“I was in labour for 23 hours with him, yet it took less than four minutes to stab him to death,”

The mother of a teenager stabbed to death by a 15-year-old boy has called on the Government to tackle the “knife crime that seems to have taken over the streets of London”.

Yinka Bankole issued the emotional plea after her son’s killer was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey.  

Fola Orebiyi, 17, died after being knifed in the neck in Notting Hill last July. He had been out with a friend in Colville Square when the pair were approached by a group of boys who began abusing them.

A fight broke out during which a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, jumped on Fola and fatally stabbed him.

His killer was convicted yesterday and will be sentenced next month.

In an emotional statement, Ms Bankole said her son’s death — and a spate of other knife killings in London, including the stabbing of  15-year-old Quamari Barnes outside the gates of Capital City Academy in Willesden — should prompt government action. 

Ms Bankole said her son had been “a vibrant and intelligent young man, with a bright future ahead of him”  and no gang or criminal background.

She added: “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 he 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 who has been found guilty of Fola’s murder.

"No length of time will be long enough for what he did. What are the Government doing about this knife crime that seems to have taken over the streets of London?

(Excerpt:January 2017)