Khayri Mclean: Pair sentenced to life for murdering Huddersfield schoolboy

Two teenage cousins given life sentences for the murder of a boy as he walked home from school can be named for the first time after a judge lifted reporting restrictions.

Jakele Pusey, 15, and 17-year-old Jovani Harriot stabbed 15-year-old Khayri Mclean after he left North Huddersfield Trust School on 21 September last year.

The killers had been given automatic anonymity because of their ages while court proceedings took place.

But at a sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday, the judge Mrs Justice Farbey granted an application by the media for the restrictions to be lifted. There was applause in court as she gave her ruling.

The court heard Pusey and Harriott armed themselves with knives and "lay in wait" in a snicket for Khayri before launching their attack in front of other pupils on Woodhouse Hill at around 2.50pm.

The younger attacker ran at Khayri before striking him in the chest with the fatal blow. The older boy, who was 16 at the time, stabbed Khayri in the leg as he lay on the ground.

Khayri died around two hours later.

Mrs Justice Farbey said the killing may have been "gang related" or may have been motivated by "revenge" in relation to allegations a window had been smashed at the home of the Harriott's mother.

'Nobody has won'

Friends and family of Khayri who attended court wore t-shirts bearing his picture.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, Khayri's mother Charlie Mclean called for an end to knife violence. She said: "I ask myself what has this achieved?

"What has my son died for? Nobody has won in this situation.

"I've lost a child and other parents have lost two sons who have committed this offence.

"This violence has to stop, carrying weapons has to stop. I have lost my son and I would not wish this on anyone else."

Ms Mclean said the boys who attacked her son were "cowards", saying: "He was not given an opportunity to run or defend himself, he was helpless.

"The fear he went through when he realised he had been stabbed and was bleeding to death will stay with me forever."

'Gang violence was the norm'

The court heard how Pusey admitted to probation officers that he had a history of gang-related criminality and was shot by masked men when he was 12.

He was involved in a Huddersfield gang called F-block or Fartown Boys, whose exploits are celebrated by the drill rap artist, Booter Bee.

The judge was also told the boy said he started dealing class B drugs when he was about 13 years old and later class A drugs and he regularly carried a knife.

She sentenced Pusey to life in custody, with a minimum term of 16 years.

A pre-sentence report on the older teenager concluded that "violence against opposing gang members was the norm for (him) - the life he lived".

He denied being part of a gang.

Harriott was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 18 years.

Speaking after the sentencing, Det Supt Marc Bowes, who led the investigation, said: "If ever a case has highlighted the dreadful consequences of knife crime and the culture of carrying such weapons, the appalling attack on Khayri outside his school was a crime that demonstrated the tragedy and rightly shocked people across the country.

"It will be hard for many of us to comprehend how what appears to have been a relatively low level dispute, has resulted in these males stabbing a fellow student to death at the end of an otherwise ordinary school day."

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