Kiyan Josiah Prince (25 November 1990 – 18 May 2006) was a 15-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed outside the

London Academy London Academy (formerly Edgware School) is a mixed all-through school and sixth form for pupils ages 4 to 18. It is located in Edgware in the London Borough of Barnet, England. History Formerly "Edgware School", it opened as the London Acade ...

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

, London on 18 May 2006. Prince, who played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future i ...

of professional club

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

, was described as "a prodigious footballing talent" and "an outstanding and upstanding boy". He was killed while trying to stop the bullying of another boy.

Murder

On 18 May 2006, Prince was involved in an altercation with 16-year-old fellow London Academy pupil Hannad Hasan outside the school gates. Hasan managed to get Prince in a headlock before stabbing him once in the heart with a

penknife Penknife, or pen knife, is a British English term for a small folding knife. Today the word ''penknife'' is the common British English term for both a pocketknife, which can have single or multiple blades, and for multi-tools, with additional too ...

. A

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Sergeant from the local Edgware Safer Neighbourhood team found Prince; he was transferred by air to the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and spe ...

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

where he was pronounced dead two hours later. Two days later Hasan was charged with Prince's murder.

Trial

On 2 July 2007, following a trial at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, during which Hasan denied murdering Prince but admitted manslaughter, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 13 years to be served. Hasan claimed he carried the penknife "like a toy". It was not revealed to the jury that a few days prior to Prince's stabbing, Hasan had used the knife to threaten a schoolgirl on a bus during an argument. The then-

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

, in response to the killing, said that he would encourage the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

and the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

to impose maximum imprisonment sentences for those who carry knives. In addition to this, the

Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 (c. 38) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Origin The United Kingdom Government published a paper "Drinking Responsibly - The Government's Proposals" in 2005 setting out their proposals for ...

was enacted that increased the age at which a person can purchase a knife from 16 to 18.

Aspiring footballer

Prince, who signed for

's youth team in 2004 has been described as a prodigious talent; he was to due to collect a players' award shortly after his death. QPR's first team coach at the time, Gary Waddock, paid tribute to Prince saying: "The whole club is mourning the loss of one of our own. We are all devastated. Kiyan was certainly one for the future, a very talented lad who wanted to forge a career in football." The club later revealed they planned to sign him as a professional. In memory of Prince, QPR established an annual award called the "Kiyan Prince Goal of the Season", which is awarded to the player who scores QPR's best goal of each season. Since June 2019, following a fan vote, QPR's ground at

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

was renamed the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium in memory of Prince and the anti-knife crime charity established by his father. On 25 November 2020, the date that would have marked his 30th birthday, the club encouraged all supporters to wear something blue and something white in memory of Prince. On 18 May 2021, on the 15th anniversary of his death,

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

added him to ''

FIFA 21 ''FIFA 21'' is an association football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the ''FIFA series''. It is the 28th installment in the ''FIFA'' series, and was released on 9 October 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switc ...

'' as a tribute. QPR also stated he would also be included in their squad list for the 2021–2022 season.

Foundation

Spurred by this personal tragedy, Prince's father, former boxer (and ex-International IBF and WBO Champion) Mark Prince, founded the Kiyan Prince Foundation (KPF) in early 2007. The not-for-profit organization is committed to using Kiyan's legacy to combat

knife crime Knife legislation is defined as the legislation, body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, ...

and other forms of youth violence. Its mission is to:

"work with young people to increase awareness and address the consequences of gun and knife crime through education. It aims to empower young people by promoting a sense of belonging, self-worth and purpose that can be found outside of gang culture and offending behaviour through providing access to diversionary and preventative activities".

Mark Prince was made an OBE in the

2019 New Year Honours The 2019 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for "services to tackling knife and gang crime in London".

References

External links

"A torrent of grief for Kiyan, the boy with a heart of gold"
Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2006
"The Kiyan Prince Foundation"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Kiyan 1990 births 2006 murders in the United Kingdom 2000s crimes in London Male murder victims Murdered English children Black British sportsmen Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Murder in London 2006 in London People murdered in London Deaths by stabbing in London English footballers Association football forwards 2006 deaths