by A 15-year-old schoolboy from a “loving family” who stabbed a classmate by heart has been jailed for life by a judge who asked “how bad are things?”.
Alfie Lewis, 15, was killed outside a primary school “in full view” of pupils in the Horsforth area of Leeds last November.
Bardia Shojaeifard, who was 14 at the time, was found guilty of Alfie’s murder by a Leeds Crown Court jury in April.
On Friday, Shojaeifard, who attended the same school as his victim and had no involvement with gangs or drugs, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years at the same court.
He admitted stabbing Alfie with a 13cm long kitchen knife he took from home, but denied murder, claiming he was in fear for his life.
Shojaeifard can be named publicly for the first time after the judge, Judge Cotter, lifted reporting restrictions that prevented him from being identified.
Judge Cotter said: “Many must have been and continue to question how a young man like this carries and uses a knife in these appalling circumstances and wonder how far the scourge of knife crime will go. ours? youth if more is not done to prevent it.
“If a seemingly normal 14-year-old boy carries a knife to school and uses it on a boy in the same school year how bad are things?”
He said ending the defendant’s anonymity would help the “vital debate about the scourge of knife crime, particularly among young people”.
In a statement released after the sentencing hearing, Alfie’s family said knife crime was an “epidemic” that affects all children.
They added: “Our efforts must now continue to try to influence the changes needed in the law to stop our children being killed so senselessly.”
Judge Cotter said people would wonder how a young boy like Sofeifard, who came from a “loving and supportive family” could commit such an “extraordinary” crime.
He said Shojaeifard was a “normal 14-year-old boy” who had no involvement with drugs or gangs, and did not suffer from mental health issues.
Youth workers described Shojaeifard as a “polite, intelligent and intelligent” boy who “could do well at school” and had the potential to “succeed academically”.
The judge added: “Unlike Alfie you had no social, emotional or mental needs and when you misbehaved at school it was your choice.”
However, the judge noted that the schoolboy had a “worrying interest in knives” and police found many pictures on his phone of him being held.
Another photo showed Shojaeifard standing with a black knife stuck in his hand.
Nicholas Lumley KC, mitigating, said Shojaeifard’s parents were a “successful, supportive, loving” couple who were “thriving in this adopted country”.
Speaking directly to the defendant as she read her victim impact statement in court, Alfie’s own mother Heather Lane said: “There will never be enough sentence for what you have done. I will never forgive you.”
Ms Lane was all smiles as she said: “We laughed, danced and smiled, we loved each other for 15 years and I thought we would for the rest of my life.”
During the trial, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said Alfie was walking down the street to meet friends after leaving Horsforth School for the day when he was attacked by the defendant.
He said witnesses recalled Alfie being “surprised and horrified” and saying: “What are you doing?” as the incident approached St Margaret’s Primary School just before 3pm on 7 November 2023.
The prosecutor said: “(The defendant) touched him and he was hit twice – once in the chest and once in the leg.
“He collapsed and died on the road close to the primary school in view of the scores of students who were leaving the school and the people who were waiting to pick them up.”
He told the jury that the defendant, who fired the murder weapon near the elementary school, was caught on CCTV fleeing the scene.
The court heard that all the witnesses were “consistent” that Alfie was “not the aggressor” that day.
The defendant told the jury he was scared of Alfie after two incidents in the previous months.
Judge Cotter, Mr Cotter, said he did not accept Shojaeifard’s evidence that he was “trying to scare Alfie and swing the knife aimlessly”.
He said one witness described Shojaeifard’s attack as “vicious” and that he “wanted as much as possible to do some sort of damage to Alfie”.
He added: “Knives have stolen so many lives, and you and others need to understand how dangerous this obsession is.
“Without your interest in knives Alfie would be here today.”
