He is only 16 years old. And will probably spend a large part of his life behind bars. This young British man was sentenced to life in prison by a court on Friday for the stabbing murder of another teenager last June, with the judge denouncing the “scourge” of stabbing attacks among young people. Sixteen-year-old Mikey Royon, an aspiring rapper according to those close to him, was stabbed in the neck with a large knife during a birthday party.
On Friday, Shane Cunningham was sentenced to life in prison for murder, with a probationary period of 16 years, while two other teenagers of the same age, Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight, received nine years and nine years and half detention in a juvenile facility for manslaughter.
“Scourge of knife crime”
Exceptionally in a case involving minors, the judge at Bristol Crown Court authorized the publication of the names of the three convicted. “Mikey had a successful musical career ahead of him and his future seemed bright, even though he had faced many difficulties in his short life,” the judge said in handing down the sentences.
He also denounced “the scourge of knife crime” among young people in and around Bristol. Returning to the murder, he recalled that the three boys had come to the party with “big knives” hidden in their clothes.
“It is clear that you took up arms to fight and hurt people if violence were to occur,” during this party in which around 70 people participated, he estimated. He also noted that the victim himself had a knife, and that events at the party “moved quickly,” but the jury that convicted the three boys rejected any self-defense.
Murder charges dismissed
Mikey had been left bloodied and passed out in the driveway leading to the house where the party was being held. The emergency services that arrived quickly were unable to save him. The three teenagers all denied the murder charges.
Stabbing attacks are on the rise in the United Kingdom. According to official figures, they increased by 7% last year to almost 50,000 in England and Wales, and they jumped by 20% in the capital alone. On Friday, another fifteen-year-old boy was found guilty in Leeds (northern England) of the stabbing murder of a young person of the same age in November. His sentence will be pronounced on June 21.
