My Assassins Have Not Heard the Last of Me ; Disgraced Boris Aide Ray Lewis Talks for the First Time About Why He Quit As Deputy Mayor and How the Shockwaves From the Affair Have Led to a Funding Crisis at His Inspirational Academy for Troubled Youngsters

Evening Standard - London › November 18, 2008

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Summary

RAY LEWIS, the man hailed as Boris Johnson's guru in the war against knife crime, today speaks for the first time about the allegations that led to him resigning in disgrace as Deputy Mayor of Young People. The former pastor whose groundbreaking work at the Eastside Young Leaders Academy, founded to help troubled black youths, has been lauded, not just by Boris Johnson but also by Conservative leader David Cameron and former leader Iain Duncan Smith, and whose trustees include Francis Maude MP and former politician Steven Norris.

But after two months as Deputy Mayor, he fell on his sword, after lying about being a magistrate and being accused of financially exploiting a vulnerable parishioner, of making sexual advances to a young woman parishioner, and of lying that he did not know that he had been suspended by the Church of England. In addition, complaints by six children at his academy about his boot-camp style of discipline were referred to police.

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Extract

My Assassins Have Not Heard the Last of Me ; Disgraced Boris Aide Ray Lewis Talks for the First Time About Why He Quit As Deputy Mayor and How the Shockwaves From the Affair Have Led to a Funding Crisis at His Inspirational Academy for Troubled Youngsters

The fallout has meant that the future of his academy which helps 90 black boys "perform a handbrake turn in their lives" and which Boris wanted to replicate across London is in jeopardy. "We have lost [pounds]1.2 million of funding, more than half our budget of [pounds]2.1 million," says Lewis, 45. "Seven donors have pulled out, run for the hills because apparently I am too leprous.

I had to make a third of my staff redundant. Also the credit crunch took Lehman Brothers, so we lost the [pounds]130,000 a year they were giving us.

WE'VE taken one hell of a bash here at ...

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