Stabbed in the back

A TEENAGE rapper became the latest murder victim of violent Britain yesterday . . . stabbed in the back as an early morning party ended in bloodshed.

Conor Black, 16, died in the arms of one of his friends, despite desperate efforts to revive him.

And at the time Conor was killed on a Manchester estate at 2am, another teenager—a 17-year-old Sri Lankan—was stabbed to death 200 miles away in Croydon, south London.

The youth was with a group of other youngsters and was brutally knifed in the neck by thug who is said to have rowed with them earlier.

He became the 23rd teenager to be killed in the capital this year—and there have been more than 30 teenage murders, including Conor’s, across the UK.

Friends said Conor had been drinking with a group of youngsters at a house in Harpurhey, Manchester when he became involved in an argument. Shortly afterwards he was found lying outside, soaked in blood. Devastated pal Nick Doyle, 17, told yesterday how he cradled dying Conor and got him breathing again.

Nick said: “He had no heartbeat and no pulse, with just a small puncture wound on the back of his shoulder. But me and my mate cleared his throat and revived him. He could hear us loud and clear but couldn’t speak. But then we lost him. I’m devastated.”

Conor, who left school this summer, had hopes of becoming a rap MC, performing under the street name Sektor. His Myspace internet site also features pictures of him in gangster poses, pointing his fingers to his head like a gun.

Family friend Angela Keating, 36, said last night: “He was lovely, gorgeous-looking, blue-eyed talented lad—and he was was stabbed in the back by a coward.”

Tragically Conor should have been at the wedding of his friend’s mother yesterday. Instead guests, including bridesmaids in their dresses, turned up at the murder scene to pay their respects.

Sixty police are involved in the murder hunt and it was revealed detectives are studying CCTV footage from the nearby area for clues to the killer’s identity.

Meanwhile police investigating the London murder yesterday arrested a man in his 20s. He was being held in custody last night.