Meet Ava White, 12, from Liverpool, who loved water slides and fairground rides, swimming, gymnastics, dancing, school and, most of all, her family.
She was fun, bright, blonde, pretty, popular, but also unusually kind – a member of the school council who’d regularly comfort others when they were bullied, or just felt a bit down or lonely.
‘A whirlwind of fresh air,’ is how her mother Leann describes her. ‘Who brings life and light to everything.’
But on Thursday, November 25, 2021, Ava went into town with her girlfriends to watch the Christmas lights being turned on and did not come home.
There was a silly argument with a group of teenage boys about a Snapchat video. Things spiralled. Ava was taunted, pushed over and then stabbed in the neck by a 14-year-old boy with a giant hunting knife. She was dead within minutes.
Nearly three years on, her mother, Leann, keeps Ava’s room exactly as it was.
‘I can’t change anything. It’s hell on earth and it never stops.’
Shaquan Sammy-Plummer, was a 17-year-old student, just days off his 18th birthday, when he lost his life in North London.
This group of more than 20 mothers and fathers who have lost a child to knife crime travelled from all around the country to meet in person and share their stories
He was juggling mock A-levels with part time jobs at Waitrose and Tottenham Hotspur and a seemingly endless stream of girlfriends and was looking forward to university in September – he had five offers.
‘He was so ambitious and such a hard worker – he’d done paper rounds since he was 11,’ says his mum, Jessica. ‘It was all ahead of him. He was two weeks off his 18th birthday – I had a bottle of champagne ready.’
The bottle was never opened. The university place never accepted. After being turned away from a house party, he was followed and stabbed in the chest.
The knife pierced Shaquan’s heart. He collapsed in a doorway and was pronounced dead in the Royal London Hospital hours later. More than 600 people attended his funeral. Apparently, the killer wanted to ‘teach Shaquan a lesson’ for not handing over a small bag of drinks and snacks.
Joseph Whitchurch was 16 and studying engineering at college. He loved swimming, rugby, football and studying.
‘He was amazing at sport, and school – good at everything,’ says his mum Lisa Goss. ‘He had a huge circle of friends and was just excited about life.’
On Christmas night, 2020, after a happy family day with his parents and two brothers, Joseph went off to meet his friends.
They ended up at a small house party – just a gathering really, with the host’s grandma upstairs. There was a kerfuffle in the kitchen and the host, 19, pulled a knife and stabbed Joseph in the leg, (catching his femoral artery), heart and neck, and he collapsed almost immediately.
Halfway to hospital, the emergency services had to stop and resuscitate him. The doctors managed to stabilise his heart, but two days later he was declared brain-dead and, on December 29, the family turned his life support machine off.
‘Joseph’s killer was lawless, in and out of facilities,’ says Lisa. ‘I think the police were waiting for him to kill someone.’
Leann, Jessica and Lisa and are just three of a group of more than 20 mums and dads who have lost a child to knife crime in recent years, and whom – along with other family members – I met last Saturday.
They met through a WhatsApp group for families of victims of knife crime set up by the Daily Mail a couple of months ago and they travelled from all around the country to meet in person – most of them for the first time – to share their stories, help raise awareness and, hopefully, gain strength from each other.
According to the Office of National Statistics, there were more than 50,000 violent knife crimes in England and Wales in the year to April 2024 – and 233 murders involving a knife or sharp instrument. Of the victims, 78 were under 25 and ten were younger than 16. Many of the killers were teenagers.
Which means that, every few days, there is news of another killing, the loss of someone else’s child. And every week, it seems, another parent joins our WhatsApp group.
But the last fortnight has been even harder than usual for these families.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were more than 50,000 violent knife crimes in England and Wales in the year to April 2024
For starters, there was Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s early release scheme, which saw the first 1,700 of more than 5,000 former prison inmates being released early, due to overcrowding of prisons – some were pictured celebrating in the streets with bubbly and rap music.
One was Lawson Natty, the man who supplied the two-foot long machete that killed Gordon Gault, Dionne Barrett’s 14-year-old son, in Newcastle, in a brutal attack in November 2022.
I say ‘man’, but Natty was 17 years old – so when he ordered three giant machetes online, he had them delivered to his parents.
Then, on November 9, 2022, he and several others posted a picture of themselves on Snapchat, all with machetes, and the caption, ‘Going out to kill’. And off they went – Natty with them.
They did not know Gordon. He was a cheeky, bouncy, kind and popular boy, in the wrong place at the wrong time – on the back of a friend’s bike, riding around a park at teatime.
