Britain’s youngest knife killers could be freed by age of 20 as anti-knife campaigner slams ‘shocking’ sentence for boys, 12, who murdered Shawn Seesahai

Two 12-year-old boys, who hacked an innocent teenager to death with a machete in a completely random and unprovoked attack, could be freed by the age of 20. 

The youths were found guilty of hacking teenager Shawn Seesahai to death with a 16-inch machete in a Wolverhampton park last November.

On Friday, the teens were handed a life sentence for their crimes with a minimum jail time of eight years and six months, meaning they could see freedom by 20. 

The killers, now 13, cannot be identified due to a court order, with the judge stating it would be threaten the welfare of one of the murderers who had ‘extremely complex needs’.

The two teenagers were permitted to leave the dock and sit in the back row of the High Court as judge Mrs Justice Tipples detailed the ‘horrific and shocking attack’. 

She said: ‘When you killed Shawn he was 19 starting out on his adult life with everything to live for. 

‘His parents have lost their son, his sister has lost her brother… that loss will be with them all the time and their lives have been changed forever.

‘What you both did is horrific and shocking. You did not know Shawn, he was a stranger to you.’

Anti-knife campaigners have since slammed the ‘shocking’ sentence for the two boys who are the youngest in the UK to be jailed for murder since Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who tortured and killed toddler James Bulger in 1993.

The minimum tariff was branded a ‘joke’ by anti-knife campaigner Laura Hughes.

Ms Hughes, who set up campaign charity kNOw Knife Crime in 2019, to mark what would have been her brother Coline McGinty’s 40th birthday. 

The anti-knife campaigner’s brother was only 21 when he was stabbed to death in a case of mistaken identity in Liverpool in 2001.

Reflecting that it was difficult to comment on a case without knowing the full facts, she said: ‘A minimum term of eight years and six months is not a proper deterrent. Murder is murder, they have taken a life.

‘It is so shocking that children of that age could carry out such a violent crime. My heart breaks for the victim’s family. It’s a really distressing case.’

This comes shortly after Shawn’s friend told how they were threatened as they sat discussing their plans for Christmas. As the youth reached for his blade, Shawn shouted: ‘Run, bro.’

He told the court: ‘The dude took it out of its sheath. We started to run but Shawn tripped. I was running for my life — I couldn’t stay there and watch.’

The pair, who became Britain’s youngest convicted murderers since the killers of James Bulger — but Britain’s youngest ever knife killers — will be kept in secure accommodation at His Majesty’s pleasure for a total of 17 years.

After fleeing the scene they went to one of the boy’s homes where they played the video game Fortnite while Mr Seesahai lay dying. One later said on Snapchat: ‘Everyone’s talking abt (sic) it, literally everyone knows.’ His accomplice responded with the note: ‘It is what it is.’

They then shared more messages, saying: ‘I’m scared man’ — before the other says ‘I’m not’, followed by the acronym ‘IDRC’ which means ‘I don’t really care’. 

One of the defendants had an obsession with knives — even posing for a picture with a machete tucked into the top of his trousers hours before he committed murder.

Mr Seesahai, 19, who was from Anguilla and had been in the UK for six months, was stabbed with such ferocity the the 16-inch blade almost passed through his body. 

His grief-stricken parents said he called for them as he lay dying, and had been excited to start a new engineering course the next day. 

Locals told of how one of the tearaways was a ‘nasty piece of work’, who posted fireworks through letterboxes, damaging streetlights and stealing scooters in a reign of terror that plagued the neighbourhood. 

The judge said he lived in a refuge, and posed a high risk of serious harm to others. She said the other boy had loving parents and ‘felt remorse’ for what he had done.  

After the pair were sentenced, we can now reveal how: 

 

One neighbour said the killer would ride across the playing fields on his mountain bike and hang around at night outside shops and alleyways, where he would cut the wires on lamp posts.

