Saturday, 11 June 2011

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Former EastEnders star Brooke Kinsella awarded MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours List

Actress honoured for her work to prevent knife crime

Brooke Kinsella has campaigned against knife crime

Brooke Kinsella has been made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2011.

The former EastEnders star's 16-year-old brother Ben was murdered in June 2008 and she and her family have campaigned against knife crime ever since.

Brooke, 27 - who played Kelly Taylor in the BBC soap from 2001 to 2004 - set up the Ben Kinsella Trust in her brother's memory.

In June 2009, three men were given life sentences for murdering Ben, who died after being stabbed 11 times in the chest shoulder and heart following a night out at the Shillibeers bar in Islington.

Juress Kika, 19, Jade Braithwaite, 18, and Michael Alleyne, 20, who denied the charges, were ordered to serve a minimum of 19 years in prison.

‘The people who murdered him knew nothing about our Ben, not a hair on his head, a bone in his body, not anything about our wonderful son,' said Brooke and Ben's mum Deborah.

‘They had never met him before or spoken to him, they just cruelly took his life away with knives for no apparent reason.'

Other celebrities honoured by the Queen include Strictly Come Dancing's Bruce Forsyth who receives a knighthood.

Actor Colin Firth and Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry are each awarded a CBE.