‘I HAVE SPENT YEARS CAMPAIGNING’

Ann Oakes-odger MBE, lives in Colchester, Essex

I always joked that my son Westley was the glue that held our family together. An extrovert, he had lots of friends, and was incredibly sociable. Even after flying the nest he remained close to me and his older brother and younger sister, and was always organising family get-togethers.

He worked as a plastics worker and was so friendly that everyone in our local area seemed to know him. ‘Oh you’re Westley’s mum!’ new people

I met would say.

He was loved by so many, which I suppose explains the phone call I received on 12 September 2005. It was from a stranger who knew Westley. They were panicked and worried, telling me they’d heard Westley had been stabbed on our estate at a cash point.

Terrified, but believing he’d just been injured, I called the hospital. As I asked about my son, I heard people talking in the background about a man named Westley who’d passed away. There isn’t a ‘nice’ way to receive the news your child is dead, but that was probably the worst way to find out and certainly the most traumatic. I remember just clinging onto the phone, and feeling as if the whole room was spinning around me. By the time the police got to my door an hour or so later, I was hysterical. Westley had been stabbed in the neck at a cash machine not far from our home. He’d asked a man not to push in the queue and the man had left, returning with his brother. They then attacked my son. The knife severed an artery and Westley died at the scene. He was just 27. The pain of losing a child is like something I’ve never experienced before and I didn’t know how to carry on living with my grief. I was in such a state of devastation and depression that my toenails and hair fell out.

But I made sure I was at Chelmsford Crown Court for every day of the trial in August 2006. Andrew Fredericks, then 32, was jailed for life for murder and told to serve a minimum of 15 years. His brother, Mark Fredericks, 36, was jailed for seven years for manslaughter.

Channelling my grief

I knew I couldn’t let what happened to Westley happen again so I channelled my grief into launching Knifecrimes.org, supporting victims and focusing on education. I visited schools, delivering

‘Westley’s Weapons Awareness’ workshops to pupils. On top of that, I spent years campaigning for the minimum tariff for knife murder to be raised to 25 years, twice addressing the Home Affairs select committee on the issue of sentencing. I knew Westley would have been proud of me when that was achieved in 2010. But it was bittersweet as Mark Fredericks was released the same year after serving just half of his sentence.

I continued campaigning though, and the following year I was awarded an MBE for my knife crime prevention work.

I attended parole hearings every year for 10 years to fight Andrew Fredericks’ release, but he was finally let free in 2022.

I’m distraught and frustrated that despite 18 years of campaigning and education – not just by me but by relatives of other innocent victims, too, people are still being killed on our streets with knives. When will it stop?

At Westley’s trial the judge said: ‘When there are angry uncontrolled people in society who regularly carry knives, this sort of thing could happen to any one of us if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

Nothing has changed. Alongside that, we’re not seeing enough change in the criminal justice system. We need tougher sentences for carrying knives, and families of victims need more support for the emotional impact they suffer when they lose a loved one in this way. Westley would be 45 now, and it’s such a waste of a life. I don’t have all the answers but I’ll keep campaigning in Westley’s name until we get them.

✱ Ann is donating the fee earned from sharing her story to Knifecrimes.org

‘This sort of thing could happen to any one of us’