Call for tighter machete sale rules after murder

Shawn Seesahai was stabbed through the heart with a machete

Fresh calls for tighter controls on the sale of machetes have been made by a group representing police officers after two 12-year-old boys were convicted of murdering a teenager.

Shawn Seesahai, 19, died in November after being set upon in an unprovoked attack on Stowlawn playing fields in East Park, Wolverhampton.

West Midlands Police Federation called for more measures around the marketing of machetes and other bladed instruments.

The Home Office said it was illegal to sell a knife or other bladed item to anyone aged under 18 including online.

Rich Cooke, chair of the federation, told the BBC he wanted legislation "making it illegal to attach descriptions like ninja, Rambo, zombie to the weapons themselves".

He called for "a plain packaging requirement for these weapons to stop them being seen as a fashion items for young, impressionable kids".

The family of Ronan Kanda, 16, who was fatally stabbed by attackers in Wolverhampton in 2022, also renewed their calls for tougher measures.

One of Ronan's killers had collected a ninja sword set and a large machete from a post office after buying them online using a fake name.

Thousands of people have backed his family's petition calling for an online ban on machetes' sales.

The two boys who murdered Mr Seesahai, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be sentenced next month after they were convicted on Monday.

After being shown a drawing of the machete used in that murder, Ronan's sister Nikita said: "A 12-year-old having easily been able to access that is an absolute disgrace.

"If that doesn't call for action to come fast enough then I don't know what will.

"It just makes you think how many other 12-year-olds, 10-year-olds are carrying these around like they are just toys and eventually they will use them, just like these two boys did."

Ronan Kanda, 16, had just completed his GCSEs when he was killed close to his home in a case of mistaken identity in June 2022

The Home Office said it was against the law to sell a knife or other bladed item to under-18s and that included sales online.

Anyone buying a knife online must be subject to age checks including on delivery, a spokesperson added.

The government banned so-called zombie knives in 2016 and cyclone knives in 2019 and the tightening of laws preventing their use was unveiled in August.