12-year-old boys guilty of machete murder
The Guardian|June 11, 2024
Two 12-year-old boys were yesterday found guilty of the murder of Shawn Seesahai, 19, who was killed in an apparently unprovoked machete attack in a Wolverhampton park in November.
Jessica Murray
12-year-old boys guilty of machete murder

The pair, who cannot be named because of their age, have become two of the youngest convicted murderers in the UK after jurors unanimously found them guilty.

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

Seesahai was not known to the defendants, who claimed he had antagonised them by asking them to move off a bench. One of the boys used a machete to slash at his legs and stab him through the heart, while the other reportedly punched and stamped on his head.

In an interview released after the verdicts, Seesahai's father, Suresh Seesahai, said he felt sorry for the parents of the killers and only hoped justice had been served for his son. "This world is a different world. Kids are dangerous now. If we don't pay attention to them this will keep happening," he said.

The court heard that Seesahai had sustained injuries to his back and legs, a fractured skull and a 23cm-deep machete wound that cut through his right lung, into his heart and nearly came out of his chest.

One of the boys admitted possessing the machete used to kill Seesahai but blamed his co-defendant for stabbing the victim. Both boys denied murder and they blamed each other for the fatal injuries.

This story is from the June 11, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the June 11, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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