As Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham launched the latest scheme aimed at tackling knife crime in the region, a short distance from the press conference, a tragically appropriate case study was being laid bare in court. Just half a mile away from where Burnham addressed assembled reporters in Manchester city centre, a 17-year-old boy sat in the dock of an imposing, Victorian crown court, facing the most serious criminal charge possible.
King Sibanda, bespectacled and wearing a navy suit and tie, was on trial accused of murdering an 18-year-old boy. At the same time as Burnham spoke, in August last year, prosecutors laid out the case against Sibanda, as he sat in the dock with his future in the balance. The killing, in Bury town centre in the middle of the afternoon, happened in an instant. Sibanda was just 16 at the time.
It occurred so quickly, it was even difficult to comprehend exactly what had happened while watching CCTV footage. But in that matter of seconds, lives were irrevocably changed. Abdikarim Abdalla Ahmed, aged just 18, died at Sibanda's hand.
