June 23, 2010 by Matt Thomas
A teenage boy has been detained in East London, following the death of an 18 year-old in Bromley-by-Bow. The 16 year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been sentenced at Southwark crown court to serve a minimum of 14 years in prison.
Salum Kombo was stabbed to death following a series of altercations which took place through Facebook. Formerly best friends with the convicted teenager, it is thought that Kombo traded insults with him online, which led to the tragic killing.
Kombo was stabbed in December last year, having called his former best friend a series of derogatory names. The trial heard that the boy, who was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey in May, retaliated with violence to save face. Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, who sentenced the boy, stated; “There was nothing brave about what you did. This was quite simply an act of cowardice, as so many stabbings are.”
Prosecutor David Jeremy stated that the two young adults had been very close friends until they fought at a football match last summer. Their relationship deteriorated and became hostile, up to the night of the murder. Witnesses state that the killer has accosted Mr. Kombo when he arrived at the scene, and the two walked away together to settle their differences. Friends had tried to calm the boy down, but he grew angry, drew a knife and stabbed his former friend in the chest.
The boy claimed he had been acting in self defence, but this explanation was rejected by the Old Bailey jury, and he was convicted of murder in May.
While the murder obviously is independent of Facebook, which cannot be held responsible for the event, it adds to growing concerns about the power of social networking, calling in to question the capability of people to communicate with hostility online.
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