A 17-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to the murder of a 14-year-old boy in south London.
Jermaine Cools was stabbed to death near West Croydon station on 18 November 2021 following reports of a fight among a group of people.
The young teenager had reportedly taken himself to hospital by the time police arrived at the scene, where no suspects or victims were found. But despite the efforts of medics, he was pronounced dead a short time later.
At 14 years old, Jermaine is believed to have been the youngest person to be stabbed and killed on London’s streets in 2021 – a year in which 30 teenagers lost their lives, setting a grim record for teenage homicides in the capital.
His attacker, who is now 17 and cannot be identified because of his age, appeared at the Old Bailey to enter his plea on Monday morning.
He pleaded guilty to murder, having previously admitted to possessing a knife on London Road, on the same day that Jermaine was stabbed there.
Jermaine’s family sat in court two of the Old Bailey on what would have been the first day of the defendant’s trial.
“Jermaine was the life and soul of our house,” his parents, Lorraine Dudek and Julius Cools, previously told the BBC. “Always running around, listening to music the house is now just empty and sad.”
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC suggested a provisional sentencing date of 24 February. The facts of the case were not outlined and the defendant was remanded into custody.
Jermaine was among five teenagers who were fatally stabbed in Croydon in 2021.
While no teenagers lost their lives in such attacks in the 12 months after Jermaine was killed, according to the Metropolitan Police, his father has expressed concern that knife crime is still prolific.
Speaking on the anniversary of Jermaine’s death, as a plaque was unveiled to commemorate his son, Mr Cools said: “To me, there is no change. I want him to rest in peace by getting justice for him.”
Less than a year after his son’s death, Mr Cools found himself wrestling with a man wielding a machete-length knife in his Caribbean food shop in South Norwood last October.
“I was in my shop, the girl came into to buy something, asking about the food and he came in so angry and arguing and I realised it was getting out of hand,” Mr Cools recalled the following month.
“I tried to separate them, I pushed the guy away telling him get out of my shop and I realised he had his knife. I don’t know where I got the energy from but I just did. He could have stabbed me, I don’t know.”
CCTV footage showed the pair rolling into a set of chairs and tables before Mr Cools yanks the blade away from the man and orders him out of the shop.
Alleging at the time that police didn’t appear interested in looking at the CCTV footage, he said: “All I was thinking that day was that the girl could have died in the same way [as my son] in my shop.
“I was doing it to protect that girl, she was only 16 or 17, she has her whole life ahead of her. We live in a world where if you leave your house you don’t know if you are going back home. This is the life we are living now.”
Additional reporting by PA
