farewell in 1620, children are learning
about the havoc wreaked by the pilgrim
fathers when they settled, as part of
efforts to “de-colonise” the curriculum.
Their lessons have been designed in
collaboration with the Wampanoag, a
native American tribe, to give more
than just a western perspective.
The Mayflower set sail for America
from Southampton in August 1620
alongside the Speedwell but both re-
turned to Plymouth when the Speed-
well began leaking. Their passengers
and cargo were eventually all crammed
on to the Mayflower, which departed
Plymouth in September and arrived in
Massachusetts in November.
The lessons were co-created by Oasis
Academy Mayfield. The curriculum
will say: “The Mayflower as the found-
ing moment of America is mythical but
essentially, the colonisation of the New
World was the beginnings of what went
on to become the British Empire. This is
not a milestone to be celebrated, or
commemorated, but one to be reflected
upon through the long lens of history.”
Children can discuss how Puritan
separatists “sought religious freedom
but didn’t respect the spirituality of the
Wampanoag people”, it says. It suggests
showing pupils images of modern-day
Syrian refugees in lifeboats, and com-
paring it to the journey faced by perse-
cuted pilgrims leaving England.
Paula Peters, 61, a member of the
tribe, has been working with the city for
more than a year. The writer and pro-
ducer said: “For 400 years the Wampa-
noag people have been forgotten, or
misrepresented, in the telling of this
story. We hope that this programme
will help to bring some balance to the
young people’s understanding.”
Tribes teach
pupils about
havoc of the
Mayflower
Nicola Woolcock
H
ow do you film
Britain’s most
popular TV
dance contest in
a pandemic?
With a little help fromaugmented reality (AR).
The BBC is planning to use
computer-generated
graphics on Strictly Come
Dancing to create virtual
3D worlds for contestants to
foxtrot around (Matthew
Moore writes).
Celebrities in the new
series, which starts tonight,
also have to “bubble” with
their dancing partners and
take regular virus tests.
The elaborate sets are
usually constructed and
removed during live shows
by crew but distancing andsanitisation rules made that
impossible. Producers will
use AR so that the dancers
appear to be interacting
with three-dimensional
scenery when they are
really performing on an
empty ballroom floor at
Elstree Studios.
This year’s line-up
includes the actress
Caroline Quentin, the
comedian Bill Bailey and
the former Labour MP
Jacqui Smith. Nicola
Adams, the retired
Olympic boxing goldmedallist, is dancing with a
same-sex partner.
Three judges — Craig
Revel Horwood, Shirley
Ballas and Motsi Mabuse —
will sit at their own socially
distanced pods rather than
along a single desk. The
fourth judge, Bruno Tonioli,
is stuck in the US filming
Dancing With the Stars,
with transatlantic travel
disrupted. He will “beam
in” over videolink for the
first few weeks but will
not be allowed to award
scores.Strictly
steps into
virtual
3D world
GUY LEVY/BBC/PAMalala reviled by left-wing critics for helping Tory
The Nobel peace prize winner Malala
Yousafzai has been criticised on social
media for supporting her Conservative
best friend during a student election.
The 23-year-old women’s rights
activist from Pakistan posted a message
on Facebook asking people to vote for
Kia Williams, a coursemate who was
running to be president of the Oxford
University Conservative Association.
Despite Ms Yousafzai making it clear
in the post that the endorsement was“not a reflection of my personal political
views”, some left-wing observers brand-
ed her a “disingenuous careerist” Tory.
Ms Yousafzai, who was studying poli-
tics, philosophy and economics with
Ms Williams, was shot in the head by
the Taliban in 2012 for speaking out
against the Islamist regime. She has
since become one of the world’s most
prominent women’s rights campaign-
ers, starting the Malala Foundation,
which secured about £1 billion last year.
In 2014 she became the world’s
youngest Nobel laureate and went onto graduate from Oxford this year.
She wrote on Facebook: “Hi every-
one! Those who are members of the Ox-
ford University Conservative Associa-
tion may have heard that their elections
are this Wednesday. One of my best
friends Kia Williams is running for pres-
ident. Kia has worked so hard putting
her team and manifesto together and I
genuinely think she and her team will
do an amazing job if elected.
“Whether you’re an active [associa-
tion] member or not, they have some-
thing for everyone.” As a disclaimer, shewrote: “This endorsement is not a re-
flection of my personal political views
— I just really think my friends are tal-
ented people who deserve the opportu-
nity to improve the association they
care about.” It is unclear when she
made the post.
After it was shared on Twitter, one
user said: “Not the least bit surprised
about Malala... Always suspected she
was a disingenuous careerist.” Another
wrote: “So my hate for her all this time
wasn’t unprovoked.” Some of the tweets
were liked hundreds of times.Charlie Parker
Dancers must take
regular virus tests
and judges will sit
in separate pods6 Classic Disney animations, including
Peter Pan, The Aristocats and Dumbo,
have been given content advisory noti-
ces warning viewers of the Disney+
streaming service that they contain
outdated depictions of people of colour.
Disney said that Peter Pan, made in
1953, referred to native people as “red-
skins”, and in The Aristocats (1970) one
of the cats “sings in poorly accented
English voiced by a white actor and
plays the piano with chopsticks”.