Jurors unanimously convicted the youths, who are believed to be the youngest boys to have committed a knife-related murder in the UK, on Monday of the murder of Shawn Seesahai.
A month-long trial at Nottingham Crown Court was told Seesahai was killed in November 2023 after encountering his killers in a park in Wolverhampton.
He was shoulder-barged by the smaller of the two defendants, who “often” carried a machete with a 17-inch-long blade, before being punched, kicked, stamped on and “chopped” at with the weapon.
Seesahai, a stranger to the two boys, was pronounced dead at 9.11pm after police and paramedics were called to the scene.
The court heard that Seesahai was “utterly defenceless” and was “a man who had done nothing wrong, a man with no weapon” and shouted to his friend to “run” as he saw the machete.
His friend fled and as he looked back he saw Seesahai on the floor, surrounded by the boys, the court heard.
The youths are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty in 1993 of killing 2-year-old Bulger. Bulger’s killers were both 10 at the time of the murder, and 11 when convicted.
Justice Tipples, the judge, has indicated that she will hear representations from the press on whether to name the killers at a later hearing ahead of sentencing.
Family members of both Seesahai and the defendants cried and hugged each other in the public gallery as the jurors found both boys guilty of murder and one guilty of possessing a bladed article.
One of the defendants had an image of a sword on his mobile phone Photo / West Midlands Police
The West Midlands has become the country’s knife crime capital with official statistics showing the force had the highest number of offences per head of population in England and Wales in the year to December 2023, ahead of the Metropolitan Police.
Overall figures show knife crime rose by 7 per cent in England and Wales in the year to December 2023, compared with the previous 12 months. Part of the increase was driven by a rise in knifepoint robberies, which went up by a fifth year on year.
Knife-enabled homicides stood at 239 last year, broadly unchanged on the 235 recorded in 2022 and also lower than pre-pandemic figures.
However, in the year to March 2023, 82 per cent of teenage homicide victims were killed with a knife, up from 73 per cent in the previous year.
Speaking for the first time since their son was murdered, Seesahai’s father said he felt sorry for the parents of the killers and only hoped that “justice” was served for his son.
Victim ‘stumbled’ as he ran from killers
At the start of the trial, Michelle Heeley KC, prosecuting, told the court Seesahai, who lived in Handsworth in Birmingham but was originally from Anguilla in the Caribbean, had travelled to the UK to receive treatment for cataracts.
Heeley said the weapon had been taken out of one of the boys’ trousers and was made available to be used “despite the fact Shawn Seesahai and his friends had offered no violence, nor done anything to offend [the youths]”.
A friend of the victim told the trial he was forced to run for his life but Seesahai stumbled as he tried to flee from the boys on Wolverhampton’s Stowlawn playing fields on November 13 last year.
The court heard the friend managed to escape and looked back to see Seesahai on the ground, having tripped on a grassed area.
Although the friend did not see the “vicious attack” that ensued, Heeley said a teenage girl who had been with the 12-year-olds told police that both had been in possession of the machete and one often carried it.
The witness described seeing one boy pick up the machete and hold it in the air.
Heeley added: “She told police she saw [a defendant] using the machete on Seesahai’s legs, and also saw [the other defendant] punching and stamping on his head.
“The prosecution say the two boys were engaged in a joint attack upon a man who had done nothing wrong, a man with no weapon, who was utterly defenceless on the ground.
“We say that these two boys were acting together and meant to kill Seesahai, at the very least they intended to cause really serious harm.”
She added: “As a result of their actions, Shawn Seesahai died at the scene. He had been hit so hard to the skull with the machete that a piece of bone had actually come away.
“He had slash wounds on his leg and most significantly he had an injury from the machete that went through his body all the way from his back, through his ribs and into his heart.”
Shawn Seesahai, left and his friend, right, pictured on CCTV in a shop at a petrol station before walking to the park where the attack took place. Photo / West Mercia Police
While talking about the murder on social media app Snapchat, one of the killers said, “It is what it is.” His co-defendant replied, “Everyone knows what happened I’m scared man” to which he responded “idrc” - text message shorthand for “I don’t really care”.
After refusing to answer police questions in the aftermath of the murder, the boys both gave evidence to jurors, blaming each other for inflicting the fatal blow.
Jurors heard one of the defendants had posed, wearing a mask, with the murder weapon for a picture hours before the killing, and was found to have 11 areas of blood staining on his clothing.
The boy was also seen with blood on his hands in the aftermath of the murder, while his friend had a small blood stain on his right trainer.
As well as failing to summon help for Seesahai, the youths showed no remorse for what they had done in the 24 hours before their arrest, with one cleaning the machete with bleach and hiding it under his bed.
They told the court they both played video games in the hours after the killing, claiming they did not know Seesahai had died until the following day.
Justice Tipples thanked the jury at the High Court for their “hard work and determination” in what had been a “tragic and distressing case” after their verdicts were delivered on Monday afternoon.
Parents question why 12-year-old had a machete
In an interview released after the verdicts, Seesahai’s parents, Suresh and Maneshwary, said they would never be able to get over the loss of their son, who always told them he would “shine” and take care of them.
Seesahai’s parents questioned how a child so young could have a weapon like a machete with them as they walked the streets.
Suresh Seesahai said: “This world is a different world, kids are dangerous now. If we don’t pay attention to them this will keep happening.”
Maneshwary Seesahai added: “Twelve-year-old kids should be at home doing school work and then going to bed. I have two children and at 7.30pm they had to go to bed because they have to follow the rules of the house.”
The couple, who also have a teenage daughter, told of the moment they were told their son had been stabbed to death.
Seesahai said: “I got a call from Shawn’s friend who was staying with him. He told me Shawn had been stabbed and I just started crying.
“I told my husband and he asked for the phone to find out what had happened.”
Seesahai added: “She kept saying that Shawn had been stabbed, I asked her what she meant and then she handed me the phone.
“I asked if Shawn was okay and he said that he was not, that he had passed away.
“About 30 minutes later I got a call from the police who asked if I was Shawn’s father and if I could spell Shawn’s name out. I said ‘yes’ and did, they told me they had bad news – that my son had been stabbed and had passed away.
“Getting a call like that is not nice for anyone. I tried to keep myself up but getting a message like that was not easy.”