At Nottingham Crown Court today, Mrs Justice Tipples ordered each boy to be detained at His Majesty’s pleasure for a minimum of eight years and six months – meaning they will remain in custody until they are at least 20. 

The sentence includes time spent living in secure accommodation where they have been since the offence last November. 

Their unanimous murder convictions in June made the pair the youngest defendants convicted of murder in the UK since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, then both 11, were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James after they abducted the toddler from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool.

At Nottingham Crown Court today, the judge told the boys: ‘What you both did is horrific and shocking. You both killed Shawn in an attack that lasted less than a minute when he asked you to move from where you were on a park bench. 

‘Shawn did not deserve to be attacked. He did not deserve to die… It’s clear that the sentence I have decided to pass cannot make that right.’

She added: ‘What you did in those few short moments has also changed your life forever. You will have to live with the consequences. I cannot be sure which one of you stabbed Shawn. Only you know that, but you acted together.’

The boys, both wearing shirt and ties and one in a waistcoat, were allowed to sit in the well of the court as they had throughout the trial.

The judge also told the boys, who are now 13: ‘When you killed Shawn he was 19, starting out in his adult life with everything to live for.

‘His parents have lost their son. His sister has lost her brother.

‘What you did is horrific and shocking. You did not know Shawn, he was a stranger to you. You both killed Shawn in an attack that lasted less than a minute when he asked you to move (from a bench).

‘I am sure you intended to kill him.’

The judge added that she could not be sure which of the boys had inflicted a 23cm-deep wound which almost passed all the way through Mr Seesahai’s body.

During the brief sentencing remarks, one of the boys nodded throughout with his hands held towards his face. As he was taken away, the youth was allowed to hug his mother.

The other boy was seen biting his lip as the judge spoke and appeared shocked as the sentence was handed down.

Six members of the jury returned to Nottingham Crown Court to see the boys sentenced. Mr Seesahai’s family watched proceedings on a live videolink from their home in Anguilla.

Ahead of the hearing today, the judge warned that the sentence would not bring them comfort, but would at least bring legal proceedings to a close.

The 12-year-olds’ trial heard that one of the defendants had an obsession with knives — even posing for a picture with a machete tucked into the top of his trousers hours before he committed murder.

The picture — sent from the youth’s mobile phone and showing him masked near railings in the street — is believed to have been taken at around 1am.

Jurors were told the image was forwarded to the boy’s girlfriend and his co-defendant, captioned Prison Freestyle, the name of a track by a drill rapper he idolised. The rapper, SJ, is currently serving life for a machete murder committed in Wood Green, north London, in 2019.

Jurors were told Mr Seesahai was shoulder-barged by the smaller of the two defendants, who ‘often’ carried the machete, before being punched, kicked, stamped on and ‘chopped’ at with the weapon. 

Mr Seesahai and a friend had been killing time in Wolverhampton’s Stowlawn playing fields last November while another friend visited his girlfriend at her nearby home.

The victim’s friend told the trial he was forced to run for his life but Mr Seesahai stumbled as he tried to flee from the boys.

CCTV has captured the chilling last moments of Mr Seesahai’s life before he was brutally murdered.

The footage shows Mr Seesahai leaving Handsworth with two friends at around 5.30pm, before arriving in Wolverhampton park.

It follows him as he and a friend killed time in the area by walking around the streets and visiting a petrol station while another friend visited his girlfriend at her nearby home last November.

But Mr Seesahai is last seen alive at around 7pm when the footage comes to end as they enter Stowlawn playing fields.

Ambulances were called to the scene there at 8.30pm after the two youths hacked Mr Seesahai to death with a 16-inch machete, but his friend managed to escape.

The two schoolboys blamed each other for the attack but jurors unanimously convicted both of them of murder. One was also found guilty of possessing a bladed article.

The court heard the younger of the two boys bleached the murder weapon and hid it in his bed frame following the murder.

