‘Life in jail not enough for my son’s killer’

KNIFE CRIME

THE grieving mum of a lad who was stabbed to death has declared that no jail term is long enough for his killer.

Sian Rayner lost son Sam Caulfield in 2016 when he was just 20. Macauley Lawless was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter and three others who lied to police in a bid to cover up the killing are each serving three years or less.

Sian said: “I went to the trial. I’d never done that sort of thing before so I didn’t know what to expect. Listening to the evidence was hard.

“I was devastated because of the sentences they got. I mean Macauley Lawless has only got to serve five years and he’s out.”

She added: “I don’t think any length of time would be enough.”

Sian’s experience mirrors that of countless families across Britain as the country continues to be gripped by a violent crime epidemic.

Last week the number of deaths caused by knife attacks this year topped 250 — more than during either 2015 or 2016. More than 100 of those were in London alone.

Sian relived her ordeal for a new TV documentary on 5STAR. Sam was stabbed by best mate Lawless in a late-night row at a flat in Crawley, West Sussex, in what police now suspect was a row over an unpaid drugs debt.

Lawless, his girlfriend Jessica Roberts and friends John Mitchell and Leah Delgado lied to cover up the attack. Sian said: “At half past five in the morning the police knocked on the door to tell me Sam had been stabbed. They were going to take me up to the hospital.

“I didn’t think it was serious because you don’t think about your child dying. I thought he’d just been stabbed in the hand or the arm or something.

“I thought he’d been attacked and stabbed by someone he didn’t know. “I got to the hospital and the doctor came in and said Sam had been stabbed in the stomach and it didn’t look good. And then he left and I just sat there feeling numb.

“He came back in and I said, ‘He’s gone, hasn’t he?’. And he said, ‘Yeah’. I knew he’d gone. I just felt numb. I probably didn’t want to believe it.” She added: “I couldn’t mourn Sam, not to start with. No-one thinks of burying their own child. You don’t think you’ll have to plan your own child’s funeral.”

Sian said she couldn’t believe how many people turned up for his send-off at a Brighton crematorium.

Sian said: “It just seems like a blur. It was such a hard day.”

Sam’s daughter Millie-Mae was just 18 months old when he was killed.

Sian said: “Millie-Mae is absolutely gorgeous. Just like Sam she’s full of life, full of energy.

“She was his world. He was a doting dad. Sam was lovable, full of life, full of energy.”