Britain's youngest knife killers handed life terms

Two boys thought to be Britain's youngest knife killers who stabbed a stranger to death in a "horrific and shocking" machete murder have each been handed life sentences.

- TARA COBHAM

The killers, both aged 12 at the time of the incident but now 13, were found guilty in June of stabbing 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in the heart in a random and “senseless” attack on Wolverhampton’s Stowlawn playing fields on 13 November last year.

The boys, who cannot be named because of a court anonymity order, are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11, were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger.

Ms Justice Tipples sentenced the pair, both from Wolverhampton, to life in detention with a minimum term of eight years and six months at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday following a two-day hearing.

Passing sentence, the High Court judge told the defendants: “What you both did is horrific and shocking. You did not know Shawn, he was a stranger to you. You were both out in Wolverhampton with a machete in your possession. 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 from the injuries that Shawn suffered that you intended to kill him. Shawn did not deserve to be attacked, Shawn did not deserve to die.”

She also told the pair they have caused “never-ending grief” to Seesahai’s loved ones, describing the 19-year-old as “a young man loved by his family with his future ahead of him”. She added: “His mother has described him as a brave soul who was generous and compassionate.”