Two teenagers who smiled as they fatally stabbed a 14-year-old schoolboy on a bus have been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.
Kelyan Bokassa called out “I want my mum” after he was fatally wounded in front of horrified passengers on the route 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on 7 January.
The attack lasted about 14 seconds, with the teenagers thrusting the machetes towards Kelyan 27 times, the Old Bailey heard.
The two killers, both 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to Kelyan’s murder and to having a knife. In a televised sentencing on Friday, Judge Lucraft KC told them they would be locked up for at least 15 years and 10 months before being eligible for parole.
Lucraft said the schoolboy’s death was a “senseless loss” of another young life to the “horrors of knife crime”. In a victim impact statement, Kelyan’s mother, Marie Bokassa, said: “At least my son is at peace, and those two kids are going to have a really tough time.
“I ask myself what has happened to those two boys that has resulted in that terrible act of violence, and I cannot imagine how can they be so angry. What they did was horrific and I do not know what has led them to do this, and maybe I will never.”
Bokassa said she had spent her son’s 15th birthday at his graveside.
Earlier, the prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said the victim had boarded the bus just after 2pm to attend an appointment at a youth justice centre in Woolwich. CCTV footage showed that Kelyan, an aspiring rapper, went to sit on the back seat of the top deck, with a knife in the waistband of his trousers.
Heer said the teenager looked around and out of the windows before taking his seat “giving every impression that he was concerned for his safety”.
The defendants boarded the bus 20 minutes later, each armed with a machete hidden in their clothes. They walked towards Kelyan “with purpose” and drew their blades before immediately stabbing him without uttering a word to their victim.
Heer said: “Since Kelyan Bokassa was seated on the back seat, he was cornered, unable to escape as the defendants repeatedly thrust their knives towards him, smiling as they did so.”
She added: “Kelyan Bokassa had no time to reach for his own knife, which remained in his trousers, and instead tried in vain to protect himself with his schoolbag. There were several other passengers on the top deck who fled in panic when they realised what was happening. They describe hearing intense screaming from the back of the bus and the victim shouting: ‘Help. Help. I’ve been stabbed.’”
The bus driver activated his emergency alarm just before 2.27pm and the defendants fled when the vehicle stopped at Woolwich Ferry.
Kelyan stumbled down the aisle to the stairs, where another passenger went to help him. He was heard to say: “Take me to my mum’s. I want my mum,” before he collapsed, bleeding heavily from a wound to the leg.
Members of the public flagged down a passing police car, but Kelyan died at the scene at 3.23pm.
One of the machetes was thrown into the River Thames, but was later recovered by police. Samantha Yelland, the senior crown prosecutor for CPS London North, said the teenagers’ “violent attack” on Kelyan had left him with “little chance of survival”.
