They are presented by the British media as the “youngest convicted murderers” in the country for at least thirty years. Two 13-year-old boys, tried for having killed a young man with a machete, were given “minimum sentences” of eight and a half years in prison this Friday. “What you both did was horrible and shocking,” the judge told them, before the sentence was handed down.
Who are the accused? What facts are they accused of? When will they get out of prison? 20 Minutes takes stock.
Who are the accused?
Little information has been filtered about them, starting with their identities kept secret for legal reasons. At the time of the events, they were 12 years old. It is also known that they lived in Wolverhampton, a city located in the West Midlands. During the trial, it was revealed that one of them had obtained the machete by purchasing it from a “friend of a friend”, says The Guardian. It was a month before the murder.
This boy, raised in a “disadvantaged home”, whose family members had committed crimes, was under the care of his grandmother. She had also attracted the attention of social services on several occasions to report her behavior. In vain. She was only able to obtain “intermittent contact” with social workers, even though the boy regularly carried a gun on him.
“He was prepared, influenced and exploited” for “criminal purposes” by “people older than him”, argued his lawyer Rachel Brand KC during the proceedings, adding “young men from the wider community” had “encouraged him to own knives”. And thus exerted constant pressure on the kid. “Just think of the places where we sometimes found him late at night without any explanation as to how he got there,” said the defense, painting the portrait of a lost kid who “suffered significant trauma in his life “.
As for his co-accused, we don’t know much about him, except that he experienced “significant disruptions in his family life”, reports The Guardian.
What facts are they accused of?
On November 13, 2023, while walking in Wolverhampton Park, the two kids crossed paths with Shawn Seesahai, a 19-year-old young man. Originally from the Caribbean, he had come to the UK for treatment for cataracts and planned to stay there to continue his studies. “He was beginning his adult life with everything he needed to live,” said Judge Tiples.
His family described him as a “very affectionate child”, a “helpful and hardworking” young man. “He loved helping his father with construction work and enjoyed helping with household chores. He was a humble person and his personality was unique,” recalled his mother.
Shawn Seesahai, who was with a friend on the day of the tragedy, died over a bench incident. Very quickly, the kids became threatening, telling them to “keep walking”. The victim stumbled, falling to the ground, before receiving a first blow to the shoulder from a machete, while his friend ran away. “Totally defenseless”, the young man, who “had done nothing wrong” according to the prosecutor, was punched, kicked, then trampled. The machete then punctured his heart and lung.
“As prosecutors, we often face atrocious cases, but this case is particularly upsetting because of the utter absurdity and devastating consequences of the defendants’ actions,” reacted to the warder Jonathan Roe, a spokesperson for the prosecution. And added: “At 12 years old, they should have enjoyed their childhood rather than arming themselves with a machete and killing an innocent person. »
Still “traumatized”, the victim’s family also expressed their pain in a statement read in court: “It is difficult to believe that we will one day be able to accept what happened. None of us have had an uninterrupted night’s sleep since Shawn was taken from us. Every time we close our eyes, we think of his last moments and the fear he must have felt. »
When will they get out of prison?
The two boys, who denied the facts while trying to shift responsibility, were sentenced to indefinite prison terms. However, they will be able to apply for release after having spent eight and a half years in prison. If this is accepted, they will then be subject to a probationary control regime for their entire life.
In 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, then aged 11, were convicted of the murder of two-year-old James Bulger.
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