Carlos Neto, 17, slashed Gordon on the arm with the machete, hitting his artery and leaving him to bleed to death as they all raced on to attack another boy – slashing him across the back, as he rode his bike.
Natty was in prison for just four months and was released last Tuesday.
‘There is no deterrent. There is no way anyone can be rehabilitated in four months. There’s no remorse. It just washes over them,’ says Dionne.
Meanwhile, Gordon’s killer, who was convicted of manslaughter, got six years and will be out in three. ‘They go on about prisons being overcrowded, but if people had proper sentences and did proper time, there would be less people offending,’ says Dionne.
Just last week, there was a lot of hot air swirling about the Government’s new coalition to tackle knife crime and stop young people being dragged into violent gangs. But not that much action. Even actor Idris Elba, a celebrity campaigner, commented ‘Talk is good. Action more important.’
And, of course, there is the new and much-publicised machete and zombie knife amnesty.
From September 24, it will now be illegal to own a knife with a sharpened blade longer than 20cm if it has other features, such as a serrated edge, and more than two sharp points. (In the meantime, there is a scheme to hand these ‘zombie’ knives in to police stations, for £10 per knife compensation.)
Something that parents here rubbish totally – on the basis that many weapons are already illegal, but the police simply do not have the capacity or funds to enforce the law.
Experts are also opposed. According to Natasha Pope, who has worked with West Midlands Police on a number of anti-knife crime initiatives and lectures in forensic psychology at Birmingham City University, banning zombie knives is actually likely to glamorise them further.
The grieving parents have thrown their energies into protecting other people’s children, giving talks in schools, clubs and prisons to try to help young children and address societal issues
And to add insult to injury, last week it was reported that Sporting Wholesale Limited, a Hertfordshire company that supplies retailers with thousands of 18-inch zombie knives with names such as ‘First Blood’, ’Fantasy Hunting Knife’ and ‘Predator’, will be compensated £350,000 for their stockpile of 35,000 knives.
Compensation? For a company supplying what has become the weapon of choice for gang murders and stabbings?
‘I’m still struggling to find the money to pay for my son’s grave,’ says Dionne. ‘I haven’t even got a headstone – and they’ve made millions and are getting compensation!’
(Jessica also couldn’t afford to pay for Shaquan’s funeral – ‘you don’t budget for your son’s funeral cost’. Instead, her cousin and Waitrose helped out.)
Janine lost her son Teon, 16, following an attack in bright sunshine in the Easter holidays in 2022. He was ambushed by two boys, who stabbed him and left him to die. Later she watched the whole thing on CCTV. ‘I saw the attack. I saw him injured. And limping and collapse,’ she says.
Zoe Cooke arrived at the hospital in Nottingham, just as her son Byron, 22, was being brought in – eyes rolled back, chest wide open so the air ambulance crew could work on him.
‘He was whisked past me and I collapsed on the floor,’ she says. ‘I could see all his insides.’
He died soon after but she was not allowed to see his body because, apparently, it was classed as a ‘crime scene’.
Tyrelle Burke, 18, was stabbed in his own home with a kitchen knife, when he asked a friend to leave.
Every parent in this WhatsApp group has lost a child in the most monstrous manner. Some as young as Ava, others in their late 20s. Every day, they trade love and understanding and support. On the anniversaries of births and deaths. When they’re left reeling at the government’s latest scheme. When their child’s killer walks free. And when, sometimes, it’s just harder to carry on.
But instead of giving up in despair, they have thrown their energies into protecting other people’s children, giving talks in schools, clubs and prisons to try to help young children and address the systemic societal issues – fear, lack of community support and a dearth of male role models.
‘Anything, so that Gordon hasn’t died in vain,’ says Dionne.
Many tirelessly fundraise to place thousands of bleed kits – containing dressings and tourniquets to help before the ambulance arrives – in shopping centres, pubs, clubs.
‘You often wait seven minutes for an ambulance, but you can bleed to death in five,’ says Leann.
So far, they have saved dozens of lives.
But most of all, these extraordinary parents give the Government hell for fiddling and twiddling around the edges with silly schemes and celebrities when so many young people are dying.
Because of course knife crime should be the very top of Starmer’s list. The numbers are growing. The country is in crisis. This is a problem that urgently needs a huge injection of money, brains and thought.
Dionne has been on BBC and in the press – slamming the early release scheme approach.
Rob Freckleton (father of Oli, 19) wants prisons to use bunks to make more room – ‘Most of them are single cells! Take out the telly and the Playstation and put another bed in,’ he says.
