Mother calls on government to act as boy is convicted of murdering her 17-year-old son

A heartbroken mother has called on the government to tackle knife crime after her 17-year-old son was stabbed to death in London.

Folajimi Orebiyi was stabbed in Notting Hill on 3 July 2016,after an argument broke out with other teenagers and he agreed to a fist fight.

But as the fight began Orebiyi was ambushed and a 15-year-old boy jumped on his back and stabbed him in the neck.

The 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on Tuesday (24 January) found guilty of murder and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 10 February.

Yinka Bankole, Orebiyi's mother, said she did not want her son's death to be merely a statistic and called on the government to take action.

"I single-handedly raised Fola from the age of 10-months-old until the day his life was cut short," she said.

"I was in labour for 23 hours with him, yet it took less than four minutes to stab him to death, while several youths stood there and didn't ask for help or assist him, and Fola bled to death.

"To me this is the most devastating moment of my life. Knowing that I wasn't there to protect my son, I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. Yet to the system, just another figure added to the statistics.

"In an act that took less than four minutes, several lives were ruined, including that of the boy that has been found guilty of Fola's murder. No length of time will be long enough for what he did.

"The devastation and tragic loss of Fola has affected myself, his two brothers, grandparents and all of the family, friends, community and members of the church.

"What are the government doing about this knife crime that seems to have taken over the streets of London?"

Bankole described Orebiyi as a vibrant and intelligent young man, with a bright future ahead of him.

In the week before he died, he visited several universities where he intended studying accountancy, due to his love of maths.

Bankole said her son was a lovely young man who was loved by anybody that had contact with him.

In 2016, knife crime in London rose to a four-year high with more than 1,700 stabbings recorded.

"Only yesterday I am sad to read that a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in London," Bankole added. "How many more of our children have to die before the government act?"