During the trial the boys dressed in shirts and ties and looked studious in the spectacles each donned to give evidence.

Their clean-cut appearance was a far cry from the image one of the boys presented on social media where he could be seen making shooting gestures. 

Police only realised their suspects were barely of high school age the day after the killing, when a girl they had been with that evening told a parent, who called police.

Both boys, who had been friends for at least two years and were each known to police, lived near the murder scene.

In July, the judge rejected a request from media organisations including the Mail to strip the boys of their automatic right to anonymity due to their age.

Mrs Justice Tipples said the welfare of the boys outweighed the wider public interest and open justice principles.

On Thursday the two-day sentencing hearing was told budding engineer Mr Seesahai’s ‘senseless’ murder had ‘devastated’ his parents, Suresh and Maneshwary Seesahai — who had to exhaust their savings to fly his body home — and sister Shana.

In a heartrending victim impact statement from the family, read to the court by Dorothea Hodge, the UK representative for Anguilla, they said: ‘Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare, and to put it all down in a statement on how it has impacted our lives would take more than a day to read.

‘It has left a huge hole in the pit of our stomach which nothing can fill, we are devastated as a family, totally heartbroken and confused.’

They said they had not had an unbroken night’s sleep since the murder and were tormented by ‘how scared’ Mr Seesahai ‘must have been’ in his final moments.

Mr Seesahai, who was living in Handsworth, Birmingham at the time of his death, had cataracts that he had been unable to get treatment for in Anguilla. After successful surgery in the UK he was ‘able to start planning for the future and think about getting an education’, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said.

However, his life was brutally cut short after he and his friend encountered the boys near a bench in the park.

Ms Heeley told jurors that despite the fact he had ‘offered no violence, nor done anything to offend’, he became the victim of a savage attack after one of the boys deliberately ‘shoulder-brushed’ him then pulled a machete from his trousers.

Mr Seesahai ended up on the floor where jurors heard he was punched, kicked and knifed – struck so hard on the skull with the machete that a piece of bone came away.

Mrs Justice Tipples was told on Thursday by Ms Heeley there was ‘little precedent’ for the case and the boys are thought to be the country’s youngest ever knife murderers.

However, Ms Heeley said that for convicted murderers under the age of 14, the starting point for the minimum term was 13 years – although this could go up or down depending on aggravating or mitigating factors.

The youths were also convicted of possession of a bladed article – with one admitting the offence before the trial and the other found guilty by jurors.

The court heard pre-sentence reports said both boys continue to deny the offence of murder, but both ‘recognised the impact’ and had ‘regret’ for the suffering of Mr Seesahai’s family.

The boy who admitted owning the machete lived with his grandmother and had been known to social services since he was a baby.

In the months preceding the killing, police had recovered blades from his home — and he was so fixated with them that even following his arrest for the murder, the boy was found drawing pictures of knives while in custody.

His barrister, Rachel Brand KC, said it was an ‘important feature’ that the crime was not premeditated, and claimed evidence showed it was his co-defendant who delivered the fatal blow with the blade.

She added: ‘Your Ladyship is dealing with a child who according to doctors is immature when compared to others the same age.

‘He lacked, as a child, foresight of the consequences of his actions, and he lacked the ability to regulate his behaviour in the same way adults do.

‘He wishes that they hadn’t gone to the park and this hadn’t happened.’

She said he had been ‘groomed, exploited and trafficked by older youths and young men’ locally, who had ‘encouraged him in criminality and the possession of knives.’

The court also heard he came from a ‘deprived home with experience of offending from family members.’

Paul Lewis KC, defending the second boy, said it wasn’t accepted that he was the one who stabbed Mr Seesahai.

He added: ‘There is not one word of evidence to suggest he ever previously carried a knife.

‘He has had real difficulties in his upbringing. There have been changes in accommodation including living in a refuge, and repeated changes in schooling.’

