Family of knifed student demands longer sentences

They spoke out as their son's 18-year-old murderer was ordered to be detained for a minimum of 12 years by the Old Bailey. Nassirudeen Osawe, 16, who planned to go to university and become a graphic designer, was knifed through the heart in an entirely unprovoked attack two days after last Christmas. He had been on his way to the West End to buy a cable for his new Xbox when he was stabbed at the Angel, Islington, by Ahmed Gomulu, then aged 17.

Outside court the victim's sister, Zain Idriss, said Gomulu could be back on the streets by the age of 29 but her brother was gone forever.

"We have lost him to this knife culture which is something that the courts really need to think about and re-address in sentencing," she said.

"Those who carry knives need to fear that if they have committed a crime like this they will say, 'What have I done? Now I'm going to be here for life because I have taken someone's life'."

Nassirudeen's mother, Fulera Idriss, also attacked the sentence, saying: "They really don't care and they are still going to carry their knives. I have lost a precious son."

Although knife-wielding killers are handed life sentences they receive lower minimum terms than gun users.

Nassirudeen, who was taking his A-levels, was described as a "kind, happy, principled, intelligent and fine young man". Today the Recorder of London, Peter Beaumont QC, said Gomulu should be detained for at least 12 years. "You took a knife on to a bus and then to the Angel into a crowded place," he told Gomulu.

"There was no possibility of any threat to you which would justify you in doing that. At the Angel, in response to a wholly imagined slight you perceived you had suffered, you used that knife first to wound with intent to cause really serious injury and then to kill.

"This was an unprovoked attack, but I accept your intention was not to kill when you used it to inflict that fatal wound and that you have behavioural and learning difficulties."

The jury rejected Gomulu's claim that he acted in self-defence by grabbing the knife from one of his victim's friends after they tried to steal his dog.