Diego Piñeiro-Villar and his killer Edward Crowley

CHILDHOOD friends of a 12-year-old boy stabbed to death in a busy London street by a self-declared satanist have demanded that the killer is not released until he has spent at least 30 years in prison.

Edward Crowley, now 77, is reportedly pushing for parole on his life sentence for murder in 2000, but Diego Piñeiro-Villar’s pals say the law should be changed so that anybody convicted of killing a child knows that they must serve a minimum of three decades.

The brutality of Diego’s death shocked ­Camden and led to reviews as to whether Crowley – then 52 – could have been stopped before a frenzied attack amounting to 30 knife wounds.

While his old school friends from the  Vicente Cañada Blanch School in ­Portobello Road are all grown up, they still remember Diego and were shocked to learn that Crowley could be inching closer to release – leading to a petition aimed at convincing the government to change the law and raise the ­tariffs.

William Reed, who has been organising signatures this year, said it was “a heinous crime and is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities in our justice system”, adding: “His story is one of unfulfilled potential and a friendship tragically cut short. Diego faced unimaginable horror, attacked and stabbed 30 times.

“This brutality highlights a disturbing reality. The thought of his murderer walking free after 24 years, less than the number of stabs, is unbearable. Our justice system’s limitations are evident when a paedophilic murderer might walk free so soon.”

He added: “This is a call to action for us to demand significant legislative changes. We need a system that protects, not fails.” Crowley had been homeless and became obsessed with Diego after the boy told other children to stop throwing stones at rough sleeper tents in Phoenix Gardens.

He began taking Diego to amusement arcades and buying gifts, but even bigger warning signs should have bleeped loud and clear when he later told police – a year before the stabbing – that he had fallen in love with him. Officers at one stage arrested Crowley on suspicion of indecently assaulting Diego but released him without charge.

On another occasion, he painted “Why did you cheat on me, Diego?” on the walls of the boy’s school.

On the day of the tragedy in Covent Garden, the New Journal photographed Crowley being led away from the scene in handcuffs and he was not seen again until his court case where Diego’s mother Maria-Angeles Villar-Fernandez was overcome with emotion and tried to attack her son’s killer by throwing plastic cups at him.

Our reporters also travelled to Spain to cover Diego’s funeral as his relatives talked of their despair that a young life could ever end this way.

People living in the Covent Garden area have never forgotten the shock that followed the murder and his smiling school photo handed to the press remained burned in everyone’s memory.

Mr Reed said: “This petition is an urgent plea for action. Implementing a minimum of 30 years without parole for child murderers is a crucial step. Let’s honour Diego’s memory by protecting our children’s future.”

All parliamentary petitions were suspended due to the general election and Diego’s friends now have a new government to lobby. The stories of Crowley’s obsession had not been sensationalised.

His real name was Henry Bibby but he changed it by deed poll in honour of Aleister Crowley – dubbed “the wickedest man alive” for his black magic.

The Parole Board said this year that Crowley is in the “parole window” but had not been released.