by He became one of Britain’s youngest killers under knives and drugs in front of his grandmother when he was just nine years old.
The boy, who was one of two 12-year-olds found guilty on Monday of the brutal machete murder of teenager Shawn Seesahai, was such a threat to his local area that neighbors barricaded his house with barbed wire and metal bars .
He and his friend are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and 11-year-old Jon Venables were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger. They are also thought to be the UK’s youngest ever knife murderers.
Even after his arrest, the boy drew pictures of knives while in custody, which prosecutors said showed his interest in deadly weapons.
But his obsession with crime and violence seems to have developed years in advance.
In an Instagram video revealed by The Telegraph, the youngster can be heard rapping to Loading by Central Cee, a song that mentions “pokers”, UK slang for a knife, and “plugs”, referring to drug dealers.
In the film, the boy is wearing a bandana on his head and over his mouth and makes a gun sign with his hand.
Watching him as he sings the violent lyrics is his grandmother, with whom he lived.
He later influenced jailed drill musician SJ, who rapped about “swinging a blade” and “ripping through guts”.
Residents in Wolverhampton who lived near where the two 12-year-olds carried out the brutal machete attack on Tuesday said the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had devastated the local area.
They painted a picture of a “nasty piece of work”, which they accused of vandalizing street lights, pinning scooters and posting fireworks through letterboxes.
Regularly skipping school, he would ride across local playgrounds on a mountain bike and loiter outside shops and sidewalks late into the night as part of a gang of youths of the same age, they said.
One of them told the Telegraph: “He was coming back at four o’clock in the morning. I thought why was a 12 year old child coming back at four o’clock in the morning?
“You’ll see he was carrying a knife. I told the police what he was carrying and I told social services that he was carrying a knife.
“He was out every night of the week. He was in gangs. There would be gang members in that alley waiting for him.
“I don’t want him breaking into my house while I’m out. I’m all barbed-wired. I screamed out the window.
“His friend was always with him. They were always together, pinching, night after night. Scum, that’s what it was.”
A bold piece of work
Another neighbor said: “I can’t believe the force used came from someone so tiny. It was a very bold piece of work.”
Mr Seesahai, 19, who had only been in the country for six months and was originally from the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla in the Caribbean, was attacked while discussing Christmas plans with a friend in a park in Wolverhampton last November.
The fatal wound on his back was more than 8in deep and the machete blade, which was almost 17 inches long, went through his heart and almost came out of his chest.
Tributes have been paid to the victim, including from his former school, Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School in Anguilla.
The victim was ‘a sweet person’
A member of staff at the school told the Telegraph: “At first I knew him as a sweet person.
“From time to time he got into trouble with other kids, things like loitering in the halls, but it was nothing scary.”
Shortly before the fatal encounter, his assailants, who were “often” carrying a machete, were running at each other at Stowlawn playing fields in East Park, Wolverhampton.
The victim’s friend told the trial he had to run for his life but Mr Seesahai went astray as he tried to flee from the boys.
After refusing to answer police questions after the murder, both boys testified to jurors, blaming each other for pulling the fatal blow.
As well as failing to call for help for Mr Seesahai, the youths showed no remorse for what they had done in the 24 hours before their arrest – the machete was cleaned with bleach and hidden under his bed.
They told the court they both played video games in the hours after the killing, claiming they did not know Mr Seesahai had died until the following day.
Jurors heard one of the defendants asked for a photo with the murder weapon, wearing a mask, hours before the killing. He was found to have 11 areas of blood on his clothes.
The boy was also seen with blood on his hands after the murder, and his friend had a small area of blood staining on his right trainer.
The young man with the black-bladed machete was incriminated by his heavily colored clothes and man bag. He said he bought the machete for £40 from a “friend of a friend” who he declined to name, but police said there was evidence he had been looking for knives online.
His hoodie, which police found inside out and mixed with other clothes in a laundry basket, was hidden on the front of the right sleeve, the front and back of the left sleeve, the right chest and the lower left front .
Officers searched a storage space under a bed and found a machete. A tracksuit with apparent blood stains was seized from a laundry basket at the home of one of the schoolboys.
‘Children are dangerous now’
In an interview after the verdicts, Mr Seesahai’s parents, Suresh and Maneshwary, said they will never be able to bear the loss of their son who always told them he would “shine on” and take care of them.
Mr Seesahai said: “This is a different world, children are now dangerous. If we don’t pay attention to them, this will continue to happen.”
Mrs Seesahai added: “Twelve-year-olds should be at home doing schoolwork and then going to bed. I have two children and at 7.30pm they had to go to bed because they have to follow the rules of the house.
“Before that, they do their school work and have a bit of a break.”
Last month, police chiefs said illegal dealers were selling weapons to under-18s through social media channels, including TikTok, Snapchat and those run by Meta.
Some teenagers, often those who deal with drugs, want to buy weapons of great status such as zombie knives or machetes.
