Turning 18 is a landmark moment in anyone’s life. Moving from one phase of life to an exciting new chapter, as childhood becomes adulthood.
Gaining the right to vote, or being able to buy a drink in a pub, it is often the small things which represent the milestone. But Prince Walker-Ayeni never got to experience that new stage.
Just days before that landmark day he was murdered in the street in Moss Side.
He was stabbed three times, twice to his legs and once to the chest.
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In a matter of seconds, his hopes and dreams were shattered. His devastated family left to pick up the pieces.
Prince’s sister Kacee was among those left 'heartbroken' by his death. It was the small things that she missed, not being able to chat with him and being unable to make ‘jokes out of each other’.
Posting a picture of Prince in his younger years, his uncle Kemoy Walker said that among the heartbreak, there had been a celebration of his young life. He said: “Every compliment about my nephew has been, he’s a polite young man, I will miss him so much...we had a great tribute yesterday.”
Prince’s family are one of a number of sadly ever increasing families across Greater Manchester who have been touched by knife crime in the most tragic way.
In depressingly familiar circumstances, an altercation in the street quickly became a murder, after a knife was produced. As prosecutors would later say at his killers’ crown court trial: “This was not school yard bullying or scrapping that can be amusing by the end of the school day. This involved the use of a weapon and left a boy dead.”
It was a killing that caused shock and despair in the community. Police descended on the area around Raby Street on a Thursday afternoon in April.
The foreboding scene of a police forensic tent led many to fear the worst. And the landing of an air ambulance in nearby Millennium Park confirmed the seriousness of the situation.
Tragically, the news that a teenage boy had died was confirmed by police hours later. And soon after, Prince was identified as the victim in a series of heartfelt tributes.
Professor Erinma Bell MBE, a deputy lieutenant for Greater Manchester and city councillor representing Moss Side, knows more than most about the tragedies of youth violence. She has spent more than two decades working to prevent it across the city.
Speaking following Prince’s death, Prof Bell told of her and the community’s heartbreak. "People are really very saddened - very saddened,” she said.
“Another young life has been lost, really needlessly. People are asking themselves, what more can we do? What more can we do to protect our young people, to work with them, to encourage them, to teach them how to keep themselves safe?
"Is there more that we should be doing? Is there more that we could be doing as a community? Our community is one big family, we are all feeling this. It's horrific and it's saddening.
"A young person, again, their life has been taken away from them.” Days later, news followed that police had arrested three 16-year-old boys on suspicion of murder, after conducting early morning raids. They appeared before the courts, and their trial was scheduled for six months later.
It was in Manchester’s 19th century Victorian courthouse in Minshull Street where the full details surrounding Prince’s death emerged for the first time.
Prince and a friend came into contact with the three accused at about 4pm on April 4. It was a ‘casual, coincident meeting’. Prince and his friend were on bicycles, as were two of the group of three.
But it soon became clear that the two sides were not on friendly terms. There was ‘tension’ as they spoke and ‘very quickly violence broke out’.
Prince and his pal ran to try to get away from the situation. But they were chased, as their pursuers remained in a ‘tight pack’. A witness saw one of the pursuers pull out a knife.
Moments later, Prince was stabbed and left to die in the street. The bikes ridden by Prince and his friend were then used by two of the three boys to flee.
In an instant, a scrap between teenage boys in the street descended into murder. Prince was pronounced dead later that afternoon.
Giving evidence at the trial, the boy who stabbed Prince claimed he’d been acting in self-defence. He alleged that he stabbed Prince with a knife that Prince himself had dropped. The boy claimed Prince came at him with a second knife, and that he acted in self defence.
But jurors rejected his account and found him guilty of murder. A second boy, who prosecutors said played an ‘active part’ in the pursuit, and lent ‘support and encouragement’ to the first boy, was also convicted of murder.
The jury found the third boy not guilty of murder on the judge’s direction, due to a lack of evidence. The two 16-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are due to face justice at a sentencing hearing next month.
In the aftermath of such tragedies, questions are rightly asked about what can be done to prevent them from happening again. And it was no different after Prince’s sad passing. Speaking to the M.E.N. in the aftermath of his death, Prof Bell said she believes the scourge of knife crime is a nationwide 'pandemic'.
She founded CARISMA in 2003, an organisation which goes into schools to discuss the dangers of knife crime. Those that she speaks to take her message on board, but she worries that some young people can 'slip through the net'.
Prof Bell believes that outreach work is needed to help teenagers avoid carrying knives. "It really is heartbreaking - as a community, as a city, as a country," she said. “Here we are doing a lot at grassroots level. It's really unfortunate there seems to be, I would say, a pandemic of knife crime.
"We need to treat it as a public health issue. We all, stakeholders, need to sit down and talk - what are we going to do? How are we going to change the mindset of young people? This is a nationwide issue, it should be looked at as a health problem."
For Prince and his family, it was sadly too late. His killers are due to be sentenced for his murder on December 19.
