‘Totally heartbroken and confused’: Family of murdered teenager reveal anguish as killers face sentencing

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The family of a teenager murdered in a city park have revealed their heartache over the “unexpected and senseless” machete killing of a loved son and brother.

In a victim impact statement read to a judge sentencing Shawn Seesahai’s killers, relatives of the 19-year-old said there were haunted by thoughts of how scared he must have been during his final moments alive.

The moving message was delivered during the first day of a two-day hearing at Nottingham Crown Court where the two 13-year-old defendants will be sentenced for the murder in a park in Wolverhampton last November.

They are the youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both then aged 11, who were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger.

Mr Seesahai died after being stabbed in the heart and suffering a skull fracture as he was set upon while walking through Stowlawn playing fields on 13 November.

A month-long trial heard how the teenager was shoulder-barged by the smaller of the two defendants, who “often” carried a machete with a 42.5cm-long blade, before being punched, kicked, stamped on and “chopped” at with the weapon.

The victim’s friend told the trial he was forced to run for his life but Mr Seesahai stumbled as he tried to flee from the boys.

A statement read to the court on Thursday on behalf of Mr Seesahai’s family, including parents Suresh and Maneshwary and sister Shana, said: “We make this statement in relation to the tragic, unexpected and senseless murder of our beloved son and brother Shawn, who was tragically taken from us in November last year.

“As a family we are struggling in so many ways since Shawn was taken from us, especially in the horrific way in which he was taken.

“Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. To put it all down in a statement on how it has impacted our lives would take more than a day to read.

“It has left a huge hole in the pit of our stomach which nothing can fill, we are devastated as a family, totally heartbroken and confused.”

It continued: “Mentally it has been hard for any of us to function normally. None of us have had an unbroken night’s sleep since Shawn was taken from us.

“Every time I close my eyes all I can think about are what his last moments were and how scared he must have been. It continually breaks my heart.

Mrs Justice Tipples, who is due to specify a minimum term and pass mandatory life sentences on Friday, ruled following the trial that the defendants cannot be identified by the media because of concerns surrounding their welfare.

During legal submissions on Thursday, the court heard the starting point for the minimum term to be imposed on both boys is set by sentencing guidelines at 13 years.

The court was told the minimum term’s starting point “is not a finishing point” and can be adjusted both upwards or downwards in accordance with aggravating or mitigating factors, which include the defendants’ ages.

One of the boys admitted possession of the knife prior to the trial, while the other was found guilty of the same charge when they were both unanimously convicted of murder on 10 June.

Both boys claimed the other had inflicted four wounds with the machete, after a dispute about sitting on a park bench.

Rachel Brand KC, defending the boy who admitted buying and owning the machete, told the court during mitigation: “He lacked, as a child, foresight of the consequences of his actions, and lacked, as a child, the ability to regulate his behaviour in the same way adults do.”

Urging the court to take into account the fact the boy had been “groomed” and exploited by older youths and young men in the wider community, Ms Brand added: “We say the evidence shows that his involvement was with his fists and feet and the co-defendant wielded the machete.

“He knows that he bears the responsibility for taking that machete to the scene.”

Paul Lewis KC, defending the other boy, said: “The prospects of rehabilitation in his case, we submit, are excellent. He had never been involved in any sort of criminality before. This was a one-off incident that was not premeditated – over in seconds – with admittedly tragic results.”

Sentencing in the case is expected to begin in the case at 11am on Friday.