Mourners in bling and farewell salutes as man whose shooting sparked riots is buried

• Hundreds turn out for Mark Duggan's farewell in North London

• Police massed nearby as his coffin was pulled in a white horse-drawn carriage

• The father-of-four, 29, was found with a gun when he was shot dead by police
  

By David Wilkes for the Daily Mail
Created: 07:30 EDT, 9 September 2011

His loved ones wanted to remember him as an innocent family man.

But there was no escaping the murky past of Mark Duggan – the suspected gangster whose death sparked nationwide riots after he was shot by police – as mourners packed a church for his funeral yesterday.

In tributes made by relatives before the 1,000-strong congregation he was described as a man who turned his life around with the help of his beloved partner; who loved playing computer games with their three children; who enjoyed getting ‘dressed up to the nines in bling’ to go out partying.

Final send-off: The cortege arrives for the Mark Duggan's funeral yesterday. Duggan's brothers, the priest and the undertaker lead the flower-bedecked hearse pulled by plumed horses

A salute to a 'soldier': Mourners lined the streets and raised their palms to say farewell to the father-of-four

Procession: People paid tribute to the man described as a 'fallen soldier'

The funeral was held this afternoon for Mark Duggan who was shot dead by police last month. It was his death which sparked riots across England

He was a ‘big kid himself’, said a cousin. What’s more, she claimed, he was a ‘peacemaker’ who resolved conflicts in the community. And he had recently applied to become a fireman.

But another side to Mark Duggan’s life was evident too. It was there in the one-armed salute that men and women gave as the white, horse-drawn hearse passed along the streets from Duggan’s family home in Tottenham.

And it was there outside New Testament Church of God in Wood Green, North London, where the service was held, as friends spoke on the street of Duggan as ‘one of our fallen soldiers’.

Outside the church, where those mourners who could not fit inside stood on the pavement, the air was thick with the smell of cannabis. Dark glasses were the order of the day for men, short skirts for women.

For Duggan, 29, was also known as ‘Starrish Mark’. He was an ‘elder’, or senior member, of The Star Gang, who strut the streets of Tottenham where such gangs trade in violence, intimidation and drugs.

Yesterday, among the floral tributes spelling out ‘dad’ and ‘son’, there was also a star-shaped wreath.
During the 90-minute service Duggan’s cousin Donna Martin began an obituary by repeating his nickname ‘Starrish’ three times, eliciting applause from the congregation.

She told of his upbringing on the notorious Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham and how he left aged 13 to live in Manchester with an aunt. There was no mention of the fact that Duggan was the nephew of notorious crime boss the late Desmond ‘Dessie’ Noonan who boasted his gang had ‘more guns than the police’ and whose feared family are ‘major players’ in Manchester’s underworld.

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But she did tell how Duggan had lost friends in Manchester in ‘unfortunate circumstances’ and how, after he moved back to London, he treated his friend Kelvin ‘Smegz’ Easton ‘like a little brother’.

The horse drawn carriage carrying the coffin leads a procession of vehicles to the New Testament Church of God, in Wood Green, north London

Distraught: Friends and family hug before the funeral held at the New Testament Church of God in Wood Green, North London today

Easton, 23, another gang member, was stabbed through the heart with a broken champagne bottle at a nightclub in East London last March in a row over drugs and a woman. Duggan is said to have carried a gun afterwards for his own protection.

Another source has said he was planning to avenge the death, which is believed to be one of the reasons that officers from Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime within London’s black community, had Duggan under surveillance and were trailing him in unmarked cars.

He was a passenger in a minicab which was apparently stopped by police near Tottenham Hale Tube station on the night of August 4 when he was shot.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said police fired two shots. One killed Duggan, the other lodged in the radio of another police officer. Duggan’s gun, originally thought to have been a converted replica, had not been fired.

Two days after Duggan died, the Tottenham riots erupted after his family spent five frustrating hours seeking a meeting and explanation from local police chiefs. The circumstances of Duggan’s death have led to lingering tensions between family members and detectives. Yesterday policing at the funeral was low-key. But at least a dozen police riot vans and their officers were spotted on stand-by nearby.

Loved ones: Mourners arrive at the funeral to give the father-of-four a final send-off

Heartbroken: Mr Duggan's distraught mother Pamela weeps as she joins the start of her son's funeral procession

Grief-stricken: Mr Duggan's partner Semone Wilson, holding one of the couple's four children, paid tribute to her 'first real love'

Loss: Wearing a T-shirt with a picture of his father and the words 'Miss you Daddy', Duggan's 10-year-old son arrives at church

Back at the church, ten black Mercedes limos brought Duggan’s loved ones to the church. One of his three children arrived in a white-striped suit and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Miss You Daddy’ and a picture of his father in sunglasses.

In an echo of the image, the little boy was wearing oversized sunglasses. Along with his baby sister, he was comforted by his mother, Mr Duggan’s girlfriend Semone Wilson, as they watched the horse-drawn hearse pass.

During Miss Martin’s obituary, we also learned that Duggan’s favourite films included gangster movie Scarface and – ‘secretly’, she said – Annie. She repeated the family’s belief that he would not have pointed a gun at police by saying he was ‘no idiot and not suicidal’. Duggan’s partner Miss Wilson, 29, paid tribute to him as her ‘first real love’ in a message read out by her sister Michelle Palmer-Scott.

‘We faced trials and tribulations together. We had our ups and we had our downs but through it all, I loved him,’ she said, adding: ‘I don’t understand why you’re gone so soon.’

Duggan’s mother Pamela Duggan, 53, said: ‘In many way Semone saved Mark and that’s why he loved her dearly. She loved him unconditionally like they loved their children.’

Pastor Nims Obunge made an impassioned plea for peace in the community, which he said has seen ‘too much blood’.

Devastated: A relative of Mark Duggan holds a child as the family follow the coffin

A long queue of cars follows the ornate cortège as it makes its way to Mr Duggan's private funeral after passing through North London's Broadwater Farm estate, where he grew up

A floral tribute from his family is hung from the side of the hearse carrying the 29-year-old's coffin

Event: Around 750 people packed into the church for the service with many more waiting outside

Gathering: During the funeral, police parked in Alexandra Palace waiting to be called for duty

Police were close to Tottenham and Wood Green in what appears to be a precaution should any violence flare after the service

‘Let mothers not have to come and bury their children. Let fathers not have to come and weep for their children the way we weep today,’ he said, to whoops and applause. ‘We have been hurt, we have been scarred, we have been maligned, we have been stigmatised, we have been called names. Today we stand as one community but we say, “Not any more – it shall stop”.’

Asked about the police’s version of Duggan’s death so far, Ken Hinds, a friend who was a steward at the funeral and is chairman of the Stop and Search Monitoring Group for Haringey, said: ‘It doesn’t fit in with everything that’s known on the street.

‘It’s caused significant damage. It has further fuelled the tension in the community and contributed to the uprising that we experienced.’

Duggan was buried at Wood Green Cemetery before a reception at Broadwater Farm Community Centre.