VICTIM: Jodie Chesney
Jodie’s father in emotional appeal to help catch her killer
THE heartbroken father of Jodie Chesney yesterday made an emotional appeal for help in catching her killer and said: ‘She wouldn’t have done anything to deserve this.’
Peter Chesney revealed that the last time he saw his beloved daughter was on Friday – the day she died – when she got up early to wish him happy birthday.
That evening the 17-year-old girl scout was playing music with friends near a children’s playground in Harold Hill, east London, when she was knifed in the back in what police have described as a ‘completely motiveless attack’.
Yesterday her distraught father appealed for friends and family of the knifeman to ‘do the right thing’. Mr Chesney also called for knife offenders to face a manda- tory prison sentence as the family launched a purple ribbon campaign in her name calling for more police on the streets and tougher penalties for knife crime.
Speaking at Scotland Yard, he paid tribute to the A-level student who wanted to be a vet, describing her as ‘kind, good and thoughtful’.
Mr Chesney said: ‘Someone knows who did this. Just do the right thing. You’ll never know the pain you’ve caused and the beauty you’ve taken away. They’ve destroyed something beautiful. It’s a disgrace. The person needs to be caught. Jodie needs justice.
‘Surely nobody who knows the guy who did this thinks it is OK. You can’t get kudos for stabbing a 17-year- old in the back. So, just dob them in, grass them up.’
Speaking for the first time since his daughter was killed, Mr Chesney told Sky News those carrying out attacks with knives were ‘weak and cowardly’ and that the attacks ‘had to stop’. He asked: ‘If we can’t stop them carrying them, then how are we going to stop them using them? The only way to do that is to scare them with prison and a mandatory sentence for carrying a knife – a big one.
‘I don’t know when this happened, when this was OK to carry knives and use them. It wasn’t like that when I was at school.’
Mr Chesney, who was wearing a purple ribbon made by Jodie’s friends, said many of them are now dyeing their hair purple – her favourite colour – in her honour.
He said Jodie was a ‘great girl’ and a ‘proud geek’, adding: ‘She was the nicest person any of us know. The fibre of her being was just about being good, kind... there was nothing bad in her body. She wouldn’t have hurt anybody.’
Sitting beside his other daughter Lucy, 19, and wife Joanne – Jodie’s stepmother – he said: ‘We don’t know how to deal with it. Everyone is suffering... everyone just can’t believe – why her?’
Describing the attack, he said: ‘Jodie’s friends have told us there was no altercation. My daughter was just sat in a park, minding her own business. They [the suspects] were sat near to Jodie and her friends and probably would have heard her laughter. They then left and came back and stabbed Jodie in the back. It was so ferocious, the attack. She lost so much blood. This was on purpose, someone meant to murder her.’
A 20-year- old man arrested in Leicester in connection with her killing remains in police custody.
Mr Chesney spoke out as police launched three knife murder investigations. A teenager became the latest victim after he was fatally stabbed at around 2pm in west London yesterday.
The victim, who is believed to be Somali, was reportedly attacked by another boy in West Kensington. He died in hospital.
In Leyton, east London, a 26year-old Spanish man ran screaming from a flat after being stabbed in the chest, back and legs on Wednesday. David Martinez collapsed and died on the pavement.
After another stabbing in Soho on Sunday, a 37-year-old man died in hospital on Wednesday.
‘Just dob them in, grass them up’
‘ Jodie’s friends have told us there was no altercation. My daughter was just sat in a park, minding her own business. They [the suspects] were sat near Jodie and her friends. They then left and came back and stabbed Jodie in the back. What kind of kudos is there in stabbing a 17-year-old? It was so ferocious, the attack.’ Jodie Chesney’s father Peter yesterday