A couple whose son was murdered have told of keeping a tragic collection of the teenager’s bloodstained belongings.
Margaret and Barry Mizen kept hold of the treasured contents of their late son’s pocket when he was killed nearly 15 years ago.
The heartbreaking collection includes a half-empty packet of chewing gum, a crumpled fiver, a card holder, and a lottery ticket.
Jimmy died a violent death at the hands of known local bully Jake Fahri, then 19, who attacked him in a bakery in South East London.
The lottery ticket reminds them of Jimmy’s joy that Saturday, bought because he had turned 16 just the day before and was able to purchase one legally for the first time.
Margaret, 70, told the Mirror: “I still buy a ticket every week and use his numbers.”
As the couple and their remaining eight children count down to the anniversary of Jimmy’s death on May 10, they are also waiting to learn if Fahri will be freed.
Fahri is set to face the Parole Board on Friday to find out whether he will be released from prison.
Fahri became enraged as he tried to barge past Jimmy in the bakery to buy a sandwich, grabbing a glass dish from the counter and throwing it at his head.
The dish shattered and a one-and-a-half inch shard slit an artery in Jimmy’s neck. He bled to death in his brother’s arms.
Margaret said: “Of course I still forgive him. I forgave Jake Fahri because I had a need to smile again, I knew if I didn’t forgive him I wouldn’t smile again.”
“Let’s hope he has changed his life around and when he comes out he won’t be the angry young man he was.
“If we don’t accept that he will come out, it will make our lives even harder.”
Barry, 71, added: “Does he accept responsibility? We don’t know.
“Does he feel remorse? We don’t know. To us the important thing is, is he still a danger to the public?
“It took me a while, but I have never felt any grudge or a sense of revenge at all.”
Barry said he wouldn’t “dismiss” the idea of meeting Fahri, but said it “would be a family decision”.
The couple remember Jimmy as an “always happy” boy who was about to start GCSEs.
On the day he died, Jimmy went for breakfast with his older brother Tommy before meeting their sibling Harry and popping into the Three Cooks bakery where the attack took place.
Called by a friend, Margaret raced to the shop. “Our son was holding him, he said ‘Mum, he’ll be OK, go back’, and I did what he said, and then fainted.”
The next time his parents saw Jimmy, his body was behind a glass screen in the mortuary.
Soon after his death, the couple set up the Mizen Foundation, spending their weeks visiting schools and prisons spreading the message of forgiveness.
On May 27, hundreds of people are expected to take part in the Walking For Jimmy event across London’s 21 bridges in his memory to raise funds for The Mizen Foundation.
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