Satanic child killer release fury as young victim's childhood pal hits out

A man whose childhood friend was knifed to death by a satanic paedophile in the middle of a shopping centre has hit out after discovering his killer could be freed in months.

Edward Crowley, was caged for life for stabbing 12-year-old Diego Pineiro-Villar 30 times with a kitchen knife on May 7, 2000 in London's Covent Garden.

Now 76, Crowley who named himself after the notorious Satanist Aleister Crowley, is allowed to re-apply for parole, after his first attempt was knocked back in August 2022, The Mirror reports.

The victim's school pal, William Reed has now spoken out after hearing that the callous killer could be able to walk the streets again.

William and Diego were classmates at the Spanish School Vicente Cañada Blanch in Portobello Road, London, after arriving to the UK together in 1997.

They pair formed a special bond with both new and could only speak Spanish with their classmates bilingual. He said: "For those first couple of years we were very close, we could only speak Spanish so would laugh and joke together.

"Our lives then were like in Spain, we would play outside but that changed. It felt like a slow process, as time went on the fear grew, he wasn't his normal self."

Diego, a kind-hearted boy, had met Crowley when he stepped in to stop other children throwing stones at him in a playground. Crowley, though, became obsessed with the youngster and stalked him for a year.

William recalled: "I remember an incident at school in 1999, I was walking to school and saw Diego running away from the school, really scared, I tried to ask him if he was okay, but he ignored me, it was then I saw this man, running after him. I was really shocked, but I just kept walking to school."

Crowley was cuffed three times and charged with gross indecency and harassment after preying on Diego. He was caged for three months when charged indecency and harassment. But despite his clear obsession with Diego, the killer was released on bail after the indecency charge was dropped. He murdered poor Diego just six weeks later.

William described losing his friend at such a young age as a pivotal moment in his life. He said: "After seeing him at school it was the first time we really knew what was going on. Diego was always joking and laughing but from then he was always down.

"He spoke about, 'If I die, can you wear white to my funeral', we were children, I just didn't really think it was going to happen. I just thought he was in denial, but for me from then, everything changed.

"After Diego was killed, I no longer felt safe, an adult, or my 17-year-old sister would walk with me everywhere. Everything felt very real.

"It felt like the whole system was broken, I felt that even then, it felt very obvious that he was going to hurt Diego, all of the signs had been there, yet he was released."

Two years after Diego was killed a reported by all the agencies involved highlighted failures of communication and blasted the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. But the reported said the blame for Diego's death lay solely with killer Crowley. At the time Diego's mum Angela Fernandez branded the outcome a "white wash" and called the conclusions "disgusting."

After reading the report, commissioned by the Metropolitan Police and Camden Council, Ms Fernandez said: "To say there is nobody who can save my son is lies when there are so many agencies, the child protection committee, the police. I think it is disgusting.

"They were aware that he [Crowley] was talking to him but it was all in the hands of the police. If you can't trust the police, who can you trust?"

Speaking at the time, for all the agencies involved, Jane Held, director of Camden Social Services, denied the report was a "whitewash".

She said: "We accept there are many things we could have done differently and we will learn from that, but even if we had done them differently, tragically the death could not have been foreseen or prevented.

"Bluntly, this boils down to the fact that Diego could only have been protected by removing him from his family, which was neither right nor desirable, or by removing Crowley from the streets – there were no legal reasons to do the latter."

William who is still involved in the Spanish community, said that he and Diego's other school pals have been left stunned by the news that Crowley is now eligible to apply for parole again.

William added: "He took decades of life away from Diego and he hasn't even served a year for every time he stabbed him. He stabbed him 30 times but has only served 23 years. It doesn't feel like justice has been served. He is still a risk to our community, 100%."

Asked if he wanted Crowley to die in prison, he replied: "I personally do, but I wonder if that sounds like revenge? I just feel like that it doesn't yet feel like justice has been served for Diego."

William has launched a petition with the government calling for longer sentences for child killers. It reads: "We advocate for the rigorous application of life sentences for child murder convictions, mandating a minimum of 30 years or a whole life order without the option for early parole."

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