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ITN
Stars attend Ben Kinsella funeral
Stars attend Ben Kinsella funeral
Stars from the world of entertainment joined more than 1,000 mourners for the funeral of murdered teenager Ben Kinsella.Ben, the brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, died after he was stabbed during a night out in north London.Dozens of the 16-year-old's friends dressed up in colourful wigs, outsized sunglasses and T-shirts bearing anti-knife crime slogans for his funeral.They were joined at the service by a number of former EastEnders stars, politicians and actors.The ceremony at St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, in Islington, was so well attended that hundreds were forced to wait outside in the rain as the service began.In a deliberate twist from traditional funeral convention, many of Ben's friends came dressed in bright colours with some bearing a single white or red rose.And in another break from tradition, the teenager's purple coffin was brought out from the church to sustained applause.Following his death Miss Kinsella, who played Kelly Taylor in the TV soap, pleaded for others to learn from his death and lay down their weapons.Ex-EastEnders star and Bionic Woman actress Michelle Ryan was joined at the service by former stars of the soap, Gillian Taylforth and James Alexandrou, as well as Birds Of A Feather actress Linda Robson and Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.Robson's son Louis, a friend of Ben, was with him as he died.Also in attendance was Richard Taylor, the father of schoolboy Damilola Taylor, who was ten when he was stabbed to death with broken glass in November 2000 in Peckham, south east London.Following the funeral Ben's family left to attend a private ceremony at the nearby St Pancras and Islington Cemetery.Ben was stabbed several times in York Way, Islington, after a fight in a bar spilled out on to the streets on June 29.In the following days, up to 400 protesters marched along Upper Street in Islington to the scene of the killing to demand an end to knife crime.Arsenal fan Ben was a popular student at Holloway School in north London.He appeared in an episode of ITV police drama The Bill in 2004 and took regular after-school drama classes at the Young Actors Theatre in north London for more than a year.He took GCSE exams before his death and was expected to have done well. The results are released next month.Ben's family set up a fund and website in his memory to raise awareness of the effects of gun and knife crime.Three teenagers have been charged with Ben's murder.Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court and have been remanded in custody to October 13.And on Thursday, the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Freddy Moody in London brought the grim toll of teenagers killed violently in the capital this year to 21.
ITN | July 18, 2008
