Revealed: Knife-obsessed 12-year-old killer who bought £40 machete used to murder innocent teenager, 19, was fixated with blades and idolised drill rapper SJ who is serving life for a fatal stabbing

The 12 year old murderer who owned the machete used to hack Shawn Seesahai to death was fixated on knives and idolized a drill rapper serving life for a fatal machete attack.

He and another boy were today convicted of the brutal slaughter of Shawn with a machete in a Wolverhampton park.

Throughout the trial, both boys tried to blame each other for the murder.

They are believed to be the youngest boys to have them committed a knife-related murder in Britain.

A trial period of one month Nottingham Crown Court was told Shawn was punched on the shoulder by the smaller of the two defendants, who ‘often’ carried a machete with a 42.5cm blade, before being punched, kicked, stomped on and ‘ minced meat’.

The 12-year-old killer who owned the machete that hacked Shawn Seesahai to death was fixed with knives

Officers searched a storage area under the bed of one of the youths and found a machete. He told the jury he bought the knife because he thought it was “cool.”

Police at the scene where 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai was stabbed to death in a Wolverhampton park in November 2023

The court heard they attacked the victim with such force that the machete almost passed through his body in one blow.

The 19-year-old was ‘chopped’ in the back with the 16-inch knife, with the wound penetrating so deep into his body that it almost emerged through his chest.

Shawn, from Anguilla in the Caribbean, was also cut in the legs, kicked, punched and hit on the skull so hard that a piece of bone came loose, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said.

He was pronounced dead at 9.11pm on November 13 last year after police were called to the scene at 8.37pm.

Evidence on the killer’s phone showed the youth had searched for machetes online on sites where the deadly weapons could be purchased for as little as £20.

The boy, who was holding an anti-fidget device/toy on its stand, told jurors he bought the machete because he “thought it was cool” to have one — and said he cleaned the blade with bleach after the murder because “I heard it on music videos when they mentioned it, it bleached.”

He claimed that, instead of buying the gun online, he paid ‘a friend of a friend’ £40 for the murder weapon two months before killing 19-year-old Shawn.

The boy, raised by his grandmother, later sent his co-suspect and a schoolgirl a photo of himself with the gun in the leg of his sweatpants.

The photo was captioned “Prison Freestyle” – the name of a song by rapper SJ.

The defendant told jurors he knew SJ was a rapper who makes freestyle verses from prison, but claimed he “didn’t really listen to much of his music.”

Shawn (pictured) was ‘chopped’ in the back with the 18-inch knife – the wound went so deep into his body that it almost came out through his chest

The last moments when the machete attack victim went to the park with a friend were captured on CCTV

But Paul Lewis KC, defending the boy’s co-accused, said SJ’s real name was Jayden O’Neill-Crichlow – adding he is currently serving a life sentence for stabbing a victim to death with a machete.

The boy claimed he was unaware of O’Neill-Crichlow’s conviction, which took place in 2020, and said he “didn’t listen to much” of his music.

Police discovered his phone had been searched for a ‘zombie knife’, while the court heard the boy had also been sent photos of knives and swords on Snapchat.

He declined to identify the person who sent him the images.

In the months leading up to the murder, police had recovered knives from the boy’s home.

And the child was so fixated on knives that even after his arrest for Mr Seesahai’s murder, the boy made drawings of them while in custody.

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the jury: ‘This was a young man who enjoyed owning knives.’

Jurors heard his heavily bloodied clothing was also found in his home.

This suspect had previously been arrested for theft and violent crimes. But neither child had previously been charged with any crime, or dealt with for matters relating to knife crime.

In a group Snapchat call log recovered by police, the suspects are told that “everyone” is talking about the murder the night before.

A friend says, “I’m scared man,” before one of the defendants coolly replies, “I’m not,” then adds, “Idrc,” slang for I don’t really care.

Jurors heard that the boy – who was previously known to police for theft and violence-related charges, but like his co-accused had never been charged with a crime – had been in the habit of carrying the gun casually around and even taking it to a police station. once at a schoolgirl’s house.

Floral tributes at the spot on the Stowlawn playing fields where Shawn was brutally stabbed to death

Shawn, from Anguilla in the Caribbean, was also cut in the legs, kicked, punched and hit in the skull so hard that a piece of bone came loose.

In an interview released by police, Shawn’s parents Suresh Seesahai and wife Maneshwary wondered how young children could roam the streets with a machete.

But neither defendant, who had attended the same school and had been friends for two years, had previously come to police attention in connection with knives.

Both boys, who had been friends for at least two years and were both known to police, lived near the scene of the murder.

After the murder, the couple went home and played the shoot-’em-up video game Fortnite online.

Police also found a video of the boy holding the sheath of the machete, while a second video showed another youth holding the knife himself.

I have previously dealt with one boy for theft and violence related matters, but he has never been charged with a crime nor dealt with for any offenses relating to knives or knife crime.

O’Neill-Crichlow was among a group of the NPK gang in Tottenham who used knives, a sword and a gun to kill a teenage father in Wood Green.

When he was 17, he was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison in January 2020, along with four other gang members from Tottenham, north London.

The Old Bailey was told that there was a proposed deal to sign O’Neill-Crichlow, a member of the drill rap group OFB (Original Farm Boys), to an unknown record label for £150,000, and that during the operation negotiations had taken place. his time in custody.

The gang was involved in a long-running feud with a rival group from Wood Green.

In 2019, the OFB YouTube account posted the SJ song ‘Youngest in Charge’, with lyrics about a shaft (knife) turning ‘brutal’ or covered in blood.

The song appears to mock the murder of 19-year-old rapper Kelvin Odunyi, who was shot dead in Wood Green in 2018. The video has been viewed no less than 34 million times.

Following the verdicts at Nottingham Crown Court, police released footage of the victim’s last moments before he encountered his killers in a Wolverhampton park, as Mr Seesahai’s parents told of their heartbreak and shock as they discovered the victim’s age their son’s murderers discovered.

The boy was very fond of rapper SJ (photo), whose real name is Jayden O’Neill-Crichlow. He is currently serving a life sentence for stabbing a victim to death with a machete

In an interview released by police, Suresh Seesahai and his wife Maneshwary wondered how young children could roam the streets with a machete.

Suresh said: ‘(It’s) not even a knife – he’s just a kid.

‘Watch your children, if you see them doing something wrong, tell them. Check their room, sometimes you don’t know what’s in it, so check as parents.

‘This world is a different world, children are dangerous now. If we don’t pay attention to it, this will continue to happen.’

Maneshwary added, “12-year-old children should do their school work at home and then go to bed.”