by Three teenagers who killed a promising young rapper after bringing a knife to a girl’s 16th birthday party have been identified for the first time.
Mikey Roynon, 16, was fatally stabbed in the neck after being attacked with a “zombie knife” during the party in Bath in June last year.
Bleeding profusely, he managed to walk from the garden to the driveway of the party venue in Eastfield Avenue before collapsing, and his three attackers disposed of their weapons.
Shane Cunningham, the 16-year-old boy who stabbed Mikey, was found guilty of murder after a trial at Bristol Crown Court on Friday and jailed for life, with a minimum of 16 years to serve.
Two other teenagers, Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight, both 16 years old, were found guilty of manslaughter during the trial and have received sentences of nine and nine and a half years in juvenile detention.
Although they remained anonymous during the trial, Honorable Judge Saini lifted reporting restrictions for the first time during Friday’s sentencing.
Speaking outside the courtroom, Mikey’s mother Hayley said the decision to name the defendants was a “huge thing for me”.
CCTV determined before the party that the three boys had traveled by bus from the Wiltshire area armed with knives. After Mikey was stabbed, they were again caught on camera discussing what happened before shedding some of their clothes and pulling out their knives.
During the trial, Cunningham claimed he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mikey after he claimed Mikey had turned a knife towards his friends in the garden of the property.
Speaking to the Independent before sentencingMrs Ryall said her son was proudly wearing his new trainers on the evening he was killed, which she had bought him to mark the start of his GCSE exams.
“I saw him coming down and I smiled and said: ‘You look bloody handsome,'” Miss Ryall said. “He smiled back and then, walking out the door, he turned around and said, ‘I love you.’
Mikey Roynon’s mother Hayley Ryall also spoke to the media after today’s hearing, supported by family and friends.
She described Mikey as “fun, fearless, loving and kind”. pic.twitter.com/7OFDk2Thk3
— Avon and Somerset Police (@ASPolice) May 3, 2024
“And that’s how I’ll remember the last time I saw him.”
She immediately knew something was wrong when she discovered 37 missed calls on her mobile phone, and her friends told her he had died.
“I couldn’t – I didn’t – believe it at first. I sent my friend to the nearby hospital to find him and got another friend to drive me to Bath. But when I arrived, I found out that he did not go to the hospital,” she said.
“I saw at the launch [of the house party] there was a forensic tent with officers walking around in white suits. A policeman told me what happened and said I should go home. I was stunned. I can’t explain the feeling.”
She has now set up the Mikey’s World group aimed at tackling knife crime locally, which aims to distribute blood control kits to pubs, sports clubs and gyms.
In a statement read out in court during Friday’s hearing, she described how her son’s death had affected her.
She said: “Every morning I wake up and it hurts as much as the last morning. I keep having nightmares that Mikey is lost and I’m looking for him, but even the nightmares are better than giving up.
“At least in my dreams he’s somewhere, but in reality he’s gone.”
Sentencing the boys, the Honorable Judge Saini said: “The day Mikey was killed, he was only 16 years old. He was a child. His family suffered an unimaginable loss.
“Bristol and the surrounding areas are at the center of an area of knife crime.
“The plague has continued since this trial ended. The lives of young boys who carry knives continue to be taken by other boys who carry knives.
“People who carry knives themselves are the most likely to be killed by a knife.”
Detective Inspector Mark Newbury, the senior investigating officer, said: “Three boys armed with knives went to the birthday party of an unconscious 16-year-old teenage girl.
“Mikey went to that party to socialize and have a good time. Instead, he was attacked by a terrible weapon, suffered a catastrophic injury and tragically lost his life.
“Mikey was a popular teenage boy and his whole family has been destroyed. They have shown incredible bravery and courageously spoken out against knife crime since his death, which they should never have done.
