Two boys believed to be UK’s youngest knife murderers detained for minimum of eight years and six months

Two boys believed to be the UK’s youngest knife murderers have both been detained for a minimum term of eight years and six months.

The pair were both aged 12 when they killed 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in a machete attack in a Wolverhampton park on 13 November last year.

They are thought to be the youngest children to be convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were both aged 11 when they were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger.

The judge, Mrs Justice Tipples, previously rejected a media application to lift the reporting restrictions which prevent Mr Seesahai’s murderers from being identified because of their age.

The victim’s parents, who are from the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, told Sky News they are still in a “lot of pain” and wonder whether their son was calling for “mummy or daddy” for help when he was attacked.

The judge began her sentencing by acknowledging the jail terms being handed down would be no comfort to the victim’s family.

She told the boys: “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.

The teenager had travelled to the UK for cataract surgery and was due to start an engineering course in Birmingham the day after he was attacked.

One of the killers posed for a picture wearing a mask with his machete, which had a 42.5cm black blade, tucked into the top of his trousers hours before the murder.

Nottingham Crown Court was told Mr Seesahai, who was a stranger to the boys, was walking through Stowlawn playing fields with a friend when he was shoulder-barged by one of the 12-year-olds.

Mr Seesahai was then punched, kicked, stamped on and chopped at with the weapon, suffering wounds to his back, legs and skull, with the more than 20cm deep fatal blow puncturing his heart.

One boy cleaned his machete with bleach and hid it under his bed following the murder.

He wrote in social media messages “it is what it is” and “idrc” (I don’t really care).

Both blamed each other for inflicting the fatal blow but prosecutors said they “engaged in a joint attack upon a man who had done nothing wrong, a man with no weapon, who was utterly defenceless on the ground”.

The boys – who were 12 when they were convicted and are now aged 13 – are believed to be the youngest children to be found guilty of a knife murder in the UK.

One of the boys admitted possession of the knife prior to the trial, while the other was found guilty of the charge.

Rachel Brand KC, defending the boy who admitted buying and owning the machete, said he had been “groomed” and exploited by older youths and young men in the wider community and “wishes he hadn’t taken the machete out with him”.

“He wishes they hadn’t gone to the park. He wishes that this hadn’t happened,” she said.

Paul Lewis KC, defending the other boy, said he had never been involved in criminality before, adding: “This was a one-off incident that was not premeditated – over in seconds – with admittedly tragic results.”

‘I felt shocked they’re so young’

Mr Seesahai’s parents said they were struck by how young their son’s killers looked when they attended the trial.

“I felt shocked they’re so young, they’re so small and they did something like that,” his mother Manashwary Seesahai told Sky News.

“From the time I see them, I get angry because of what they did to my son.”

The parents had planned to move to the UK to be with their son and send his younger sister Shana, 15, to school, but his murder “changed everything”.

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“Now I’m too afraid to take my daughter,” Mrs Seesahai said, speaking to Sky News from her son’s favourite beach, Crocus Bay, where they scattered his ashes.

“It just hurt me so bad. In time to come he would’ve married, had kids, we would’ve had grandchildren and enjoy our grandkids and nothing like that anymore.”

Mr Seesahai’s parents urged children to “think about what they’re doing” and not to carry a weapon, but wanted to see his killers jailed for 30 years.

“You have to have a proper sentencing for knife crime. Murder is murder,” his father Suresh Seesahai said.

“They didn’t kill my son the way that someone should be killed. They murdered him, they chop him, they chop his leg, they chop his shoulder, they beat him… they do a monstrous job to him.”

West Midlands Police Chief Superintendent Kim Madill said outside court after sentencing: “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.”