The mother of a teenage boy who was stabbed to death in the street hit out at knife crime, telling his killers that the ‘death of my son should not just be another statistic’.
Mohanad Goobe, 15, was set upon, dragged to the floor and kicked before being stabbed through the heart in Moss Side last September. Three boys have today (May 21) been sentenced at Bolton Crown Court in connection with his death.
Boy A, 16, who stabbed Mohanad, and Boy B, 15, who sourced the combat knife used in the killing, were found guilty of murder. Boy C, 14, who ‘lent active support’, was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.
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Boy A and Boy B were both handed the youth equivalent of a life sentence, and ordered to serve 19 years and 18 years respectively. Boy C was handed a determinate six year sentence. The defendants cannot be named for legal reasons.
Mohanad’s mother, Amaley Ahmed, told of her and her family’s devastation at their loss. She said: “Why has it become the norm for our youths of today to think it is cool to carry knives?
“While this is becoming acceptable, all our child’s lives are at risk, and as a family, we are living with the consequences. I want people hearing this statement to understand that Mohanad was taken from us without a thought for the consequences, and his death should never have happened.
“Knife crime, sadly, is becoming prevalent among our children, but the death of my son should not just be another statistic. Mohanad was a living, breathing, larger than life, lovable, sometimes cheeky, 15-year-old boy, whose life ended when another child made a choice to take a knife out with them, and chose to use that knife on my son.
“A choice that killed my son, and ended our lives as we knew it. I feel many emotions, including anger, for the boys responsible for my son’s death, but I also feel pity, for they too will have to live with the consequences of what they have done and I hope they see Mohanad’s face for the rest of their lives.”
She added: “Our lives will never be the same again and we will never come to terms with what has happened and the senselessness of it all. Mohanad was the centre of our family, a typical teenager, who loved hanging out with his friends and spending far too long on his gaming station.
“He wasn’t in a gang, and he had never been in trouble with the police. A fall out between a group of boys resulted in Mohanad losing his life.”
‘You took it to another level, and murdered him in the street’
The court heard that Mohanad’s murder, on September 15 last year, followed a series of street fights in the weeks prior.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Griffiths said: “He [Mohanad] had got into arranged fights which were sometimes shared with boys from several schools on social media. No weapons were used.
“There were no serious injuries. This was jockeying between schoolboys for status and bragging rights, the winners and the losers changing places from fight to fight, and not much damage done except injured pride.
“But you, [Boy A] and [Boy B}, took it to another level, got a combat knife, and murdered Mohanad in the street. You, [Boy C], lent active support to the joint attack, guilty of manslaughter.”
The fights were discussed on social media, including on TikTok and Instagram. Following one fight in Alexandra Park about two weeks prior, Boy A had been left ‘humiliated’ after it appeared he had lost. Mohanad had been present in support of Boy A’s rival.
The judge said that Boy A then ‘decided to raise the stakes and start fighting dirty by introducing ambush tactics and knives’. Despite being only 15, the judge said Boy B had begun ‘dealing in knives for money’. In the intervening period, there was ‘feverish chatting and speculation’ about what would happen next, until September 13 when Boy A and Boy B began plotting a ‘group, surprise attack, with knives’.
They suggested to Mohanad and his friends that it would actually be a ‘fair fight between one or two on each side without weapons’. Boy C said he did not expect it to be a knife fight.
Boy A and Boy B ‘did not let on to the rest of the group the full extent of their real plan’, the judge said. They arranged to meet after school on Monday, September 15 in Whitworth Park. Mohanad had been pressured to agree to a ‘fair, arranged fight against his better judgment so as not to lose face’. The two groups came together for about an hour, without any fighting taking place.
“[Boy A] and [Boy B] did not want a fair fight,” the judge said. “The boy who was expected to fight on their side had not been brought with them. If there had been a fair fight, their side might have lost again, and they weren’t going to risk that.”
As Mohanad and two of his friends began to leave, they were followed by a group of boys with the other side, and Boys A, B and C led the charge. Boy B threw Mohanad to the floor, Boy C kicked him ‘as hard as he could’ as he lay prone. Mohanad got back up and threw some punches in self-defence, before Boy A stabbed him with ‘deliberate, lethal force’.
Mohanad was able to get up, but seconds later he collapsed. He died in the street. Speaking before sentencing was passed on her son’s killers, Mohanad’s mum said: “Mohanad brought out something special in everyone he met, such was his way. I will be forever grateful for the time I had with him.
“I, on behalf of my family, can only request that the persons responsible are given a sentence that reflects the devastating effect this has had on our family, and will continue to do so. Whatever sentence they are given, the sentence we will live, without Mohanad, will far outweigh it.”
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