by A 12-year-old man who murdered a “completely defenseless” teenager posted a picture with the murder weapon tucked into his trousers hours before the killing.
Dressed in a gray hooded tracksuit, black coat and balaclava, the gun-wielding schoolboy posted the image on Snapchat of the day he hacked down 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai with a machete alongside his accomplice of the same age.
Even after his arrest, the boy maintained his obsession with knives, drawing pictures of knives while in custody, prosecutors said, revealing his interest in deadly weapons.
The two are the youngest people to be convicted of murder since Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were arrested over the torture and murder of James Bulger in 1993.
Mr Seesahai, 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 in November last year.
The fatal wound on his back was more than 20cm deep and the blade went through his heart and almost came out of his chest.
He died at the scene after being hacked by the almost 17 long (42.5cm) blade and beaten by his assailants, who are also believed to be the youngest boys to commit a knife-related murder in the United Kingdom.
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.
Earlier that day, the knife-obsessed youth had posted pictures of the blade on social media.
The boy, whose grandmother was previously accused of smuggling cocaine, forwarded the image to his girlfriend and accomplice along with a song by a drill rapper who was also convicted of murder using a machete.
In the hours after the murder, a family member gave a lift home to the same youth, who admitted illegal possession of the machete but denied any other wrongdoing. He ditched his machete and hid it under his bed but messages on Snapchat showed he was unconcerned about the consequences of the murder.
Prosecutors told the court that “prior to this offence, officers had recovered knives” from his home address and that “this is a young man who enjoyed having knives in his possession”.
Neither boy has had any convictions, cautions or reprimands, but police said after the case that the youth who had previously hidden the murder weapon had been “dealt with” for a theft incident that did not involve knives.
In exchanges on social media involving his co-defendant and a girl witness who later attended a police station with her mother to make a statement, the knife-obsessed boy said of the stabbing: “It’s what it is.”
He wrote on Snapchat that he wasn’t scared and added “idrc” – a text message shorthand for “I really don’t care”.
The conversation began with a video of the scene and the words “someone hates” before his accomplice said “everybody’s talking about it. Literally everyone. Everyone knows.”
“I didn’t say why now every time I talk about it, I seem to act weird,” he said.
Although his co-defendant seemed more worried, the police found the boy who owned the machete happily watching TV at home when they arrested him the night after the killing.
He was formally warned of his rights, and he replied: “What murder? Why would I kill someone?” and “I haven’t done anything.”
Both defendants wore shirts and ties to give their evidence, accompanied by mediators, after being allowed to sit in the well of the court next to relatives rather than in the dock.
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.
Prosecutors told jurors the boys had screenshots on their phones of knives similar to the one used in the murder and had searched online for news articles about the attack.
Mobile phone images also revealed multiple images of large knives and weapons including one showing long knives and swords on a bed.
In an online search, one of the killers asked: “How many criminal records can you have to leave the country”.
The case echoes another knife crime tragedy in which 17-year-old Rayis Nibeel was found to have bought 65 knives online and sold them for a profit in the months before he murdered 38-year-old Omar Khan in drug dispute in Luton. September of last year.
Detective Inspector Damian Forrest, who led the Wolverhampton investigation, said the youths showed an unnecessary obsession with weapons.
“The weapon was a big machete and no one who didn’t need it as a tool of the trade should have any reason to own one.
“Of course, it would be a gardening tool first. Although the facts of this case mean that we cannot say for sure how the suspect came into possession of that weapon, there is some evidence to suggest that one of them tried to buy knives on the internet .”
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 big status weapons like zombie knives or machetes.
Commander Stephen Clayman, the national head of knife crime policing, said the accessibility of knives online was a “really worrying picture” for law enforcement.
