Close to Tower Bridge is an area beloved of filmmakers the world over. The old Victorian era warehouses and narrow cobbled streets provide the perfect setting for Dickensian dramas and period pieces. The area had become quite run down after the chief occupants, brewers for the most, moved on to more modern premises in the 70’s. During the Yuppie years of the mid 80's the warehouses came into vogue as trendy residences for the rich and architects had made a bundle converting them. As is often the case in London the 'rich' live close by to the 'not so rich'. The area known as Shad Thames is just a short distance across Tooley Street from one such region.
Jubi Asejoke had come to the UK from Africa at the age of seven with his parents on a visitor’s visa for an alleged family wedding. The Asejoke's had left Heathrow Airport and dropped out of official sight for eight years until Asejoke senior had been caught attempting to transfer £12,000 from someone else's account to another he had set up under a bogus name. His son had stolen the chequebook and bankcard he was using in a street robbery the day before. Somehow the righteous indignation poured out by Asejoke (Snr) to the two uniformed 'Bobbies' who had first blocked his way out of the bank had fallen on deaf ears. He had been taken to a side office whilst bank staff brought them the evidence of the attempted fraud that had prompted them to call the Police. Mr Asejoke changed tack and swore to them on the lives of his wife and children that as a good Muslim he would never commit the sin of fraud. Both Constables were unmoved by the outpourings of religious fervour and so he had played the trump card that worked so well before against the white middle class citizenry of modern day England … he accused them in a loud voice of being Racists and implored whoever may have been listening beyond the closed office door to rescue him. It had worked for him before, but then he had not previously tried it on Police Officers who had heard it used too often. Mr and Mrs Asejoke found themselves on a flight back to whence they had come eight years before. The Unemployment Benefits office ceased issuing Giro payments to the twelve names the Asejoke's had been claiming under and it seized the detached house, contents, and two Mercedes saloons the Asejoke's had acquired without ever having done a day’s work in England.
Jubi had attended a state school in Camberwell where street cred was everything amongst his peers; academic excellence scored no marks. Jubi preferred to be called by his 'tag', Striker, he was into car crime by eleven, burglary by twelve and had used a knife to commit his first mugging a week before his thirteenth birthday. In a school of 'Bad boys' striving to be badder than anyone else Jubi had reasoned that by impaling his 50 year old Geography teachers right hand to her desks top with a hunting knife he would be respected by his peers. Jubi had avoided arrest until the day he stabbed Elizabeth Reynolds, and as such the bleeding hearts and social workers convinced a barely caring Crown Prosecution Service that Jubi was a victim of a society that had failed him. Jubi had openly mocked the Magistrates as they gave him Community Service to perform as atonement. The miserly sum awarded Mrs Reynolds by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board had been as insulting as the two fingers waved in her face by Jubi as he had left the courtroom to join his entourage beyond its doors at Camberwell Youth Court. Elizabeth Reynolds never regained full use of the hand and was forced to leave the teaching profession. Not only was she unable to face loud aggressive young people in classrooms anymore, she grew increasingly afraid to leave her home. Unemployed and unable to gain fresh employment Elizabeth's savings dwindled away. She would die of an overdose after her home was repossessed two years later.
Jubi wasn't home when the law caught up with his parents. The Police attempted to compensate for the courts failings and had marked young Jubi's card for him, and they go out of their way to ruin the days of the Jubi's of this world.
Since the court case Jubi was stopped and searched increasingly by officers who showed inventiveness in their grounds for doing so. One day Jubi had a bag containing ten rocks of crack hidden in his underpants, £180 from the sale of rocks at school that morning and a mobile phone he had stolen by means of a mugging the previous week were also on him. He had a girl with him and was feeling good until the Police carrier pulled up alongside him. When the Territorial Support Group officers told him to turn out his pockets he felt he was being slighted in front of the girl he wanted to impress. School mates and others he knew were nearby and watching the proceedings with interest. Jubi felt their eyes on him and indignation welled, he felt he deserved respect without ever having to show it to others. These officers were 'dissing him' and in order to regain face he lashed out with the fourth item he should not have had, another hunting knife.
Jubi appeared in court the next day charged with 'Peewits', Possession with Intent to Supply Class A Drugs, Possession of a Point or Blade, Assault with Intent and for good measure, breaching his Community Service Order of which he had not worked off a single hour. Jubi felt hard done by and his posture showed it, his lip was swollen where it had been split and his right bicep was heavily bruised from the baton strike that caused him to drop the knife. At 15 he was as big as most 18 year olds, he was the one who usually did the hitting and being on the receiving end was an unfamiliar experience. An officer had caught him by the wrist of his knife arm with one gloved fist and followed up with the other a fraction of a second later punching him squarely in the mouth. Almost simultaneously the snap of an 'Asp' extending had preceded the solid blow to his upper arm by a second officer wielding it. The arresting officer was sat at the back of the Court and took great satisfaction in knowing that by the time Jubi returned on bail for his second appearance he would have been identified by the mobile phones owner and further charged with the knifepoint robbery of it.
However, Jubi wasn't in Court a week later, the dealer he worked for wanted £500 from him, not excuses. The Police were set to put him away in Feltham Young Offenders Institute, so he did a runner. Two days later the Police who a few hours’ later carried out a S.18 search under PACE, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act arrested his Father. They had done the same after Jubi's arrest but PACE had only allowed them access to Jubi's bedroom, now though they had the run of the house and the fraudulent activities of the parents became apparent. Mrs Asejoke joined her husband in custody at Southwark Police Station.
On this March morning Jubi was in Shad Thames looking for the opportunity to steal. Ideally he wanted an expensive car, he knew someone who would 'ring it', change its identity, he would be able to pay off 'Jasper' the £500 plus the 'interest' he knew Jasper would levy and regain the street cred he had lost. If the chance presented itself to have some rich white pussy he'd take that too.
Jubi was behind a wheelie bin he had rolled next to the automatic doors of an underground garage. It was a Sunday morning and he was banking on late party goers returning. Directly across the road was another garage entrance and Jubi thought himself quite the wily criminal, it doubled his chances of getting into a garage before the automatic door closed behind the car it had admitted. After a number of false starts, where cars had approached but driven on by, a gleaming silver BMW Z5 Roadster stopped at the entrance beside the wheelie bin and Jubi heard the garage door roll up. Once the car entered so did Jubi, keeping low and scuttling out of sight, he saw the Roadster driver in profile as it headed toward the ramp leading to the sub level. The face framed by the shining rich auburn locks was beautiful, well made up and spoke of money and privilege to Jubi, and he resented it. It never occurred to him that what she had may have been earned by someone who had studied and in turn put that learning to good use, but as it happens that was not entirely the case.