Video: Brooke Kinsella's appeal

Hundreds of teenagers gathered yesterday to protest at Britain's growing knife culture after the murder of 16-year-old Ben Kinsella in North London at the weekend.

Police stopped the traffic as Ben’s friends and family, including his sister, the former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, led about 400 protesters in a march to where Ben was stabbed numerous times on Sunday morning.

Along the way, the procession — which stretched back several hundred yards — stopped outside the home of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who has promised to crack down on knife crime.

The grim-faced teenagers, many wearing T-shirts with Ben’s picture, consoled each other as they walked along. The march had started at the steps of Islington Town Hall where people turned up with banners and T-shirts bearing slogans such as “RIP Ben. ”You’re an Angel” and “Stop Knife Violence”.

Brooke Dunford, 16, who organised the demonstration, had printed leaflets, sent e-mails and texts and used Facebook, the networking website, to ensure so many people turned up. A close friend of Ben since she was 12, she said: “I just couldn’t sit around and grieve when this might happen to other people.”

Brooke was wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "18?". It was a reference to whether she could be the 18th young person killed in London this year.

She said: “It’s ridiculous. When is it going to stop? If by doing this I have made one person rethink taking out a knife then I have done my bit. That would be one more person going back home to his mum.”

Brooke said she had called the event “Life For Life” because she believed a life sentence should be mandatory for anyone found guilty of killing a person.

The large group, with a police escort, walked for more than 45 minutes to get to where Ben was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning. As they passed, onlookers came out of shops and homes to pay their respects.

The group stopped and stood in sombre silence outside Shillibeers, the club where Ben had been with friends on the night he died. Brooke Kinsella joined the march wearing a T-shirt with a photograph of Ben as a baby.

As they approached the spot where Ben died, the crowd began shouting: “What are we here for? Ben. Why are we here? No knives.”

Scores of floral tributes and T-shirts bearing personal messages mark the spot where Ben died. The family wept as they looked at the flowers.

Brooke Kinsella said: “I haven’t the strength or the energy to say everything I want. This is just another trial and another life lost. I want to say thank you to every single person who is here and everyone else thinking of him.”

She added: “Please, please, if anybody knows anything please can you help and get in touch with the police. Don’t be scared, please be brave and help save another life.”

Linda Robson, the Birds of a Feather actress, also joined the march, with her 16-year-old son Louis who had cradled Ben in his arms as he lay dying.

She said: “When you’ve got a knife in your pocket, you are obviously intending to use it.” She repeated her call for tougher penalties for those who wield knives.

"If you can do that to another human being, you are not going to be able to take that out by sending them to prison for five or six years.

“We need to stop them carrying knives in the first place. There needs to be a stronger deterrent. As soon as they are caught with a knife they should go to some sort of institution — Borstal or something.”

“Brooke sent a lovely text to my daughter saying, ‘I haven’t got a brother now, can we borrow yours some time’.”

Robson said the pain was just beginning for the family. She said: “They’ve got the funeral, the trials and the GCSE passes. God help them.”

Four teenagers from North and East London have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ben and remain in custody at various London police stations. Two knives have been recovered from near to where Ben was killed.

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