'I did my best to prevent it'

Mother of 14-year-old stabbing victim Kelyan Bokassa tells Barney Davis her heart skipped’ every time her son went out

- Barney Davis

The mother of a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on a bus in southeast London has tearfully spoken of how the police told her what she was “fearing the most”.

Aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa died shortly after being fatally injured on a 472 double-decker bus in Woolwich Church Street, close to the Woolwich Ferry, at 2.30pm on Tuesday. His mother, Mary Bokassa, spoke to The Independent at her home, and said:

“Every time I go into Woolwich I see police officers investigating a stabbing. I guess it is just my turn now.

“It feels so surreal and it’s something we tried to avoid. I did my very best to prevent that. I could never relax when he was out; my heart skipped when he left through the door. I’d just go to bed and wait for him. And that’s where I was when I got the knock on the door and the police told me what I was fearing the most.”

A manhunt has been launched to find Kelyan’s killer, but no arrests have been made so far. Detectives say they are working “at pace” to find those responsible.

Surrounded by school certificates for English and pictures of her only son adorning the walls, Mary said he was a “generous young boy”. In a note she will now preserve for ever, he wrote in a child’s scrawl “I love you Mum” in her lipstick on the balcony wall just last year.

Through tears, Mary said: “I couldn’t even be angry at him. I will always keep this here. He was taken into care when he was younger and he fought to come back to me. When I gave him money for his birthday, he would spend it on flowers for me.

“We had just got a puppy, and they had bonded so well he was even asking me to adopt a little sister. I told him ‘I love you.’ I didn’t say for him to be careful, because I didn’t want him to be anxious.”