As Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham launched the latest scheme aimed at tackling knife crime in the region, a short distance from the press conference, a tragically appropriate case study was being laid bare in court. Just half a mile away from where Burnham addressed assembled reporters in Manchester city centre, a 17-year-old boy sat in the dock of an imposing, Victorian crown court, facing the most serious criminal charge possible.
King Sibanda, bespectacled and wearing a navy suit and tie, was on trial accused of murdering an 18-year-old boy. At the same time as Burnham spoke, in August last year, prosecutors laid out the case against Sibanda, as he sat in the dock with his future in the balance. The killing, in Bury town centre in the middle of the afternoon, happened in an instant. Sibanda was just 16 at the time.
It occurred so quickly, it was even difficult to comprehend exactly what had happened while watching CCTV footage. But in that matter of seconds, lives were irrevocably changed. Abdikarim Abdalla Ahmed, aged just 18, died at Sibanda's hand.
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Abdikarim, known as Abdi by his friends, had fled civil war in his native Somalia and had travelled to the UK in search of a better life. He was at sixth form, studying in a bid to better himself.
His killing was the culmination of a tragically common state of affairs. Arguments or beefs, between young men, ending with devastating consequences. Without the presence of a knife, such feuds would perhaps at worst end in cuts or bruises.
But one stab wound was enough to kill Abdi. His killing was witnessed first hand by his brother, 19-year-old Faisal Ahmed. In a sad twist, at the time of the murder trial last year Faisal was serving a 26 week prison sentence for carrying a blade.
What is perhaps even more concerning is the previous record of his brother's killer. In 2019, when Sibanda was aged just 14, he received a caution for carrying a knife in public. The following year, convictions for offences involving use of a knife in public places followed.
Just 10 days before he killed Abdi, a youth worker saw a knife fall out of the his pocket during a meeting. And two days before the killing, Sibanda texted a friend saying 'let’s go cop a shank'.
It's exactly this kind of behaviour that Burnham and those backing his latest scheme are hoping to tackle. On a Tuesday morning last summer, as the jury were told about Abdi's death, the mayor held a press call publicising a video with the accompanying hashtag #SpeakingOutCouldSaveALife. People were being urged to alert the authorities or ask for support if they fear a loved one is carrying a blade.
"Carrying a knife can escalate really quickly," says one contributor to the video, who knows just how knife crime can destroy lives. Kelly Brown's son Rhamero West, aged just 16, was murdered on the streets of Old Trafford after being chased then stabbed to death.
"The impact it's had, its destroyed me, a part of me left the day my son passed away," she said.
Another backer of the campaign is Kane Mousah. After a spell in prison, he turned his life around and become a top mixed martial arts fighter.
"Not only are you risking your life being taken by being put in prison, but then you also have to deal with that on your conscience," he said in the video, addressing people considering carrying a knife.
Sadly, as the cases of Rhamero West and Abdikarim Abdalla Ahmed demonstrate, carrying a knife can ruin lives. And the launch of the mayor's campaign reveals how knife crime is regarded one of the top issues facing the region.
Figures previously reported by the M.E.N. revealed that serious youth violence offences have risen by 200 per cent over the past two years in the city of Manchester alone. And even during coronavirus lockdowns, knife offences went up by four per cent in Greater Manchester in 2020/21.
Abdi's death appeared to flare up out of nowhere. He and his killer, King Sibanda, knew each other. On the day of his death, Abdi had bumped into him in Bury town centre. The pair fist bumped each other, and all appeared well.
It was a fracas later that afternoon, on Friday, March 11, which would prove to be the catalyst for the killing. Abdi had been punched by a 15-year-old boy, a friend of Sibanda, who was with other young men. Abdi called his brother Faisal, and the pair decided to seek retribution.
The siblings were angry. "My brother went mad," Faisal would tell police. Faisal said Sibanda had previously been 'like a brother' to the pair. But, he claimed that about a month earlier, Sibanda had been involved in robbing him and his brother.
They began searching Bury town centre to look for Sibanda and his friend. The pair were stood outside some shops, outside the Mill Gate shopping centre in one of Bury's busiest town centre thoroughfares.
As Abdi threw a punch, Sibanda swiftly armed himself with a fearsome 10cm combat knife. He knifed Abdi to the chest, under the left armpit.
Just metres away, shoppers were going about their business, oblivious to what had happened so close by. Knowing he was in trouble, Abdi ran into a nearby bar clutching his chest, desperate for help.
But he collapsed and died in hospital about 90 minutes later. "My boy was a victim of knife crime, I beg all parents to speak to their children and know what’s going on in their lives, before their child is taken away," his mother said after Abdi's death.
Her words could easily have been said by Andy Burnham at that press conference. She, Burnham, Kelly Brown and Kane Mousah all have a simple message to young people - don't carry a knife.
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