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Please stop the killings, begs father of boy knifed in the heart
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent17 Jul 2008
The father of a teenager stabbed to death before the boy could begin his university career today made an anguished appeal for an end to knife crime.
Stephen Boachie, 17, was stabbed in the heart on the bonnet of a Mercedes by Nigerian immigrant Chester Dauda after the pair argued outside a pub.
Kwasi Boachie made his plea as 21-year-old Dauda was jailed for life with a minimum of 14 years and ordered to be deported.
Stephen had excelled at school and had hoped to attend Birmingham University to become an engineer after his family came to Britain from Ghana.
But his father's dreams were shattered when Dauda stabbed Stephen twice on a Barking petrol station forecourt in the early hours of New Year's Day last year.
Today Mr Boachie, a 51-year-old security officer, said: "It's hard to accept I brought Stephen to the UK from Ghana for a better education and a prosperous future but all that has been dashed by the act of a murderer.
"In this craze of knife-carrying gangs, how many more young lives will have to be sacrificed before people realise that killings never solve any human-related problems?"
Judge Martin Stephens told the Old Bailey that nobody present could fail to be moved by what Mr Boachie had said and the effect Stephen's death has had on his family. Sentencing Dauda for murder, the judge said: "You stabbed Stephen twice, in the abdomen and the heart. Severe force was used and your victim bled to death.
"This was a deliberate act of outrageous violence committed on a defenceless victim, aged 17.You had had a great deal to drink and it appears some sort of incident occurred but whatever it was it was not of any significance or seriousness.
"But you chose to walk across the road to the car in which you had travelled to the scene and get hold of a knife and return to the victim and murder him."
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Dauda and Stephen had first been involved in a scuffle outside the Thatched House pub, before a second flash point on the nearby petrol station forecourt. "Clearly angered by what happened-Dauda went back to his car parked on the other side of the road and returned to Stephen and stabbed him twice in the upper body," said Mr Ellison.
"He was pulled off him by others and left in the car. One of those stab wounds cut into Stephen's heart and killed him."
The court heard that one teenage girl witness saw Dauda go to the driver's door of the BMW he had arrived in and say to his friend Henry: "That boy is trying to take me for a prick."
Mr Ellison said: "She then saw him go back to Stephen and strike him to the chest before going back to the BMW."
Open heart surgery was carried out at the scene to try to repair the hole in Stephen's heart but he died later that day.
Dauda, of Plaistow, was arrested five weeks later and initially told police he had been nowhere near the scene having spent the early evening at a mosque.
Later he admitted being at the pub but had only pushed the victim who had "tried to steal from my pockets".
Stephen, a student at Newham Sixth Form College, had lived with his father and 44-year-old stepmother Sandra Bonne in a terrace house in Dagenham.
College staff also paid tribute to the bright teenager who was due to take A-levels in biology, mathematics and business studies. Tutor Ore Oni said: "Stephen was a hard-working and determined student who had a great sense of humour. Everyone here was deeply saddened."
Reader views (2)
Man am gon miss u my frend i cant belive your gone am gon miss seen u on de 147 bus evreyday goin 2 uni, i hope ur well and know in a better place but i cant belive chester done that, you can argue with sum but u dont have 2 take their life
- Malouda, london, 06/01/2009 06:26
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This father's plea to stop the killings really hits a cord. It's heartfelt, honest and sincere. I'm a little perplexed as to why Boris Johnson would speak to Lily Allen about knife and gun crime. Shouldn't he be speaking to her about 'binge drinking' seeing as that's what she knows about? As someone who has appeared in the papers on numerous occasions completely sloshed is not the type of person I would call a good role model and want to hear any advise from. It's so transparent that him meeting a so called 'pop star' is just a PR stunt to make him look as though he's hip and in tune with the youth. This is such a serious issue and should be something that should be toyed with and use for personal gain - his or hers! Overall though, I have to commend Boris Johnson on all that he's trying to do in trying to stop needless lives being taken but please don't treat us like idiots.
- Simon, Wembley, 06/01/2009 05:26
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