The children who kill: Are they getting younger?
When 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai was beaten and hacked to death in a savage machete attack in a Wolverhampton park, detectives were shocked to discover his killers were just 12 years old.
Days earlier, in another part of the country, Alfie Lewis, 15, was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old boy outside a primary school in Leeds.
Later the same month, a girl and boy went on trial in Manchester for what was described as the “sadistic” knife murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey when they were both aged 15.
Murders carried out by children have always horrified us as a society – but are they getting more common or are killers getting younger?
A Sky News analysis of the available Office for National Statistics data on the number of suspects aged under 16 who have been convicted of homicide – murder, manslaughter and infanticide – shows a relatively flat trendline from 2006/7 to 2022/3.
The percentage of homicide convictions going to under-16s compared with other ages doubled over 10 years, however, from about 1 in 50 in 2012/13 to 1 in 25 in 2022/23.
The 2022/23 figure is the highest since at least 2008/09, but as the percentage of under-16s is low overall the averages can be heavily skewed by relatively few convictions.
Percentage of under-16s convicted of homicide
‘Much more serious and extreme’
Dr Simon Harding, a criminology expert, thinks there’s been “an increase in serious violence in young people” and that there is a greater “acceptance of extreme levels of violence between” children.
“Even something that might have been settled with fisticuffs or anti-social behaviour can suddenly dramatically turn into something much more serious and extreme,” he says.
“What 10 years ago might have been a punch in the face, five years ago might have been a stab to the arm or leg is now a stab to the neck or heart, which can lead to death.”
Bardia Shojaeifard was found guilty of murder after a jury heard how he attacked Alfie on his way home on 7 November last year “in revenge” for an altercation a week earlier.
Shojaeifard posed with knives. Pic: West Yorkshire Police
He had posed for pictures with knives and took a 13cm-long kitchen knife he used to kill Alfie from his home with him to school in the Horsforth area of Leeds.
Sentencing him to life detention with a minimum term of 13 years in June, a judge described Shojaeifard as “outwardly normal” but with a “worrying interest in knives”.
Shawn, who had been walking through Stowlawn playing fields in Wolverhampton with a friend on 13 November last year, was struck on his back, legs and skull, while the fatal wound was more than 20cm deep and punctured his heart.
Read more:
Children and teenagers convicted of knife killings
Grieving sister shocked by age of killers
One of Shawn’s killers poses with a machete
The boys responsible, the UK’s youngest knife murderers – who were detained for at least eight-and-a-half years – are believed to be the youngest children to be found guilty of murder since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Thompson and Venables were aged just 10 when they abducted, tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993 and 11 when they were found guilty of murder.
James Bulger seen on CCTV being led away before his murder
A quarter of a century earlier, 11-year-old Mary Bell was sentenced to life detention in 1968 after being found guilty of manslaughter for fatally strangling two boys, aged four and three.
She was also aged just 10 at the time she killed her first victim.
Bell was 10 when she strangled her first victim. Pic: PA
But Sharon Carr is believed to be the youngest girl in the country to have committed murder.
Carr was 12 when she fatally stabbed and mutilated stranger Katie Rackliff, 18, after she left a nightclub in Camberley, Surrey, in 1992, but she wasn’t convicted for another five years.
In another crime that shocked the nation, Ricky Preddie was 13 and his brother Danny was 12 when they killed 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor in 2000, although they weren’t jailed for his manslaughter until 2006.
Damilola Taylor. Pic: PA
Is there now a greater ‘willingness to inflict pain’?
So there have always been cases of children who commit murder and other shocking crimes, but Dr Harding says: “We just tend to forget.”
However, from his experience preparing expert reports on court cases involving gang crime, exploitation and modern slavery, he says he has noticed a greater “willingness to inflict pain and suffering”.
Earlier this year, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were jailed for life with minimum terms of 22 years and 20 years respectively after they were found guilty of murdering Brianna when they were both aged just 15.
Brianna Ghey’s killers – Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe
Jenkinson lured the vulnerable teenager, who was transgender, to Linear Park in the village of Culcheth, near Warrington, where she was stabbed 28 times in the head, neck, chest and back with a hunting knife on 11 February last year.
The pair had a fascination with violence and torture, prepared a “kill list” and meticulously planned Brianna’s “frenzied and ferocious” murder for weeks, their trial heard.
Jurors were told it was “difficult to fathom” how they could share such “dark thoughts” and carry out such a “disturbing” crime.
Beyond the high-profile cases that attract significant media attention, much of the country’s gang violence, including children killing other children, is largely hidden from the public, says Dr Harding.
He’s seeing “quite extreme things that wouldn’t happen a few years ago”, such as disabled people subjected to levels of cruelty bordering on torture, and young women raped and waterboarded by the people forcing them to sell drugs.
