I clearly remember the day my son was stabbed. It was a hot summer’s afternoon in the year 2002 and my oldest son Michael, who was 14 at the time, had been hanging out in Cantalowes park with two friends and his younger brother.
After dropping his brother off home, Michael headed out with his friends on what should have been a safe and quick journey to buy chips from Pang’s chip shop in Kentish Town.
Little did we know that a tragedy for my family was just moments away from occurring.
My first warning that all was not well came when I received a pocket call from Michael. I could hear lots of noise in the background but I didn’t know what was going on. When I called back, he didn’t respond.
Little did we know that a tragedy for my family was just moments away from occurring.
My next warning came when I heard three very loud bangs at the door. When I opened it, I saw my son laying on the pavement covered in blood.
His friends were there too. One was leaning against a wall with blood gushing from his leg and the other, unharmed, was standing by the door.
They’d carried Michael back from the chip shop.
I screamed. I felt as if I’d stepped back five years back in time to the murder of Michael’s father, which I’d witnessed.
I thought definitely he was dead.
Luckily my neighbour phoned an ambulance as I was in too much shock to act myself. That same neighbour came out with pillows and blankets trying her best to help.
A woman passing by also stopped to assist. I believe she was a nurse and she worked to keep my son alive until the air ambulance crew arrived.
A lot of blood had pooled Michael’s lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe so the first thing the crew did was drain out the blood through a tube they inserted into his side.
I thought definitely he was dead.
They then air lifted him to University College London hospital while my local shopkeeper drove me there.
On arrival at the hospital, I was confronted by two CID men, who proceeded to inform me that my son was stabbed because he’d appeared in a Channel 4 programme about gangs the previous night.
They were very nasty in the way they spoke to me, judging me.
I quickly told them they were mistaken and that I was an Irish mother who knew where her children were at all hours of the day. They then left for further investigation, having not believed what I had told them.
The doctor then came out and brought me into the relatives’ room telling me my son’s next 24 hours were crucial and it was a matter of life or death for him. So, I waited in that room for what seemed like many hours.
They updated me every 60 minutes and when Michael came out of surgery then I was taken to the ward to see him.
At around 8pm that night the police officers returned to the hospital, apologising to me and confirming son had not appeared in the Channel 4 programme.
Michael was kept in hospital for four days; the worst four days of my life.
When he did get out of hospital, I did not let him leave the house alone. Even when he went to his friends’ I went with him.
Eventually the police found out what had actually happened. They said a group of Asian teenagers had launched an ‘unprovoked racist attack’ on Michael and his two friends, stabbing Michael twice in the back and one of his friends in the leg. Michael suffered a punctured lung and was lucky to live.
It turned out the pocket call had been made when Michael was being slammed onto the bonnet of a car.
Once my son had identified his assailants in a police line-up, the case went to court but no justice for my son was achieved as the offenders only got community service.
Three of the attackers (a 17-year-old, a 16-year-old and 14-year-old) were charged with violent disorder and the fourth, another 17-year-old, was charged with violent disorder and grievous bodily harm with intent.
They said a group of Asian teenagers had launched an ‘unprovoked racist attack’ on Michael
The stabbing of my son affects me and my family to this day. For a long time Michael couldn’t sleep and he wouldn’t leave the house alone. It messed his head up. I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder from witnessing the murder of my husband and seeing my son on the pavement bleeding. It brought back all the memories from my husband’s murder. I couldn’t sleep or eat and my anxiety got worse.
Sometimes my son used to feel resentment towards Asian people because of the racist attack on him but I always reminded him that he shouldn’t think like that and that the person who stopped to help us when others walked on by was a Muslim woman.
I’m telling this story now as 21 years on from this incident nothing has changed. Young children are taking other children’s lives for reasons we will never understand and parents are having to bury their children when it should be the other way around.
