Chris Kaba verdict is traumatising, say black community leaders

“Despite his convictions, et cetera, you’ve got a family here who are grieving the loss; a child now has no father,” he said.

“For me, today is about processing the fact that there’s a not guilty verdict, and a family who have loads of questions that need to be answered; today I wouldn’t be focusing on the news of his criminal history.”

Ms St James had a slightly different view.

She said she understood why the judge waited to release the information until after the verdict, because “you don’t want to prejudice the jury”, but “it may have very well changed some people’s opinion (in the community)”.

“Because the previous history said this vehicle was involved in a shooting of days before, that might change some people’s view if they’d have known his history.

“But as Anthony said, the family are still grieving, he’s still their child.”

Mr King continued by saying he would not want people “to just look at his criminal history and think, ‘well, well-deserved'”.

“For me, I’m still looking at a life lost; a life taken. I won’t even say lost – it was robbed, taken. But again, I’ve got mixed emotions.”