However, Mrs Justice Tipples said reports showed there had been no children’s services involvement with the boy, and he had a ‘good relationship’ with his parents and sibling.

The boy who owned the machete told jurors he bought the deadly weapon for £40 from a ‘friend of a friend’. But police suspect he sourced it online, where websites sold such blades for as little as £20.

That defendant had previously been arrested for theft and violence-related offences. But neither child had previously been charged with any offence, or dealt with for knife crime-related matters.

Meanwhile speaking from his native Anguilla, the heartbroken father of Shawn Seesahai, Suresh Seesahai, held back tears as he recounted the moment he learned his son had been murdered in Britain, where he had come for a better life. 

Mr Seesahai told how Shawn had begged ‘daddy, help me’ as two 12-year-old boys chopped and beat him to death. 

Revealing the heartbreaking moment he learned of his son’s murder, Mr Seesahai said: ‘I took the phone and asked ‘what happened to Shawn’? I said ‘is Shawn ok’ and they said ‘no, Shawn passed away’. 

Paying an emotional tribute, he added: ‘He will always will be remembered because he has a father a mother and a sister.’

Shawn’s mother Maneshwary Seesahai also revealed how their daughter had been traumatised by the ordeal.

She said: ‘She’s crying that he doesn’t have a brother anymore – and that affects us a lot when she says things like that. I can’t see my son married. I can’t see any grandchildren it’s very hard.

‘Shawn you must remember we always will remember you until God is ready for us. One day we will see each other. I love you Shawn.’ 

Detective Inspector Damian Forrest added: ‘Shaun was a 19-year-old man with his whole life ahead of him.

‘What was shocking for the investigation was that those two suspects were 12 years old.’

The minimum tariff was described as a ‘joke’ by anti-knife campaigner Laura Hughes, who described the minimum tariff as ‘a joke’.

Ms Hughes set up campaign charity kNOw Knife Crime in 2019, to mark what would have been her brother Coline McGinty’s 40th birthday. He was just 21 when stabbed to death in a case of mistaken identity in 2001 in Liverpool.

She said that while it was difficult to comment on a case without knowing the full facts, ‘a minimum term of eight years and six months is not a proper deterrent. Murder is murder, they have taken a life.

‘It is so shocking that children of that age could carry out such a violent crime. My heart breaks for the victim’s family. It’s a really distressing case.’

On Tuesday, new legislation came into effect making it illegal to possess zombie knives and machetes.

Amendments to the Criminal Justice Act 1988 also make it an offence to manufacture, import, sell or supply these items.

Speaking after today’s sentencing, a senior West Midlands Police officer has said the murder of Mr Seesahai was both ‘shocking and saddening’.

Chief Superintendent Kim Madill said: ‘Shawn was only 19 when his life was taken at the hands of two boys, then aged just 12, who had armed themselves with a machete.

‘That reality has had a huge impact on us all, it is both shocking and saddening. The impact of knife crime is devastating no matter where you live in the country, this is an issue that affects us all.

‘Much work has been done and we have had successes in some areas, however, this is clearly not enough.

‘We are listening to families affected by knife crime and acting on their feedback to see what more we can do with partners to stop the devastation caused by knife crime.

‘Our responsibility is to work together with partners to understand why children and young people think it is OK to carry weapons and take further action to stop this extremely dangerous behaviour.’ 

And Jonathan Roe, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said today: ‘As prosecutors, we often deal with harrowing cases, but this case is particularly distressing due to the complete senselessness and devastating consequences of the defendants’ actions.

‘The defendants at the age of 12 should have been enjoying their childhood rather than arming themselves with a machete and killing an innocent person.

‘Shawn Seesahai lost his life in a horrifically cruel way. I hope today’s sentencing serves as a reminder of the dangers of carrying machetes.

‘Shawn’s family have shown remarkable strength and dignity in the aftermath of such a tragedy and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.’