Maria Averkiou (mother of Stelios, 16) blames Sadiq Khan for the problems in London. ‘He’s more bothered about where people can drive than who’s killing who,’ she says,
Jessica has given a TED talk on the subject. ‘I don’t have the answer to knife crime,’ she says. ‘I have lost a son and just want to contribute. The young kids need our support and so do those left behind.’
Sir Keir Starmer’s early release scheme saw the first 1,700 of more than 5,000 former prison inmates being released early, including 14-year-old Gordon Gault’s killer
Because one thing often overlooked in all the blood and tears, is the ripple effect of each child’s death. ‘It’s like dropping a stone in water,’ says Kelly Brown (mother of Rhamero, 16). ‘It affects everyone,’
Each of the 600-odd mourners at Shaquan’s funeral. The hundreds and hundreds who adored all these children. The siblings of the dead.
Rob Freckleton tells how the murder of his elder son Oli, in December 2021, devastated the life of his younger son, Charlie, now 20.
Oli, like many others, was an innocent victim when he was caught up in violence on the eve of his 20th birthday – at a party in a quiet cul-de-sac, with the mum upstairs.
It was 1.30am, a carload of thugs in balaclavas turned up to settle a score, he bravely tried to block the door and they simply chopped through him – stabbing him 14cm deep in his leg, severing his femoral artery and slashing his hands and shins.
When Charlie and their mum Kristy arrived on the scene, they were made to watch, hopeless, with armed police holding them back, as medics worked frantically on Oli, on the tarmac until, eventually, he was declared dead.
‘They were really, really close,’ says Rob. ‘It has destroyed Charlie. He is very, very fragile now.’
Julie Taylor, 59, meanwhile, tells me how her entire family has been destroyed by the death of her grandson, Liam.
Liam’s mother (Julie’s daughter) is now alcohol-dependent and is really struggling. His 12-year-old sister dropped out of school with anxiety after he was murdered and has never been back.
And Julie, here today, , is terminally ill and on kidney dialysis –bought on by the stress, she says. But that has not stopped her from getting her message out. ‘Education starts at home – we have to help these children.’
All these parents are extraordinary. But perhaps the greatest courage in this room today comes from those for whom every day is a struggle just to keep their heads above water and still talk about their children in the present tense.
For several, this WhatsApp group meet up is the first time they have really been anywhere since their sons’ funerals. But they have travelled hundreds of miles to lend their support.
Take Mina Kershaw. After her 21-year-old son Casey died after being stabbed in the heart in a children’s playpark in broad daylight, her life ground to a halt. She gave up her university course in art and design and could barely leave her home.
‘When it first happened, I started an anti-knife crime petition, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I felt so impotent,’ says Mina who is wearing a sky-blue hoodie with a photo of Casey on the front.
‘So for three years, I just sat at home next to what I call ‘Casey’s table’, with all his little bits on, where I feel closest to him,’ she says. ‘I’ve hardly been out since.’
Maria Averkiou, is also frozen, and has been since her son Stelios, 16, was stabbed and killed in a London park on a sunny August Sunday in a London park, by a gang who tried to take his mobile phone and then stabbed him with a huge, jagged-bladed zombie knife. One of them had been at primary school with Stelios.
‘My life has just stopped. It doesn’t get easier – it gets harder. I struggle to leave the house. I’m on my face, in quicksand.’
The day we meet is the third anniversary of her son’s burial. But, somehow, she made it here today – to be with others who truly understand.
About strength and suffering and resilience and what it feels to stand in court while your child’s killer – and their family members – shout and scream at you and threaten to burn your house down, and worse.
‘Gordon’s killer threatened Gordon’s 13-year-old girlfriend,’ says Dionne.
Ava’s killer sent a grinning Snapchat post to her mother from prison, on Ava’s birthday.
Stelios’ killer posted a picture on social media saying: ‘I’ve just scored against an old school friend’.
How it feels to know – even before Starmer’s crazy early release system – that, if a killer is under 18, they’ll doubtless get off with six or seven years, and be out in about three.
‘They’re laughing at the justice system,’ says Rob Freckleton.
How desperately sad it is when, every few days or so, another grieving parent joins the WhatsApp group.
But perhaps most of all to know that, for all their courage and campaigning, knife crime is getting worse, not better – driven by fear, gang culture, lack of funding in primary schools and a lack of any effective deterrent.
And that right now, no one – certainly not the government – has the answer.
Additional reporting: Matthew Barbour
