Three teenagers who killed a promising young rapper after bringing a knife to a girl’s 16th birthday party may be identified for the first time.
Mikey Roynon, 16, suffered fatal knife wounds to the neck after being attacked with a large “zombie knife” during the party in Bath in June last year.
Bleeding heavily, he managed to walk from the garden to the driveway of the party venue on Eastfield Avenue before collapsing as his three attackers disposed of their weapons.
Shane Cunningham, the 16-year-old boy who stabbed Mikey to death, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in a trial at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, with a minimum term of 16 years.
Two other teenagers, Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight, both 16 years old, were also found guilty of manslaughter during the trial and sentenced to nine and nine-and-a-half years in juvenile detention, respectively.
While they remained anonymous during the trial, Hon’ble Justice Saini lifted reporting restrictions for the first time when delivering the verdict on Friday.
Outside the courtroom, Mikey’s mother Hayley said the decision to name the defendants was “a really big deal for me.”
Video footage taken before the party showed the three boys travelling by bus from the Wiltshire area armed with knives. After stabbing Mikey, they were filmed again talking about the incident before removing some of their clothing and discarding their knives.
During the trial, Cunningham claimed he acted in self-defense when he stabbed Mikey after he allegedly struck his friends with a knife in the property’s garden.
In conversation with the Independently before the verdict is announcedHis wife Ryall said that on the night of his murder her son was proudly wearing his new trainers, which she had bought for him to start his GCSE exams.
“I saw him coming down, smiled and said, ‘You look damn good,'” Ms Ryall said. “He smiled back and then as he walked out the door he turned around and said, ‘I love you.'”
Hayley Ryall, Mikey Roynon’s mother, also spoke to the media after today’s hearing with the support of her family and friends.
She described Mikey as “funny, fearless, loving and kind.” pic.twitter.com/7OFDk2Thk3
— Avon and Somerset Police (@ASPolice) May 3, 2024
“And that’s how I’ll remember the last time I saw him.”
When she discovered 37 missed calls on her cell phone and learned from his friends that he had been stabbed and died, she knew immediately that something was wrong.
“I couldn’t believe it at first. I sent my friend to the nearby hospital to find him and asked another friend to drive me to Bath. But when I got there, I learned that he hadn’t made it to the hospital,” she said.
“I saw that there was a forensic tent at the address (of the house party) and officers in white suits were walking around. A police officer told me what had happened and told me to go home. I was stunned. I can’t describe the feeling.”
She has since founded the group “Mikey’s World”, which aims to combat knife crime at a local level and distributes bleeding control kits to pubs, sports clubs and halls.
In a statement read out in court during Friday’s hearing, she described the impact her son’s death had on her.
She said: “Every morning I wake up and it hurts just as much as the last morning. I keep having horrible dreams where Mikey is lost and I’m looking for him, but even the horrible dreams are better than waking up in reality.
“At least in my dreams he is somewhere, while in reality he is gone.”
Passing sentence, Hon’ble Justice Saini said: “The day Mikey was killed, he was only 16 years old. He was a child. His family has suffered an unimaginable loss.”
“Bristol and its surrounding areas have been hit by knife crime.
“The scourge has continued since the end of this trial. Boys who carry knives continue to be killed by other boys who carry knives.
“People who carry a knife are at the greatest risk of being killed with a knife themselves.”
Detective Inspector Mark Newbury, the lead investigator, said: “The fact that three boys would turn up at a teenager’s 16th birthday party armed with knives is completely unconscionable.”
“Mikey went to that party to meet people and have fun. Instead, he was attacked with a horrific weapon, suffered a catastrophic injury and tragically lost his life.
“Mikey was a much loved teenager and his family are absolutely devastated. They have shown incredible bravery and have bravely spoken out against knife crime since his death, something they should never do.