A different Dr Harding, forensic psychiatrist Dr Duncan Harding, works with adults and children who commit serious crimes. He says we really don’t know if killers are getting younger or youth violent crime is increasing because the evidence just isn’t there.
But the reporting of crime and the expansion of social media use means cases which may not have passed the threshold for widespread coverage in the past gain more traction, adding to a perception that it is.
Number of under-16s convicted of homicide
Percentage of under-16s convicted of homicide
‘Dehumanisation is spreading’
Even if youth violence isn’t on the rise, the “horrifying” crimes we see reported aren’t acceptable and we have to, as a society, try to understand what’s going on and try to improve things, Dr Duncan Harding adds.
The psychiatrist, who has provided expert evidence in court cases involving homicide, serious violence and terrorism, and has recently released his memoir The Criminal Mind, says the “dehumanisation” seen in gang violence seems to be spreading beyond gangs.
Our divided society is suffering an existential crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic, which is exacerbated by social media, he says, and he also highlights cuts to services for young people due to austerity as a potential factor.
But “stripping away youth clubs isn’t going to in itself lead to someone who’s going to stab or kill someone”, he says, and children don’t always commit violent crimes because of mental illness or difficulties in their lives.
“Obviously, they’re not normal, well-adjusted people, but in my experience, it’s not as straightforward as that either,” he says. “I don’t think that all offenders are victims.”
Shawn Seesahai was killed in a machete attack. Pic: West Midlands Police
‘You have to have proper sentencing for knife crime’
The potential solutions are just as complicated – the psychiatrist suggests a public health approach that recognises the “epidemic” of knife crime among vulnerable young children, with schools, health workers and police working together to spot the early warning signs.
But he also supports the wider use of stop-and-search and the government ban on so-called zombie-style knives to try to keep weapons out of children’s hands, and says there need to be consequences at the point where youngsters are carrying knives.
Shawn’s parents urge children to “think about what they’re doing” and not to carry a weapon, but want to see tougher sentences for youngsters like the boys who killed their son.
“You have to have a proper sentencing for knife crime,” says his father Suresh Seesahai.
“Murder is murder. Murder is no coming back. If you murder someone they can’t come back… Life sentence is the best for you.”
UK
Three Iranians charged under National Security Act after investigation by UK counter-terror police
Two firefighters and a member of the public have died in a large fire in Bicester, the fire service announced.
The firefighters died in the inferno at a former RAF base in Oxfordshire, which now hosts historic motoring and aviation centre Bicester Motion.
The local fire service was called to the scene at 6.39pm last night.
Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall said: “It is with a very heavy heart that we today report the loss of two of our firefighters. Families have been informed and are being supported.
“Our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times and we ask for privacy to be respected.
“We cannot release any details at present but will provide further information as soon as we can.”
Two other firefighters sustained serious injuries and are currently being treated in hospital, Oxfordshire County Council said in a statement.
Footage shared on social media shows plumes of smoke billowing into the sky and flames swallowing the large building.
Clouds of smoke from the fire were billowing into the sky last night. Pic:@kajer87X
Two firefighters and one other person died in the fire, while two more firefighters were seriously injured. Pic: PA
Ten fire crews attended the incident, with four remaining at the scene. The fire is still ongoing, but it is considered under control.
Local residents were advised to remain indoors and keep their windows shut, but this advice has now been lifted.
Bicester Motion said in a statement it would be closed today and over the weekend.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
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UK
‘Toxic’ army unit charged with investigating sex crimes allowing abusers to ‘get away with it’ in own ranks, whistleblower says
More than a dozen women came forward to report a staff sergeant in the Royal Military Police (RMP) for sexual abuse, but he was allowed to resign from the army instead of face charges.
Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing
That’s the claim of a whistleblower who served as a sergeant in the RMP for over a decade and says she was one of the man’s victims.
Amy, not her real name, says a “toxic” culture in the military police means sexual predators in the army are “getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with”.
It’s a rare insight into life inside the Royal Military Police, the corps charged with investigating crime in the army.
Amy described how the man who assaulted her would go into women’s rooms and sit on their beds. She says he used to force her to go out driving with him at night and talk about sex.
“He preyed on the young, new females that were in the unit,” she says.
“One day, I was out with my friends in town and he was on patrol… There were two of us that went over to speak to him and I had quite a low-cut top on.
“So he hooked his finger around my top and pulled my boob out”.
She recalls as she tried to stop him, “he grabbed my hand and put it on his penis”.
She claims there are other men in the RMP who’ve been accused of sexual offences, recalling hearing of five separate allegations of rape against male colleagues by female colleagues.
“If all of this sexual assault and bullying and rapes are going on within the military police, how can they then go out and investigate the wider army for doing the same things?” she says.
“It doesn’t work.”
Amy, a former RMP officer who alleges sexual abuse in the armed forces
‘He got away with it’
Looking back on her career in the army is difficult for Amy.
