Neighbour reveals she desperately tried to save boy stabbed to death
A neighbour has revealed how she desperately tried to save a sixteen-year-old boy who was stabbed to death by a killer with a zombie knife at a girl’s birthday party.
Mikey Roynon was fatally stabbed in the back of the neck by Shane Cunningham, who was also 16, in the garden of the party in Bath, Somerset, on June 10 last year.
Cunningham was convicted of murder in March while two friends were convicted of manslaughter after being acquitted of the more serious charge.
Local Sharon Gray performed chest compressions on Mikey after her daughter woke her up to alert her of the stabbing.
Ms Gray, 49, ran outside to find Mikey unconscious on the tarmac street, surrounded by a crowd of teenagers who told her the victim’s name.
The mother recalled telling the boy ‘I’m trying to help you, Mikey’, while she and another neighbour performed chest compressions on him in a desperate bid to save his life. ‘You’re not on your own,’ she told him.
Mikey Roynon, 16, (pictured) was fatally stabbed in the back of the neck by another teenager in the garden of a party in Bath, Somerset, on June 10 last year
Shane Cunningham (pictured) was convicted of Mikey’s murder in March this year
Ms Gray told the BBC she saw the reflection of an ambulance on the lenses of her glasses, adding that her memory has blocked out what happened after that.
A teenage witness, who was at the party and gave evidence during the trial, said Mikey – an aspiring drill rapper – told him he thought he was going to die after being stabbed.
The two co-accused, Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight, also 16, received sentences of nine years and nine-and-a-half years’ youth detention, while Cunningham was ordered to serve a minimum term of 16 years in custody.
About 50 people were at the party at the property in Bath in June last year.
Witnesses said that about nine or 10 boys had pulled weapons ‘like swords and zombie knives’, the jury heard.
The defendants left the scene and later disposed of their weapons, and two were recovered by the police.
Two of them had pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article. Knight denied this charge, but was found guilty of it by the jury.
CCTV footage shows the three defendants arriving in Bath for the party after travelling from Wiltshire
A teenage witness said Mikey (pictured) told him he thought he was going to die after being stabbed
During the trial Cunningham claimed he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mikey after claiming Mikey had swung a knife towards his friends in the garden of the property.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saini praised Mikey’s family for their dignity during the trial.
‘I have this morning heard the moving victim personal statements from Mikey’s mother, father and grandmother,’ he said.
‘On the day Mikey was killed he was only 16 and still a child. His family have suffered a loss that is unimaginable.
‘Mikey had a big musical career ahead of him and although he faced a number of challenges in his life, his future was promising.’
The judge went on: ‘Bristol and its surrounding areas are in the middle of a plague of knife crime. That plague has continued since this trial concluded.
‘The lives of boys who carry knives continue to be taken by those who also carry knives.’
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