Shawn Seesahai: Parents of murdered teen call for tougher sentences for knife killers

Shawn Seesahai's devastated parents have called for tougher sentences for knife killers – as their son's attackers were jailed for less than a decade.

The 19-year-old was stabbed in the heart with a machete in a frenzied park ambush last year. His killers, who cannot be named, were just 12 at the time – making them the youngest convicted murderers since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 11, bludgeoned two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.

The evil duo were handed eight-and-a-half-year minimum terms - meaning they could be free by their 20th birthdays. In a statement read after yesterday's sentencing on behalf of Shawn's parents Maneshwary and Suresh Seesahai, family representative Dorothea Hodge said: "The family had hoped that the sentence handed down today would reflect this abhorrent violence.

"Whilst they recognise that three young lives have been destroyed, they alone have lost their son forever and they do not feel that the sentence reflects the loss they have suffered daily since their son was murdered. Shawn's life was violently taken away at the hands of young individuals who were knowingly carrying a machete, which they used to violently kill their beloved son.

The couple - who attended the sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court via video link from their home in Anguilla - dubbed knife crime a "social crisis."

READ MORE: Unbearable agony of Shawn Seesahai's family - horror phone call, cruel debt and sad wish

They continued: "Children carrying knives should be addressed by everyone so Shawn's life was not taken in vain - it takes a village to raise a child." Shawn was catching up with a friend when he was knifed on Wolverhampton's Stowlawn playing fields on November 13 last year.

A month-long trial heard how he was "chopped" with a 16-inch blade before being punched, kicked and stamped on. His killers, now 13, fled the scene and were arrested the following day. Sentencing the pair on Friday, Judge Lady Justice Tipples described the attack as "horrific" and "shocking."

She told the boys: "When you killed Shawn he was 19, starting out in his adult life with everything to live for. His parents have lost their son. His sister has lost her brother. You did not know Shawn, he was a stranger to you. You both killed Shawn in an attack that lasted less than a minute when he asked you to move [from a bench.] I am sure you intended to kill him."

Both youths were allowed to leave the dock and sit in the back row of the court benches to learn their fate. They were handed identical sentences of eight and a half years, with Judge Tipples adding she could not be sure which of the boys had inflicted a 23cm-deep wound through Shawn's body.

The court heard how the first defendant was "extremely vulnerable" and had suffered "multiple traumas" in childhood. And the second boy, although close to his parents, had moved homes many times which had been unsettling for him. Shawn grew up on the Caribbean island of Anguilla but was in the UK to access medical treatment for an injured eye.

He later settled in Handsworth, Birmingham and was due to start a university course a day after the brutal attack. His parents, who also share daughter Shana, earlier recalled the agonising moment they learned Shawn was dead. "I just dropped," mum Manushwary said - "I don't know what happened after.

"Shawn didn't deserve to die like that. I can't sleep at night - every day I wake up since my son passed away. I'm not myself anymore [and] I know it's eating my husband inside every single day - Shawn didn't deserve to die like that." Dad Suresh added: "They killed my son like they kill a dog - they stab him through and through. They kick him. They cuff him. He was helpless."

Day one of the two-day sentencing hearing on Thursday heard how the devastated duo - who also share daughter Shana - were forced to use their entire life savings to repatriate Shawn's body back to Anguilla. Suresh questioned the UK government's responsibility to support them financially but added: "I don't care much about the money. But what I lost I can't get back."

Shawn was visiting a friend in Wolverhampton when he was fatally stabbed. His killers were together on the same afternoon, meeting two girls about the same age. West Midlands Police Chief Superintendent Kim Madill said: "Shawn was only 19 when his life was taken at the hands of two boys, then aged just 12, who had armed themselves with a machete.

"That reality has had a huge impact on us all, it is both shocking and saddening. The impact of knife crime is devastating no matter where you live in the country, this is an issue that affects us all. Jonathan Roe, a senior prosecution officer for the Crown Prosecution Service said the two killers "should have been enjoying their childhood rather than arming themselves with a machete and killing an innocent person."