Damilola Taylor, 10 was stabbed to death as he walked home from school in London. Passers-by ignored him as he lay bleeding in a stairwell.

Dec. 6 — It's not a photograph for Britain's mantelpiece. The last image of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor would just be a reminder of what has become a source of national shame.

Closed-circuit television captured the Nigerian schoolboy as he made his way home from a late afternoon computer class.

Moments later he lay bleeding on a stairwell in a rundown London housing estate, stabbed in the leg. Police say as many as 10 people saw him, but did not stop to help. By the time someone did stop, it was too late.

Damilola bled to death because not enough people cared to save him. His death last week has brought focus to an issue that has bothered Britain, on and off, for years. But this time, some Britons say, it is different.

Damilola came to Britain from Nigeria four months ago with his mother and sister to seek treatment for his sister’s epilepsy. His father stayed behind.

Police on Monday released footage of Damilola recorded by surveillance cameras just minutes before he bled to death.

The poignant images recalled similar pictures shown after 2-year-old Jamie Bulger was abducted by two young boys in Liverpool in 1993 and murdered on a nearby railway track.

In both cases, Britons were forcefully reminded of dark and violent aspects of their society that many would prefer not to have to confront.

This was not swinging London, Cool Britannia or cricket on the village green.

Nobody knows yet who killed Damilola a week ago or why they did it, but that has not held back pundits and politicians.

"As soon as his death was reported, it seemed that everybody wanted a piece of young Damilola, vying to sign him up posthumously to their pet cause," wrote commentator Mick Hume in The Times newspaper.

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照片上的这个小男孩是不是很可爱？可是这也是他最后一张照片了，因为他已经丧生于英国人的冷漠之下。尼日利亚籍的泰勒12月6日下午在学校放学之后返家途中遭遇袭击，被刺伤腿部。有10个人见到他躺在破旧的楼梯间里流血不止，但却无人问津，最终导致他失血过多而死。

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stairwell [n] 楼梯间
rundown [adj] 破败的
Briton [n] 大不列颠人
epilepsy [n] 癫痫
footage [n] 电影胶片
poignant [adj] 令人痛苦的
pundit [n] 博学者
vie [v] 竞争
posthumously [adv] 死后地

摘自英文锁定