Primrose Hill police tell meeting 'it only takes one knife'

And people living around Primrose Hill described regular disturbances, and even fireworks being let off in the "unpoliceable" park in the days after Harry Pitman, 16, was knifed to death as he waited with friends to watch the New Year fireworks display.

Primrose Hill police held a meeting at Swiss Cottage Community Centre on Thursday, January 4 to "reassure" the community after the killing just days previously.

Led by Inspector Stevie Bull, who manages all police officers across Camden, the safer neighbourhood meeting was attended by local people, community leaders and councillors, all shaken by the fatal stabbing.

• READ MORE: Teen accused of Harry Pitman murder ‘tearful’ in court as trial date set

The 60-acre park is run by The Royal Parks, but Insp Bull said the charity was not invited to the meeting because she wanted it to be a "local meeting with my local teams" to find out "how people are feeling".

She added that she works "very closely with the Royal Parks" and would continue to do so. 

Emotions ran high as people said there were no visual markers such as signs in the park to say a murder was being investigated.

Inspector Stevie Bull speaking to a Primrose Hill Safer Neighbourhood meeting with her officers (Image: Nathalie Raffray)

Several people said that fireworks had been let off in the days after the murder by "people who didn't know anything had happened", but which was "hugely disrespectful".

Others asked what planning had gone into the "informal event" on New Year's Eve, in which "tens of thousands of people" came to the area.

Support for the police was evident at the meeting, with one woman saying New Year's Eve on the hill was "unpoliceable".

While some people said they felt safe in and around the park, others said they lived "in a parallel universe" and felt "frustrated".

One man, who lives next to the park, described "smashed bottles, biker gangs in the middle of the night, dozens of people coming in convoys of cars, falling out of their cars, off their heads on nox (nitrous oxide)".

He said: "I've had to call the police 20 times, been woken up 40 or 50 times in the last two years in the middle of the night by masses, hundreds and hundreds of fireworks because there are no gates, no policing, you can't police that."

He said he recognised that by the time police are called and have arrived, trouble makers have fled.

Jason Allen BEM, director of Mary's Charity, which works with young people at risk of violent crime, said police "are up against it".

Highlighting Harry Pitman's murder and the fatal stabbing of Ahmed Jama near Abbey Road on December 29, he said: "What's happened in Primrose Hill is terribly sad, this is a time to continue to shine that light on how bad knife crime is getting and continuing to get worse. 

"This continues to shine a light for us just how many young people are at risk."

He added: "What happened on Sunday is reflective of what's happening in so many other areas.

"These young people who are dying at the moment, they are not gang members, it's a fair few dying because they are being deemed a gang member."

He said the majority of young people that come to the charity through referrals from police, social services or prison, carry knives with them because they are scared.

He added: "In Primrose Hill alone in the past two years, one of our young people has had his face slashed open, another young person in broad daylight got into a knife fight at the top of the hill. There are constantly things happening in Primrose Hill."

Insp Bull said that in the past year there had been five knife incidents in Primrose Hill, including Harry's death.

She said: "We will increase presence around Camden and increase signage. I want to keep that high visibility presence.

"You should still be reporting, we still need that support from the community. It only takes one knife."