Mum describes anguish after teen son's stab death

Tatiana Qureshi's son Temur (pictured in frame) died after being attacked in Slough

A mother whose teenage son was stabbed to death has spoken about the difficulties she has faced since his death.

Temur Qureshi, 19, died after he was attacked in Slough, Berkshire, in September 2023.

His best friend Abdul Aziz Ansari was also stabbed to death by a teenager in May 2022, prompting Mr Qureshi to write an open letter in which he described knife crime as "a pandemic”.

Mr Qureshi’s mother Tatiana told BBC Radio Berkshire: “It’s difficult. I just miss him so much. The house is so quiet.”

Mr Qureshi paid tribute to his friend, Mr Aziz Ansari (left), after his death in 2022

Jack Patterson, of Stile Road, Slough, killed Mr Qureshi in Hampden Road in the town at about 11:20 BST on 30 September 2023.

A Home Office post-mortem examination found the father-of-one died of a haemorrhage and a stab wound to the left lung.

Patterson was jailed for nine years for Mr Qureshi's manslaughter at Reading Crown Court on 31 May.

Mrs Qureshi said her son had moved to Pakistan for a year after he started to associate with a “bad crowd”.

“You can do as much as you can as parents at home but it’s the people [they hang around with]. It wasn’t the same Temur after Abdul Aziz passed away. He wrote the letter about knife crime. He really wanted to do work with that, he really wanted to help.”

Jack Patterson was jailed for nine years in May

Mr Qureshi’s friend, Vivien Amal, said young people were being “groomed” into dealing drugs and a life of crime.

“It gets them trapped - and Temur understood that, that it’s not worth anything. After Abdul Aziz [died] he tried very hard to get the message across,” she said.

“Even if it was within his own circle, he really tried to tell his friends 'it’s not the way'. It’s just a shame that he was stopped before he could really make an impact.”

She said she was "really disappointed" by Patterson’s jail term and that a longer custodial sentence could have worked as a deterrent for potential offenders.

“It could make them think twice. If all of his friends saw [offenders] got 30 years, they would think twice about fatally stabbing someone,” she added.

“Boys will always fight – but now they’ve got knives. Now it’s becoming murder instead of a disagreement.”