Claudyo would have celebrated his 18th birthday this weekend 

A TABLE made by a young victim of knife crime days before his death is due to be put on display to mark what would have been his 18th birthday.

The wooden furniture had been fashioned by Claudyo Jauad Lafayette at a youth support workshop in the Crowndale Centre, Mornington Crescent – the last thing he made before he died on a night out in Kilburn.

A wall mural was put up in his memory on the Ampthill estate, one of nine memorials set up in Camden for the teenager who was remembered this week as having a broad smile and many different sides.

His friends, family and mentors described Claudyo as a popular and outgoing young man who was also introspective and reflective.

He had started making music and to ride around the streets as part of the “bike life scene”.

He had “a deep sense of injustice” that at times dragged him into trouble, his former mentor said.

With his killers yet to be brought to justice, his mother spoke to the New Journal about the impact on their lives and the hope young people will lay down their knives in the future.

Yzakia Jauad, who lives in Eversholt Street, said: “Claudyo’s death has affected so many young people in Camden. He had three sisters, one brother.

“They are suffering tremendously. And adults too. Whenever I get on the bus someone stops me and says, ‘I knew your son’.

“This is how it has been going for months, and I look at the rest of my life and I think: Is this how it’s going to be?

“We want this to be a lesson to the kids: knife crime is not acceptable.

“But I also wanted to speak to all the youngsters out there to say we haven’t forgotten Claudyo.

“His memory goes on. And we are still fighting for justice.”

Claudyo was killed by a single stab wound in an attack outside an event in a community centre in Granville Road, Kilburn, in July last year.

The Met Police said on Tuesday that five suspects had been arrested but so far none has been charged and “the investigation is ongoing”.

The table was the last thing Claudyo made at a youth support workshop and is going on display at the Crowndale Centre

Claudyo lived with his mother in Eversholt Street and went to Our Lady’s primary school in Camden Town, Regent High School in Somers Town, Haverstock in Chalk Farm and lastly the Camden Community Learning, where he passed all his GCSEs, before starting a business course at Westminster Kingsway College.

As well as the exhibition in the Crowndale next week, a bench with plaque is being put up next to the wall mural at the Ampthill estate.

Ms Jauad spoke about how she had passed the mural over Easter and seen “10 kids just sitting on the floor with flowers facing the wall” and “we want to put something there for them to sit on”.

She added: “One woman came up to me and she told me that my son used to go up to the 20th floor of the yellow tower there, to smoke.

“‘He was very polite and would carry my shopping bags’, she told me.

“Apparently he used to sit on the floor up there for hours, just him. I was thinking, was that really my son sitting up there alone?”

At his funeral in Islington and St Pancras Cemetery in East Finchley, Claudyo’s best friend ‘S.S’ performed a song he had written as he stood next to a white coffin.

This week, he told the New Journal: “It all began with me and him from growing up on the Ampthill, riding around on our bikes as kids.

“He was a positive person and I could talk to him about anything.

“He was supportive. A bit cheeky, a bit of a jokester.

“But there were days when he was more introverted.

“He lost someone, a friend, but he still managed to put a smile on people’s faces.”

St Thomas Canterbury and Fulham Deacon Wayne O’Reilly, who was a mentor to Claudyo at Our Lady of Hal, told the service: “Carrying a knife does not make you a man.

“You are a coward if you are carrying a knife.

“You are a more of a man if you can walk away from the problem.

“That’s the attitude we need to change.”

This week, he told the New Journal: “Claudyo did struggle at school, although he was good at maths.

“But he was creative and he wanted to do stuff with his hands. I remember we used to do Lego therapy together, and he could just build the Lego without the instructions.

“The other thing about him was that if someone was getting picked on, or if there was a problem in the playground he would always rush to defend the weakest person, but that would sometimes end up getting him into trouble too.

“And then he would get frustrated, and things would go on, but then he would spend a long time reflecting on what he done.

“He was never one of those kids who’d say I hadn’t done anything wrong.”

The table he made, which has been signed by his family and friends, will be on display in an exhibition at the Crowndale Centre in the coming weeks.