After leaving, she tried to settle back into life as a civilian with a new job and a young family to look after, but says she worried about bumping into former colleagues in the street.
“It’s taken me a long time to heal,” she says.
“I was very bitter towards my military career when I left, but I’ve had to sort of learn, build myself up again and remember the good times because they were really good times as well… I think it was just so bad at points.”
When she joined the RMP, she believed she would be part of a unit “representing how the rest of the soldiers should be conducting themselves”.
The reality, she says, was that she had become part of “one of the most toxic” corps in the army.
She recalls being told that the staff sergeant she had reported for sexual assault would be allowed to resign.
“They basically told me he’s not going to be charged, but will be leaving the military… doing him a favour,” she says.
“He got away with it all,” she adds. “He’s not going to lose his pension and whatever else he would have lost with a dishonourable discharge.
“He’s left without a criminal record… that’s not safe for civilians as well, because it’s not even on his record.”
‘They investigate themselves’
Earlier this year, an inquest into the suicide of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck found she had been failed by the army after reporting sexual assault and harassment.
Since then, Sky News has reported claims of widespread abuse and growing calls for investigations into sexual offences to be removed from the RMP and instead carried out by civilian police.
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From March: Army women reveal alleged abuse
The Labour chair of the influential House of Commons Defence Committee is now urging the government to act.
Tan Dhesi told Sky News: “The system needs to change… incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault should be dealt with not by the Royal Military Police but by civilian police and civilian courts.
“I hope that the government will be making that substantial change in the very, very near future; in fact, they should do it ASAP.”
Tan Dhesi MP told Sky News that ‘the system needs to change… ASAP’
Since Gunner Beck’s death, a new tri-service complaints team has been announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The change will see bullying, harassment, discrimination related service complaints dealt with by a team outside the commands of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.
However, Amy believes investigations need to be done “completely separately from the military”.
“Otherwise it doesn’t work because friends will be investigating friends,” she says.
“I think there’s such a male-dominated space in the military still. Women have no chance… and it’s not fair because people are getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with and allowed to continue doing it and ruining lives.”
She believes the entire system lacks accountability. “They investigate themselves,” she says, even down to how the RMP is regulated.
“The people that run that unit are RMP. They get posted in, do a few years and then get posted back out.”
‘I was told off for reporting it’
Katie, also not her real name, served in the army for over 20 years. She saw active service in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of Captain.
It was a distinguished career that was brought to a premature end by sexual abuse and whistleblowing.
Having taken the difficult decision to leave the army she now leads a secluded life and suffers poor mental health.
Katie (centre), who resigned from the armed forces after alleged sexual abuse, as a serving RMP officer
“I still struggle,” she says. “I’m still very wary of men. My relationship is strained.
“Everything seems like black and white now, like I live my life in black and white rather than full colour… As a person, it has changed my life forever.”
To begin with, she was in the same unit that Gunner Beck would join years later. She too experienced harassment and abuse, and says her line manager “laughed” when she reported it.
“I just felt like dehumanised, I felt like property, I didn’t feel like a person anymore,” she says.
“And so I would avoid people… I would hide in the garages, behind the tanks, in between the guns, just praying that these people hadn’t seen me and I might be able to escape them for that day.”
She moved to a different unit but says wherever she went, abuse was rife. After being groped by a higher-ranking colleague, she assumed her chain of command would escalate her report to the RMP.
Instead, she says she was “put in front of the Sergeant Major and told off”.
“I remember at the time saying I’d like to call the civilian police, and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to do that and I’d be disciplined if I tried to do that,” she said. “So I was so frightened.”
She stayed in the army, hoping to make a difference. As an officer, she began reporting abusers on behalf of younger victims.
“I kept this goal in my head of reaching a position one day where I could help other women,” she said. “When I got there, I realised that it was way more toxic than I could have ever imagined.
“The officer corps were actually the worst perpetrators of all because they brushed it under the carpet. There was a will and a need more to protect themselves or their friends. Or the reputation of the unit first and foremost.”
She believes changes made by the MoD since the death of Gunner Beck to remove the chain of command from sexual abuse investigations will make “little difference”, saying they’ll still be carried out by “the same people, but just under a new title”.
‘They should be held accountable’
An MoD spokesperson told Sky News that “unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces”.
They added: “That is why this government is creating a new Tri-Service Complaints team to take the most serious complaints out of the chain of single service command for the first time, and has launched a new central taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls to give this issue the attention it deserves.
“We are also establishing an independent Armed Forces Commissioner with the power to visit defence sites unannounced, and to investigate and report to parliament any welfare matters affecting service life.”
Amy believes the RMP is not fit for purpose.
“They have higher standards to uphold, yet they don’t uphold them within their own regiment, within their own lives, and then they’re expected to police and uphold those standards throughout the rest of the army,” she says.
“At the end of the day, they know the law and they should be held accountable for what they do.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
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