‘We’ll never forgive bad guy who stabbed our son to death on bus’

A father today said he could “never forgive” the teenager who stabbed his son to death on a bus.

Derek Boateng was knifed through the heart on April 23 — his 16th birthday — in Highbury in a “senseless act of violence”.

Killer Shawn Green, who was 15 at the time, pushed past horrified passengers, including a woman holding a baby, and thrust a kitchen knife into Derek’s chest. Green, now 16, was sentenced to at least 12 years’ detention for murder last week.

Derek’s father Davis, from Hackney, said the outcome of the trial was no cause for celebration.

“It’s good that they have sentenced this boy, because he is a bad guy — he is a murderer,” he said. “At the moment justice is done, but it is not something we can celebrate because we always think of our loss. There is nothing to replace our loss. The grief is too much. Other people can talk about it but for us it is Christmas coming up and normally we are four people. We sit round the table as four.

“But come this Christmas, we will be only three people. You can’t imagine how we feel, all because of this senseless killing. We cannot ever forgive.” After being stabbed, Derek, an aspiring engineer, collapsed on the street outside Highbury Grove School, where Green was a pupil and which Derek used to attend. He was airlifted to hospital but died the next day.

The prosecution described the attack as a “senseless act of violence”, sparked by an “unclear previous dispute”. Judge Peter Thornton QC told Green, of Romford: “With that single blow you took the life of Derek Boateng on his 16th birthday. He had his whole life to look forward to. I have seen no remorse, no expression of regret on your part for the loss of Derek’s life.”

The judge lifted a reporting restriction on naming Green, saying that it was in the public interest to know his identity.