Knife victim’s friend: I use a coffin to shock pupils out of crime

Bilal Ayonote, 18, said not enough was being done to stem the rise of a knife culture among the young.

He criticised police and government saying they do not "have a clue" how to combat the problem.

He was speaking out after Nabeer Bakurally, 19, became the 28th teenager to be violently killed in London this year. He was stabbed to death in a suspected row over a girl with a group of rival Asian men in Ilford.

Three men - Abdul Siddique, 24, Kalam Kazi, 23, and Pradip Mistry, 21, all from Ilford - have been charged with murder. Mr Ayonote, from Ladbroke Grove, has launched an anti-knife campaign in schools to try to shock pupils away from a life of violence. He said the only way to combat the problem was to convince older boys to discuss the dangers of carrying knives with youths.

The A-level student asked for a coffin to be brought in when he addressed pupils from his and Kodjo's former secondary, Henry Compton School in Fulham.

He said: "I wanted to bring in a coffin because when I had to see one and my friend was in it that was the thing that most affected me.

"Knife crime is worse than it seems in the papers. Carrying a knife is just like smoking - it is a trend, a bad habit. It is peer pressure.

"Older teenagers should influence them in a positive light. If people similar to you speak then you tend to listen. There are many people trying to stop knife crime but it is ineffective.

"Police and the government are out of touch. The Mayor does not seem to have a clue about what he is doing."

Mr Ayonote said his life had been "ruined" by the death of his best friend.

Kodjo, 16, died in his girlfriend's arms after he was stabbed through the heart in Hammersmith in March last year by a group of thugs chanting "kill him, kill him".

Tirrel Davis, 17, and Brandon Richmond, 14, were convicted of Kodjo's murder and received life sentences.

Mr Ayonote, who studies at St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College in North Kensington, said: "It has messed up my life. I was very, very close to him and he was the one person I could rely on. I have lost half of me."

He has launched his campaign in Hammersmith and Fulham and plans to take it across London.