The night our boys' lives were violently taken

Mason Rist, 15, and 16-year-old Max Dixon were best friends – they went to nursery, junior and secondary school together. They spent their time chatting and gaming on the PlayStation. But one night in January changed their families lives forever.

27 January 2024 - it was a chilly night in Bristol and Max’s mum Leanne Ekland was heading to bed.

Mason’s mum Nikki Knight was having a rare night out with friends.

Unbeknown to them both, their sons had met up and were going out to get some food.

Seconds later they were knifed down in the street, yards from Mason’s front door.

Leanne remembers a car pulled up outside her house shortly after 23:00 GMT. A friend of Max’s shouted through the door that he had been stabbed.

“I said ‘no he’s not, he’s in bed’, then it hit me. I just screamed."

Max was the youngest of Leanne Ekland's four children

Leanne was driven to Ilminster Avenue where emergency services were already lining the street where the boys had been attacked.

“They took me down to see Max. A lot of people stopped me to start off with, but I managed to get to him and sit down with him. I said ‘Max, Mum’s here’. He opened up his eyes," Leanne continued.

“He knew I was there. He knew I was with him. He was so pale, he was cold, he kept saying to me ‘mum, I want to go to sleep’.”

Meanwhile, Nikki got a call from her son’s phone - it was the police.

“I thought, is this some kind of wind up?” she said.

She ran back to her house on Ilminster Avenue to find her “whole road taped and lights everywhere”.

“It was a blur,” she said. “A bit like a movie. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere.”

The boys were stabbed to death by a group of teenagers with machetes, with blades 42cm long. They died in hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning within 15 minutes of each other.

It was a tragic case of mistaken identity. Five people have now been found guilty of their murders, following more than 18 hours of deliberations.

Max had gone out that night to meet up with Mason

“They were just a good team. Mason was the quiet one, Max was the loud one,” Leanne said.

“They were always on the PlayStation. What I would give to hear his voice now, shouting down the PlayStation.

“He was definitely a Mummy’s boy. He would put his legs over me, he was 6ft 2, so trying to sit on my lap, it was, yeah. That’s what I miss about him.”

Every night before she goes to sleep, Leanne thinks about what happened to Max.

"What if I’d heard him going out the door - could I have stopped him?" she said.

"As a mum you are meant to protect your children.

"I’m lucky I had 16 really good years with him and I loved him very much. I still love him very much.”

Nikki Knight says she can still smell Mason in his room

It is a thought shared by Nikki.

“You try and keep your child safe, I tried and someone took him. I’d much rather they took my life,” she said.

“I miss my son being here,” she said. “His personality, the way he was. We were very protective of Mason. We thought if he was in the house, he was safe.

“It’s the big word. The big M murder word. They were taken from us and we weren’t prepared for it.”

Leanne said her son should have been able to get pizza with his friend that night "without losing his life".

“No parent should have to go through this. No parent should bury their child, it’s not fair. We’ve got a life sentence," she added.

Leanne says she remembers her son "every day"

She has only been able to go into her son’s bedroom three times since the attack.

"When I wake up in the morning, his bedroom door is opposite mine so I say 'morning Max'," she said.

“There’s still a plate and a cup in his bedroom. I can’t bring myself to take it out, as that’s what he used that night."

Mason’s older sister, Chloe, is also still working through the loss.

“I don’t know how to navigate life without him,” she said.

“I still feel like he's lost and I want to find him. We had a bond that I can’t even explain.”

Chloe said she feels guilty that she wasn't there for him that night.

"I was in bed watching TV, while my brother lay on the street dying and I wasn’t there to protect him," she said.

“We never had a goodbye. I never got to hold his hand. His life feels so unfinished.”

Chloe said her and brother Mason were "very close" and she was "very protective" over him

Chloe said when she goes round to her mum's house, she is shocked to see Mason's room empty.

“He’s not in there and my mind plays tricks on me," she said.

"I think if I open the door maybe he’ll be in there.

"We were so protective over him, he doesn’t go out, so why would the one time he went out, would this would happen to him? It just don't make sense."