Judge refuses to lift anonymity of two 12-year-olds who murdered Shawn Seesahai with machete

Shawn Seesahai was 19-years-old when he was stabbed and killed in a park in Wolverhampton last year. Credit: ITV Central

A judge has decided that the two 12-year-old boys who murdered a stranger in a machete attack will not have their identities revealed.

The judge rejected a media application to name the boy and in her ruling at Nottingham Crown Court, said the welfare of the boys outweighed the public interest.

The youths, who were found guilty of murdering 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in June, are due to be sentenced on Thursday 26 September and Friday 27 September.

Mr Seesahai was stabbed in the heart and suffered a skull fracture during an attack in Wolverhampton's Stowlawn playing fields on November 13 last year.

The youths are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11, were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger.

Four media organisations had argued that the defendants, one now aged 13, should lose their anonymity.

But the judge said she had accepted evidence from social workers that naming the boys would have a detrimental impact on their welfare, despite wishes from the victim's family for the boys to be named.

Mrs Justice Tipples, said whilst the crime was "of course shocking, particularly given the very young age of the defendants" that she had accepted evidence that one of the boys had "extremely complex needs" and that identifying him would have "an extremely detrimental impact on his mental health".

The judge also accepted a statement in a pre-sentence report which said naming the other youth was likely to increase the likelihood of negative attention within the custodial setting.

The weapon recovered from one of the boy's bedrooms, hidden inside a bed frame. Credit: West Midlands Police

Following the judgment, Jude Bunting KC, who represented three media organisations, said an appeal against the ruling in a higher court was unlikely.

Mr Bunting had stated that the murder was within a category identified during a previous case as having a high public interest.

He told the court that the case had "attracted local concern and national revulsion" and that it is an issue which matters to the public.

"Naming the boys would also enable the media to investigate the possibility of institutional failures," Mr Bunting asserted.

However, the defence opposed the media application to lift any reporting restrictions.

Defence counsel Rachel Brand KC and Paul Lewis KC both opposed the media application to lift the restriction on identifying the boys.

Rachel Brand KC said the welfare of the boy who is still 12, who bleached and hid the machete after Mr Seesahai’s murder, should be given a "heavier consideration" than public interest factors.

Flowers left at the scene at Stowlawn playing fields in Wolverhampton where Shawn Seesahai died Credit: Matthew Cooper/PA

Paul Lewis KC, representing the boy who has turned 13 since his conviction, urged the court to focus on the facts of Mr Seesahai’s killing.

He said: "How does naming two 12-year-olds better inform public debate?", Mr Lewis asked.

"There is no evidence that to name two 12-year-olds would provide any deterrent".

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