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FIREWORKS STAB TRAGEDY
Sister of stab victim Harry Pitman, 16, says ‘I’ve lost baby brother’ as it’s claimed NY revellers celebrated near body
Harry's mum can't bring herself to take his dinner out of the oven as it sits waiting for him
THE sister of a 16-year-old boy stabbed to death has tearfully paid tribute to her "baby brother" after he was knifed while tens of thousands of revellers prepared to ring in the New Year.
Harry Pitman, 16, was given CPR for ten minutes among crowds who had gathered on parkland to watch London’s 2024 fireworks display.
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But the 6ft 3in schoolboy could not be saved on Primrose Hill, North London.
Last night Harry’s devastated siblings told of the family’s heartbreak.
His sister Tayla, 19, said his mother Amanda Woolveridge, 37, was so upset she could not remove from her oven the dinner she made Harry on the night he died.
Tayla, of Tottenham, North London, added: “It doesn’t seem real, I keep on expecting him to come through the front door.
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"His dinner is still in the oven, Mum can’t bring herself to remove it.
“He was the middle child of five. He has a four-year-old brother and a five-year-old sister. We haven’t told them what’s happened yet, we don’t know how to.
“Harry was my baby brother, he was the most handsome boy you could ever meet.
"Harry could be mischievous and cheeky and he could really wind me up at times. But he didn’t have a bad bone in his body. He always stood up for what is right.”
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Harry’s brother Patrick, 18, said his younger sibling was a huge Spurs fan.
The schoolboy had been waiting with pals to watch the fireworks when he was stabbed at 11.40pm on New Year’s Eve.
Police said he was involved in an altercation with “devastating consequences”.
A huge crowd had gathered on the 200ft- high vantage point — north of Regent’s Park — which overlooks the London Eye.
Witnesses told of the aftermath of the attack. Benedict Smith said police put up a cordon “and ambulances came through the crowd up to the top of the hill”, adding: “The police and medical crew were doing constant CPR for at least ten minutes.”
A woman called Maissa wrote on the London Crime Facebook Group: “I was there and saw the child. It was a painful thing. I do not think I will forget what happened for the rest of my life.”
Maissa told how some revellers carried on partying as Harry slipped away.
She said: “The poor person was dying and people were celebrating as if the child was an animal.
"I am now in a state of shock from the ugliness of what I saw . . . could not stay there or celebrate.”
Neighbourhood group Primrose Hill Watch estimated between 20,000 and 50,000 people were in the Grade II listed Victorian park to watch the fireworks.
A 16-year-old boy arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder has been released on bail pending further enquiries.
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Parts of the park were sealed off yesterday. Det Chief Insp Geoff Grogan said: “We are reviewing CCTV footage and carrying out a forensic examination of the scene.”
Harry was the 22nd teenager to be murdered in the capital in 2023.
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KNIFE-PLAGUED CITY
By Thomas Godfrey
HARRY Pitman was fatally stabbed minutes before a message in the sky bragged to 100,000 London New Year revellers of the mayor’s achievements.
The boast, using hundreds of drones, introduced the fireworks seconds after the Big Ben gongs. But critics branded it a “cheap PR stunt” and pointed to the teen’s death as an example of lawless London under Sadiq Khan.
Others pointed out statistics which show knifepoint robberies have jumped by a third in a year.
One said: “Sadiq Khan revelling in a cheap PR stunt, while a child is being stabbed to death on NYE...”
Londoner Viv Jones said: “He’s wasted millions and still kids dying from knife crime.” And Tory parliamentary candidate Ben Obese-Jecty added: “Sadiq Khan fails to make any reference to the murder of a 16-year-old boy on London’s Primrose Hill as crowds gathered to watch the NYE fireworks. “At no point has knife crime been his top priority.”
The show was organised by the Labour mayor, 53, who said it was London’s “best and biggest ever” New Year celebration.
Knife crime in the capital has risen 40 per cent since Mr Khan took office in 2016.
There were 13,503 in the year to last June, a 21 per cent hike. It is rising at the highest rate in five years.
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