Istill forgive our son's killer just hope he has turned his life around

A half-empty packet of chewing gum, a crumpled fiver, a card holder, and a lottery ticket. It is the unremarkable contents of a pocket, getting dog-eared with age, yet Margaret and Barry Mizen treasure it.

- EMILY RETTER

This is what was in their 16-year-old son Jimmy's pocket when he was murdered on May 10, 2008, 15 years ago next month.

It is not an easy collection to view.

The schoolboy's blood has stained the gum packet, a lasting reminder of his violent death at the hands of Jake Fahri, a known local bully, who attacked him senselessly in a bakery near their homes in South East London.

But the lottery ticket is a moving reminder of Jimmy's joy that Saturday, bought with pure excitement because he had turned 16 just the day before. It was the first he could legally buy.

"I still buy a ticket every week and use his numbers, reveals Margaret.

But as the couple and their remaining eight children look towards Jimmy's anniversary, they now have another event to brace themselves for.

On Friday, Fahri will face the Parole Board and learn whether he is to be released. Adding to the Mizens' apprehension, Fahri's parents, they believe, still live just 500 yards from their home.

The Mizens have every justification for hoping Fahri is never freed.

The youth, already known to the family for mugging and beating one of Jimmy's older brothers, had become enraged as he tried to barge past Jimmy in the bakery to buy a sandwich, grabbing a glass dish from the counter and throwing it at his head. It shattered and a one-and-a-half inch shard slit an artery in Jimmy's neck. He bled to death in his brother's arms.

Yet his mum and dad are disarmingly accepting of the possibility and say they would even consider meeting him. 

That 'he day after Jimmy's death, Margaret declared she did not feel anger, and the couple forgave his killer. Today, they say forgiveness still stands.

"Of course I still forgive him," Margaret, 70, says. "I forgave Jake Fahri because I had a need to smile again, I knew if I didn't forgive him I wouldn't smile again."