UK - Boy 15 stabbed to death, Ashburton Park, Addiscombe, South London, 23 Dec 2021

[Mrs Goodcat]

Boy, 15, is stabbed to death in a south London park as police launch murder probe | Daily Mail Online

This took place in Ashburton Park in Addiscombe. This is the park near to missing Kevin Hicks house. There cannot be a connection after all this time, but it is sad to hear how dangerous even Addiscombe, Croydon has become for young people. Kevin Hicks either walked past, or through the park to get home. It is at the end of Shirley Road where he was sighted across the main Lower Addiscombe Road. There is a pathway to the left fenced off from the main park. I have always wondered if that is where Kevin disappeared.

(I am currently staying very close to the park, and grew up in the area and we had heard nothing of this.)

 

[THX]

Hi - one of my friends grew up in Thornton Heath in the 80s / 90s. He said his local park (not sure which one it would have been) often had groups of men bothering kids, and the park keeper often had to ask them to leave. Is that something you have any memory of, or not your part of town?

 

[THX]

Boy, 15, is stabbed to death in a south London park as police launch murder probe | Daily Mail Online

This took place in Ashburton Park in Addiscombe. This is the park near to missing Kevin Hicks house. There cannot be a connection after all this time, but it is sad to hear how dangerous even Addiscombe, Croydon has become for young people. Kevin Hicks either walked past, or through the park to get home. It is at the end of Shirley Road where he was sighted across the main Lower Addiscombe Road. There is a pathway to the left fenced off from the main park. I have always wondered if that is where Kevin disappeared.

(I am currently staying very close to the park, and grew up in the area and we had heard nothing of this.)

Having read the local archives of the 1980s, it definitely hasn't 'become' dangerous. It was always dangerous. If you look back at the local press around the time when Kevin was abducted, it's absolutely full of stories in the area near where Kevin lived of assault, drugs, stabbings, thefts, gangs of violent young men attacking people, murder and paedophiles. In the Summer of 1986, there was an attack in Ashburton Park when a gang battered victims with sticks and metal pipes.

I definitely agree with you that there is as good as chance as any that Kevin entered Ashburton Park that night.