Two baby-faced schoolboys who murdered a 14-year-old air cadet after he was 'exploited' into dealing cannabis have today been unmasked by a judge. Kyle Dermody was also just 14 when he stabbed his former friend Nathaniel Shani in the neck following a row over drugs. He was last month given a life sentence after being convicted of his murder alongside Trey Stewart-Gayle, who was only 13 and armed with a screwdriver.
Following an application by the media, a judge today lifted a ban on publishing their names, saying there was a 'substantial public interest' in understanding how such young children could commit a fatal knife attack.
I don't think any of us don't understand it, actually. None of our hallowed institutions - government, police, church, community, social cohesion - account for much anymore. And this is the inevitable result.
We’ve seen too much of it over the last few years - and too much of the laxity greeting such crimes from our so-called criminal justice system - to claim we don’t understand it.
Mrs Justice Ellenbogen previously said that 'sadly it is no longer shocking' for such a young child to be murdered by boys of his age. Detectives have previously revealed how Nathaniel's tragic death last September illustrated how easily children from loving, supportive families can be sucked into a deadly inner-city underworld.
After both were convicted of murder following a trial at Manchester Crown Court, the pair were given life sentences last month. Dermody, now 15, will serve a minimum term of 13 years in custody while Stewart-Gayle, now 14, will have to serve a minimum of 10 years.
See..? Is that really a punishment that fits the crime?
The police seem unaccountably sympathetic to. well, not the victim, of course, but the perpetrators:
DCI Brennand claimed Nathaniel and his friends were victims of 'child exploitation', saying 'they don't have the skills to know otherwise'.
'They might think it's cool, but they're not.
'They're just acting for someone else and being exploited. It happens every day, on streets of inner cities in the UK. And this is why children start to carry knives.
'It's awful, absolutely awful, it's devastating.
'These are vulnerable children who can't make decisions, who might want some money for a new pair of trainers, and so they start doing things because someone has approached them.'
Now do decisions on transgender surgery or medication, chum 😏
