Two teenage boys who smiled whilst fatally stabbing 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa with machetes on a bus have been given life sentences. Earlier in their investigation, the suspects - who can't be named for legal reasons - ran from the crime scene. Police then took the unusual step of releasing images of the two teenagers sought in connection with the fatal attack on January 7. Bokassa was stabbed 27 times as he travelled on the 472 bus in Woolwich, South-East London.

The attack, so harrowing, the Crown Prosecution Service’s Samantha Yelland said in court left Bokassa was left with "little chance of survival." A week after the attack, CCTV footage showing the two teenagers onboard the bus was shared with the public to aid in the investigation. The now convicted killers were arrested on 15 January and charged the following day.

The pair, both now 16, previously pleaded guilty to Bokassa murder and possessing a knife. On January 25th, they were both sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC at the Old Bailey to serve a minimum term of 15 years and 10 months, nearly as much time as the pair had lived at the time of Bokassa murder. The court heard that after Bokassa boarded the bus to attend an appointment at a Youth Justice Centre, he looked around and out of the windows, "giving every impression that he was concerned for his safety." Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC added that the defendants pursued Bokassa “with purpose” before taking his life in the 14-second attack. 

Heer added: “Kelyan Bokassa had no time to reach for his own knife, which remained in his trousers, and instead tried in vain to protect himself with his school bag." The court also heard that both defendants had prior convictions for carrying blades in public and had tried to discard one of their murderous machetes in the River Thames, but it was later recovered.

In a victim impact statement read to the Old Bailey, Bokassa's mother Marie, who has continually tried to get help for her son, stated: "I stand here not just as a mother but as a broken soul whose life changed forever the day my child's life was taken from me by another child." Outside the court, Marie added: "To the young people who carry knives, I beg you to stop before you raise that blade. Don't let a moment of anger steal your future. Don't let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would. There is no power in death, only loss."