Caribbean island Anguilla mourns Shawn Seesawhay machete homicide

Two 13-year-old boys have been sentenced for the knife homicide of Sean Seeshay in Wolverhampton. BBC News visited his household dwelling in Anguilla and located an island in mourning.

Far from the sandy seashores and blue seas of the Caribbean, Shaun left his dwelling and got here to the UK for medical therapy and alternatives – he needed to review engineering.

The 19-year-old participant was injured whereas enjoying basketball and after present process surgical procedure for a indifferent retina within the United States, he went to England for follow-up therapy and settled in Birmingham.

What occurred subsequent was a far cry from the paradise of The Valley, Anguilla's capital, the place simply 4,000 individuals dwell.

Shaun was repeatedly stabbed – one wound was 23cm deep and penetrated his coronary heart – and left to die in a Stovalon playground final November.

His two killers, who can’t be named resulting from their age, had been solely 12 on the time of the assault, making John Venables and Robert Thompson the youngest to be convicted of homicide since being taken into custody for the homicide of James Bulger. Became an aged individual, who was above 30 years of age. First.

“They killed my son like they kill a dog,” Shaun's father Suresh advised the BBC. “It's cruel.”

“They stabbed him repeatedly. They kicked him. They grabbed him. He was helpless.”

News of Shawn's homicide shortly unfold all through the small British abroad territory. A good friend who was together with her that evening referred to as her dad and mom in Anguilla when police arrived on the scene in Wolverhampton.

It was his mom Maneshwari who answered the telephone.

“I just collapsed,” she says, describing her shock. “I don't know what happened after that.”

Shaun and his household are well-known in Anguilla, and his demise has had a big impact on a really close-knit neighborhood.

At one of many basketball courts the place Shawn used to play, his coach tells us that it was his pleased place and that he was the “jokester” on the staff, and well-liked.

Pamela Riley says, “There are a lot of victims out there and a lot of people who are hurting. We have an island that is hurting.”

“Everyone in the valley, all the youth, is very upset. It is very serious.”

Twelve days after Shaun's demise, his household arrived within the UK and held a candlelight vigil on the Stallone playground on the spot the place he died.

“Shawn didn't deserve to die like this,” says his mom.

It was a journey he needed to make once more for the trial of the 2 boys at Nottingham Crown Court.

They used their life financial savings to get Shaun's physique again from the UK and needed to take out a mortgage to lift cash to attend the trial, flights and lodging.

This meant he wouldn’t be capable of journey once more to see his son's murderers dropped at justice. Instead they needed to watch by way of a videolink within the early hours of Friday in Anguilla.

Angered by the dearth of monetary assist given by the UK authorities, Suresh says: “I feel the government should contribute because my son did nothing. He died innocent.

“I don't care a lot about cash. But I can't get again what I've misplaced.”

Shocked by the age of the couple who murdered Shawn, the family struggles to agree on how two children could have committed murder.

“everybody [has been] “I was shocked,” says Maneshwari, including that she couldn't consider {that a} 12-year-old might pay money for such a harmful weapon.

,[I] I'll freeze after I see that knife.”

Shawn's basketball coach Pamela says the teen was full of hope when he left Anguilla for the UK.

“It was their time,” she says. “It was senseless.”

Merrick Richardson, who also trained Shawn, says he hoped to make a better life for himself abroad.

Shaun had been in the UK for only six months when he suddenly met the two boys.

It is believed that the attack was caused by a small barge being shouldered.

“It's nonetheless laborious to grasp,” says Mr Richardson.

Jack Stenhouse, a family friend in Anguilla, describes Shawn as “well mannered as within the Caribbean”.

Talking about knife crime, he says: “It's not the modus operandi in Anguilla, it's a different culture.

“But for young people who are thinking of taking such weapons abroad, it says a lot.”

Meanwhile, mourning continues on the island of Anguilla.

Shawn was brought back and cremated. At her favorite beach, it is quiet but for the sound of the waves. When his parents scattered his ashes they went into the sea.

The family plans to hold a memorial there on the anniversary of his death.

Maneshwari says: “I miss my son so much. He made us snort on a regular basis at dwelling. All his love and kindness. He made everybody pleased.

“I wake up every day since my son passed away – I am no longer myself. I can't sleep at night. I know it's eating away at my husband from the inside every day.”

Killed by Kids: The Machete Murders shall be out there to look at on iPlayer later