Teenager who stabbed boy, 16, to death at party in Bath detained for minimum of 16 years
A teenager will be jailed for a minimum of 16 years after stabbing a boy to death with a large hunting-style knife at a house party.
Mikey Roynon, 16, was killed in Bath in June last year, when he was stabbed in the back of the neck.
The teenager who murdered him, who is also 16, can now be named as Shane Cunningham after a judge lifted an order preventing him from being named.
At a sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Saini imposed a life sentence with at least 16 years in custody before he can be considered for parole.
His friends Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight, both 16, were convicted of manslaughter after being acquitted of murder, landing them sentences of nine years and nine-and-a-half years' youth detention.
During the trial, Cunningham claimed he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mikey, after saying he had swung a knife towards his friends in the garden of the property.
Mikey was left bleeding heavily from a wound in his neck and collapsed on the driveway outside the house in Eastfield Avenue, Weston.
Police, paramedics and doctors were sent quickly to the scene, but could not save his life.
The three defendants left the area and later disposed of their weapons, two of which were recovered by the police.
The judge ruled all three could be identified - despite their age granting them automatic anonymity in court - after an application was made to lift the restrictions.
Passing sentence, the judge praised Mikey's family for their dignity during the proceedings and their "moving" victim statements.
"On the day Mikey was killed he was only 16 and still a child," he said. "His family have suffered a loss that is unimaginable.
"Mikey had a big musical career ahead of him and although he faced a number of challenges in his life, his future was promising."
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Bristol and its surrounding areas are in the "middle of a plague of knife crime", he added, which has "continued" since this trial came to an end.
"The lives of boys who carry knives continue to be taken by those who also carry knives," he added.
In a statement read out in court on Friday, Mikey's mum, Hayley Ryall, said she wakes up every morning and it "hurts as much as the last morning".
"I keep having awful dreams that Mikey is lost and I'm looking for him," she said.
"But even the awful dreams are better than waking up to reality.
"At least in my dreams he is somewhere, whereas in reality he is gone."
