ONE of the 12-year-old boys who was found guilty of murdering a 19-year-old youth using a machete in a Wolverhampton park last November had an obsession with blades.
Hours before the killing Shawn Seesahai, along with an accomplice, the boy had posed for a picture with the murder weapon tucked into his trousers on Snapchat, according to media reports.
Even while in custody, the boy drew pictures of knives.
Shortly before the murder, the attackers were passing the machete between them at Stowlawn playing fields in East Park, Wolverhampton.
After the deadly attack, they were given a lift home by a family member, who bleached his machete and hid it under his bed.
Messages on Snapchat revealed he was not worried about the repercussions of the murder.
Neither boy has any previous convictions, but police said the youth who hid the murder weapon was involved in an incident of theft.
The boy who owned the machete was happily watching television at home when the police went to arrest him. His accomplice was worried.
His mobile phone also revealed multiple images of large knives and weapons.
There has been an increasing concern over rising knife crimes with activists calling for stringent laws and greater sensitisation of the youth.
The police at Essex and Bedfordshire had recently carried out drives to keep knives off the streets.
In Essex, police destroyed more than 23,000 weapons last year. They have put up detection gates in the city centre to deter people from bringing a knife.
However, knives continue to be available on the net with illegal dealers selling weapons to under-18s via social media channels.
Commander Stephen Clayman, the national lead for policing knife crime, told The Telegraph that the accessibility of knives online was a major concern.
