Capital ‘fed up with knife crime’, says stab victim’s tearful father
Old Bailey hears call for tougher sentences after youth worker was killed chasing drug dealers
LONDON is fed up of knife crime, the father of a youth worker stabbed to death while chasing drug dealers has said. Omid Saidy, 20, was trying to stop a 16-year-old and his friend selling drugs outside his Fulham home in October last year when he was attacked.
While chasing the teenager, who has an “unhealthy fascination with knives”, and Shafiq Smith, 20, Mr Saidy called his friend, Omotosho Oluwafemi, 18, to help to tackle the suspected drug dealers. After a confrontation, the teenager, whose identity is protected by a court order, stabbed Mr Saidy in the neck, torso and backside while Mr Oluwafemi was stabbed by Smith.
Just four days before the killing, Smith was stopped in Mitcham, south London, where he was found to have a 30cm knife tucked in his trousers. Instagram photos of the unnamed teenager, released by the CPS to the London Evening Standard, showed him posing with a samurai sword and a hunting knife. One photo, believed to have been uploaded less than three weeks before the fatal stabbing, read: “Always moving aggy wen i’m pokin”. Prosecutors told the Old Bailey the language was a boast by the teenager he was aggressive when armed with a knife.
The jury were not shown these photos during the trial, nor were they informed the teenager had brandished a machete during a 2016 robbery, carried a lock knife in his sock and took a weapon to school when he was 12.
At the court, Mr Saidy’s father, Majid, said: “Because of knife crime, so many families are now going through hell since all these kids are carrying knives. Youths are not considering what is really happening to the families who are affected, who are crying every day over lost family. Everyone in London [is] watching these young kids being killed. London is fed up and the sentences should be harsh.”
He added: “It doesn’t matter to him – you let him out tomorrow, he will kill again.”
Smith and the juvenile, now 17, were both cleared of the murder of Mr Saidy. The teenager, from the Durham area, was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for eight years, while Smith was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and jailed for more than six years.
Judge Anne Molyneux admitted the pictures of the teenager “demonstrate an unhealthy fascination with knives”. She told Smith that “the court concluded
‘So many families are now going through hell since all these kids are carrying knives’
that you do not pose a significant risk of serious threat”. Jurors heard the two victims had also been carrying knives. Prosecutor Timothy Cray said Mr Saidy made a decision that “set off a chain of events” which led to “terrible consequences for himself and for his family”, by confronting the drug-dealing duo. During the confrontation, Mr Saidy was attacked with a blade and kicked as he lay defenceless on the floor. Despite emergency treatment, he died at the scene at around 8.30pm from loss of blood. Mr Oluwafemi rode up on the pavement on his moped to try to drive the pair off, but crashed into a number of parked cars. Rather than back off, Smith closed in on the fallen rider before picking him up and plunging the knife into his chest, puncturing his lung.
Smith was arrested on Oct 19 and admitted to officers that he was at the scene, but claimed he had acted in self-defence and had no idea the youngster was armed.
The teenager ran towards Munster Road, where he “disposed” of the knife, but was arrested by police within about 15 minutes of the brawl.