Two teens who stabbed a schoolboy to death in a mistaken identity murder after buying weapons online have been sentenced to a total of 34 years.
Ronan Kanda, 16, was fatally attacked in Wolverhampton in June last year as he walked from a friend’s house after buying a PlayStation controller.
One of his killers had collected a Ninja sword set and a large machete from a local post office earlier that day after buying them online.
Jurors heard Ronan – a young Liverpool fan who dreamed of becoming a lawyer – was listening to music on headphones when he was fatally stabbed from behind just yards from his family home in Wolverhampton.
His killers were looking for another boy they were in dispute with over a drug debt.
Prabjeet Veadhesa and Sukhman Shergill both aged 17, were convicted of his murder following a five-week trial in May.
Veadhasa was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 18 years, while Shergill was sentenced to life for a minimum term of 16 years.
Ronan’s family, who were in the courtroom wearing ‘Justice for Ronan’ T-shirts, sobbed as the teenager’s father Chander read a tribute to his ‘beautiful boy’.
After their convictions, Ronan’s family called on the government to do more to combat knife crime. His sister Nikita, 22, said: ‘We need to do more to stop knife crime. You know how easy it is to acquire a knife. You can just go online and you can just buy a machete.
‘I want to call out the MPs. I want to call out the Prime Minister. I want to call out society and say that we need to do more to ensure that not another innocent life gets taken from knife crime.’
Ronan’s dad Chander Kanda added: ‘We need to do more as a society to stop knife crime.’
At the hearing, Ronan’s mother, Pooja Kanda, read out a personal statement and said she replayed the last time she saw her son alive in her mind every day.
‘I have lost a lifetime of dreams, hopes and ambitions,’ she said.
‘He was the son that every mother needs.’
Addressing the defendants, she told them ‘your evil actions have taken my son’s life’ which left her with ‘nothing but hatred for this world’.
