Britain’s youngest knife killers sentenced to 8 years for machete attack

Britain's "youngest knife murderers" were on Friday sentenced to a minimum of eight-and-a-half years' detention for killing a stranger in a machete attack when they were aged just 12.

The sentence was ordered as a nationwide ban on "zombie"-style knives and machetes with blades of over 20 centimetres (eight inches) came into force this week aiming to curb a wave of horrifying killings by young people.

The two boys, who are now aged 13 and cannot be identified legally because they are minors, killed Shawn Seesahai, 19, in a park in Wolverhampton, central England, last November.

Described in court as "the youngest knife murderers", they are also believed to be the youngest convicted of murder in Britain since 1993.

Sentencing the pair, judge Amanda Tipples told them: "What you did is horrific and shocking."

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

The court heard that the victim was not known to the pair but that they set upon him after he asked them to move from a bench.

Seesahai's relatives described his murder as unexpected, senseless and committed "for no reason at all".

Due to their age, the boys will not be jailed but held in secure accommodation. Once they are deemed fit for release they will be monitored for the rest of their lives.

There is mounting public concern about knife crime. In July, three girls aged six, seven and nine were killed in Southport, northwest England, in a mass stabbing that shocked the country.

Official figures lay bare the scale of the problem.

In London alone, the number of knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the police between March 2023 and March 2024 rose to more than 15,016 -- up from 12,786 in the same period the year before.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer this month launched an initiative to stop young people getting involved in knife crime, which he called a "national crisis".

Starmer, who spent five years as director of public prosecutions in England and Wales before entering politics, said he was shocked by the case.

"When I read about Shawn Seesahai's murder last November, I was shocked to my core," he wrote on social media.

"That a murder so brutal could be carried out by 12-year-olds is hard to believe. Young children should not have access to knives."

Part of the government's commitment to halve knife crime, the ban on "zombie" style weapons came into force on Tuesday.

But on Sunday evening, a 15-year-old boy died after being stabbed in London.