We’ve suffered for 10 years... now we are helping others

CAMPAIGN Barry and Margaret. Above, Jimmy has to be a determination now to carry on the work – we now have to work harder than ever. We are hoping for a better tomorrow.” Jimmy was killed on May 10, 2008, when Jake Fahri, then aged 19, threw a glass dish at him. A shard of glass slashed his neck and he bled to death in the arms of brother Tommy. Fahri is serving a minimum 14-year term at maximum security Whitemoor Prison near March, Cambs, where he is still known to approach others from the same area as his victim, asking: “Do you know the Mizens?” Sources told the Mirror: “He’s showing no remorse whatsoever and is still acting as the big man in prison. “He’s in the same mind set he was at the time he killed the boy. “He’s still acting out his dream of being a gangster of some sort and playing the macho man based on what he did to Jimmy.” But Margaret says she forgives him and would like to speak to him “to know why he turned into such an angry young man who had a need to be so violent”. She added: “He is still someone’s son.” The Mizens have six sons and two daughters aged 18 to 46 who help their work, including setting up Good Hope cafes in Lewisham as a “haven of peace and safety”. Barry and Margaret also work with other bereaved parents to offer comfort and guidance. They also visit schools across the country to tell Jimmy’s story and encourage children and adults to work together to create safer streets with their “message of hope”. Barry said: “This is an issue for all of us – and if you can’t get angry for the young people doing it, get angry for the shops you shop in and the parks you walk in. Get involved.” THE parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen will mark the 10th anniversary of his death with a campaign to beat knife crime.

Barry and Margaret Mizen have worked tirelessly to make their community safer since altar boy Jimmy was killed in a bakery near their home in Lee, South East London the day after his 16th birthday.

Their Safe Haven project cut crime by 30% when it was launched in Liverpool in 2011 and is already up and running in their neighbouring Lewisham.

And next month the scheme will go nationwide with the help of their charity, For Jimmy.

Working with schools and police, they introduce kids to local businesses, who agree to be a “safe haven” for youngsters in trouble. Shopkeepers identified by a sticker on their window agree to pull down the shutters and keep TRIBUTE Mizen scheme kids safe while they call the police and parents in their time of need.

Barry, 66, said: “We live in divided communities, in a society where we think someone else is going to do it all for us.

“It’s an ongoing relationship where shopkeepers now look at a kid running and think, ‘Can I help that person?’ rather than, ‘What have they done?’”

London mayor Sadiq Khan backs the scheme, says Barry.

It comes as UK knife crime rose 21% last year to its highest level since 2011

Margaret, 65, said: “I don’t know why it’s happening and I can’t understand why young people want to take a life.

“Innocent boys are dying. It’s heartbreaking but that’s why there

CAGED KILLER Jake Fahri