A knife-obsessed 12-year-old posed for a picture with a machete tucked into his trousers just hours before murdering an “utterly defenceless” teenager.
An image sent on Snapchat to his accomplice shows the youth dressed in a grey hooded tracksuit with a black coat, with the large weapon visible in front of his torso.
The schoolboy and another 12-year-old would later go on to stab Shawn Seesahai, 19, who was killed in a Wolverhampton park while discussing Christmas plans with his friend.
After being found guilty of his murder on Monday, the two are believed to be the UK’s youngest knife killers, and the youngest to be convicted since Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were detained over the murder of toddler James Bulger in 1993.
Jurors heard that the picture on the youth’s mobile phone showed him masked near railings in the street, and was believed to have been taken at around 1am.
It was forwarded to his co-defendant and his girlfriend, with the rapper SJ’s Prison Freestyle track attached to it. During his trial, the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied that he was aware the artist SJ is currently serving a life sentence for a machete murder in London in 2019.
Social media messages between him and the other youth also showed he had responded “It is what it is” when discussing the stabbing, and had said he was not scared and “idrc” - text shorthand for “I don’t really care”.
In the hours after the murder, in Stowlawn playing fields last November, the same youth – who admitted unlawful possession of the machete but denied any other wrongdoing – was given a lift home by a family member, bleached his machete and hid it under his bed.
When arrested, he was found watching television and told police officers: “What murder? Why would I kill someone?” and “I haven’t done anything.”
During his evidence, he told jurors that he had bought the black-bladed machete from someone he would not name for £40.
He was also incriminated by his heavily bloodstained clothing and his manbag, with a complete DNA profile matching that of Mr Seesahai obtained from a sample of blood found on the inside of his right cuff.
Bloodstaining was also found on the murder weapon – which had a 6cm-wide blade near its tip – and swabs taken from the manbag also matched Mr Seesahai’s DNA.
Following their convictions, the victim’s parents, Suresh and Maneshwary Seesahai, said that they will never be able to get over the loss of their beloved son, who had travelled to the UK for eye surgery.
“Shawn was such a loving son, he was so well-mannered, looked after us, was loving to everyone and very protective,” they said.
“He always said he wanted to work, he wanted his own house, his own car.
“After his eye surgery he told me he would finish school. He always said ‘mum I’ll be shining, I’ll be shining, don’t worry I will help you’.”
He was attacked by the two youths, who were not known to him, after encountering them in the park. Despite being unarmed and provoking no violence, he was shoulder-barged and then punched, kicked and stabbed while his friend fled to seek help.
Emergency services were called but despite their best efforts he was pronounced dead at 9.11pm. 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.
They are now due to be sentenced on a date in July.
