THE mother of a murdered Enfield teenage footballer has backed a community inquiry due to start tomorrow into August's Tottenham riots.

Godwin Lawson, 17, was killed when he tried to protect his friend from an attack in Stamford Hill, Hackney, in April last year, after he returned home for the weekend from Oxford United Academy, where he was learning to become a footballer.

Killer Moise Avorgah, 21, of St Ann's Road, Tottenham, was convicted of Godwin's murder at a trial in February and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years.

Now his mother Yvonne, who has since set up a foundation to tackle youth crime and is backing our Don't Carry, Don't Kill campaign, will give evidence at the six-week Citizens Inquiry, in which community leaders will examine the causes and effects of August's disorder.

She said: “Nobody can have all the answers to why it happened. But personally I believe the youth are very angry.

“Watching them, they had no sense of belonging. If you feel like you belong to society, you don’t damage it, do you? Perhaps they think there’s no future for them. How do we get to the bottom of this anger?

“These issues were bubbling up beforehand. The anger amongst young people was there before the riots, and personally I can relate that to the murder of my son Godwin.”

On August 6, hundreds of looters and rioters attacked police, broke into shops and set buildings on fire, leaving more than 50 families homeless and causing millions of pounds of damage.

North London Citizens – an alliance of schools, universities, religious organisations and charities – will hear evidence at the Tottenham Dream Centre in the Town Hall.

The Citizens Inquiry – which will provide a report early next year with recommendations separate from Government and Haringey Council panels – will be chaired by eleven 'commissioners', who have been selected for being leaders of the community.

Mrs Lawson added: “We need to build good relationships with the youth. The police need to rebuild relationships with the community. We need to give young people a forum and think about early interventions.

"This inquiry is important for us to reflect on the causes. Once we reflect on that, we can find the solutions. It cannot be done in isolation. It’s so positive that it’s being led by the community because the community can identify the problems.

“In view of what’s happened to my son, we want to use the foundation to see how we can help through education and training.”

The public hearings are open for anyone to submit evidence and North London Citizens have called on the public to come to the launch tomorrow at Tottenham Town Hall from 11am.