The mother of a 14-year-old schoolboy murdered by two teenagers on a bus has said “knife crime is not just statistics” but “caskets” and “flowers”, as her son’s killers were jailed.
Aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa was stabbed around 27 times in the attack on January 7 as he travelled on a route 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London.
Two youths, aged 16, were both jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years and 10 months at the Old Bailey on Friday after they pleaded guilty to Kelyan’s murder and having a knife.
In a statement read on her behalf outside the court, Kelyan’s mother Marie Bokassa appealed to the Government for action on knife crime and youth violence, adding that authorities had “lost control of London”.
She said: “To the Government and authorities, how many mothers like me will it take?
“How many children must be buried before you act with urgency?
“Where are you? Where were you?
“I had no support from you when my son was alive and no support now that he is dead, a letter of condolence doesn’t mean anything to us.
“Our streets are bleeding, our cemeteries are full, our prisons are overflowing.
“Pain and loss is becoming normalised.
“Our streets are no longer safe for our children. Public transport is no longer safe. Schools are no longer safe.
“You have lost control of London.
“We need stronger laws, real cultural education, real boots to the ground.”
She added: “Knife crime is not just statistics to us.
“It’s caskets, it’s flowers, it’s funerals.
“Our children are being buried before their parents.
“I want change. I demand change.
“Let this not be another forgotten story.
“Let my child’s name be a turning point, a call to action to save other mothers from standing where I stand today.
“His name was Kelyan.
“My child deserved to live, deserved to feel safe walking on the streets of London.
“How many young people have been killed or injured since Kelyan?
“Let’s not wait for another one to die before we act.”
Of her son’s killers, Ms Bokassa said: “They didn’t just take a life, they shattered an entire world.
“They broke a family, they buried a future, and they left me, a mother, dead inside with wounds no justice could ever heal.
“To the young people who carry knives, I beg you to stop before you raise a blade.
“Think of your own mother. Think of the mothers who will cry every night like I do, who will scream into her pillow, who will walk past her child’s empty room and collapse with grief.
“Don’t let a moment of anger still your future.
“Don’t let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would.
“There is no power in death. There is only loss.”
Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, whose team at the Metropolitan Police led the investigation, said after the sentencing that the case was a “callous murder” and a “ferocious attack” on a bus in “broad daylight”.
Speaking outside court, she said: “Whilst I’m grateful that Marie has been spared the emotional turmoil of trial, I know that she desperately struggles to understand why.
“Why her son was murdered, why two children will today begin life sentences, why three lives were considered so disposable.
“The harsh reality in London is that violence affects some children more than others, particularly young black men and boys, and those experiencing worsening social and economic inequalities.”
She added that it was “vital murders such as Kelyan’s are at the forefront of the minds of every politician, every policymaker, every police officer, everybody that works better for children growing up in London” in order to tackle knife crime.
