JODIE, 17, KILLED WITH A KNIFE IN BACK
BRITAIN’S knife crime epidemic has sunk to an appalling new low after an innocent 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death as she sat on a park bench with her boyfriend.
In an apparently random attack, popular sixth-former Jodie Chesney was left with the blade embedded deeply in her back. Police are now hunting two men who were seen fleeing the scene on Friday evening.
Friends described Miss Chesney as ‘the most happy person’ who never stopped smiling, and said she was
never in trouble. Last night her parents and 21-year-old sister were being comforted by relatives.
Her boyfriend was last night named as 18-year-old Eddie Coyle.
Last night, the partner of Eddie’s mother Cylla said: ‘He’s in pieces, we all are. Jodie was the nicest, loveliest, kindest person you could meet with everything to look forward to in life. I don’t know how long it will take for Eddie to come back from this.
‘To have to witness what he did is devastating. I can’t even begin to imagine what he’s going through.
‘ His mum is heartbroken and right now we just want to do everything we can to help him. These are just kids we’re talking about, this should not be happening to them.’
A friend who studied A-level sociology with Miss Chesney told The Mail on Sunday: ‘She was relatively quiet but had a heart of gold and I never heard negativity towards another person. Our class will not be the same without her. There will be an empty seat and there will be an empty place in our hearts.
‘I had a message from her one hour before she was stabbed. And I had no idea that would be the last I heard from her.’
A dedicated Explorer Scout, Miss Chesney was pictured in her uniform outside 10 Downing Street in November, a visit she described on Instagram as ‘so much fun’, adding: ‘I’m basically famous now.’
Later the same day she was seen on TV at the Festival of Remembrance concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where she was part of a guard of honour for Chelsea Pensioners who marched on to the stage.
Detectives are understood to be bewildered by any possible motive for the killing.
Yesterday, witnesses described the aftermath of the stabbing in Harold Hill, near Romford, East London. Neighbours had been alerted by Miss Chesney’s boyfriend screaming ‘Help!’ as he knelt in desperation at her side as her life slipped away.
Mother-of-three Teresa Farenden, 49, tried to save the teenager as she lay dying close to a playground.
‘The knife blade was still in her, but I didn’t see it because it was dark,’ said Mrs Farenden. ‘I didn’t realise at the time, but all I kept thinking once the police told me was, “Have I put the knife in further by giving her compressions?”.’
Miss Chesney is the fifth teenager to be stabbed to death this year in the London area. She is also the fifth person to be fatally stabbed in the capital in just eight days.
Across Britain, knife crime is at record levels. In Birmingham there have been 99 stabbings so far this year, including three deaths in the past fortnight alone.
Miss Chesney died shortly after 9.25pm. Neighbours tried desperately to keep her alive but she ‘slipped away’ just as paramedics reached the scene.
Mrs Farenden, whose house faces the park, went to help when her son heard screaming.
She said: ‘ I thought I’d better check it out just in case.
‘ I never thought in a million years that I was coming out to a murder and a young lady who had been stabbed.
‘As I left the house I shouted out, “Is everything OK?”, then a boy said, “No, I need help, my girlfriend has been stabbed” and I just flew over there in my flip-flops.’
The mother found the victim lying on her back in the corner of the park with her boyfriend kneeling beside her.
She said she started chest compressions, adding: ‘Her boyfriend did everything he could. When I came over she was on her back so I moved her on to her side. Then the boyfriend’s friend came over with some kitchen roll. Another girl and a man came over in a van to help.
‘He took his coat off to keep it on the wound and keep it compressed as much as they could. I was trying to keep her legs in the recovery position but just as the ambulance crew turned up, she had gone. It was devastating, so traumatic
‘She was such an attractive girl and her boyfriend was a lovely looking lad. It just seems so random; it must have been horrific for her boyfriend and those other young people there to experience.’
A stream of friends and relatives laid floral tributes yesterday. One, a cousin, also 17, said: ‘Her sister, her dad and her mum must be in bits.’
Among the tributes was a laminated note from her school friends which read: ‘Jodie, we love you. You are so amazing. We will always remember you.’
Acting Detective Chief Superintendent John Ross, of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘ I want to express my deepest sympathies to this girl’s family and friends. Her death is a tragedy.
‘ I can reassure them and the whole community that we are doing everything possible to identify and bring to justice the person or per- sons responsible.’ London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was devastated and ‘filled with anger’.
Miss Chesney was studying psychology and sociology A-levels at Havering Sixth Form College, where her boyfriend was also a student. She lived with her father Peter, stepmother Joanne, and sister Lucy in an end-of-terrace house in Dagenham, East London. Her family declined to comment saying they ‘need time to grieve’.
Her Instagram page was full of pictures of her enjoying parties and days out with friends, holidays with her family or hugging Woody, her Yorkshire terrier.
‘My girlfriend’s been stabbed,’ the boy yelled