Birmingham stabbings: 'Why did Zephaniah McLeod pick my son?'

Jacob Billington was an "absolutely fantastic young man," his mother, Joanne, recalls. "Fun, cheeky, full of life and full of happiness."

In September 2020, the 23-year-old was killed by Zephaniah McLeod, who has now been jailed for at least 21 years.

Jacob had come to Birmingham for a night out as McLeod launched his stabbing spree, injuring seven others.

Among them, Jacob's childhood friend, Michael Callaghan, who is still recovering from life-changing injuries.

"Michael and Jacob were very close from primary school," Mrs Billington said. They were in a band together - Michael on guitar and vocals, Jacob on the drums - and after growing up together in Crosby, Merseyside, they chose Sheffield as the location for their next chapter at university.

Jacob Billington (left) and Michael Callaghan (second from right) performed together in their band, The Vedetts

"Their lives were entwined," Michael's mother, Anne, said. "They were totally on the same wavelength."

Michael had recently got a job as a medical engineer. Like his friend, he was "very musical", his mum said, "very capable" and talented at school.

They'd graduated about a year before coming to Birmingham to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Jacob continued to work in the library at Sheffield Hallam University after he graduated

"I can still see him leaving the house, with the lads outside in the car beeping the horn to get him to hurry up," his mother said, thinking back to 5 September.

"He skipped out and we just thought he was going for a lovely night out with his friends. I wasn't worried in the slightest."

Shortly after 00:30, unbeknownst to Jacob and his friends, McLeod had just stabbed a man on the other side of the city centre.

Moving from Constitution Hill, through Livery Street and Barwick Street on the north side of town, the 29-year-old attacked two other people with a knife, targeting their heads, necks and upper bodies.

It would be almost 90 minutes before he came across the group of friends from Merseyside. In that time, McLeod dumped his weapon down a drain before calling at a pizza restaurant to ask for a new knife.

Staff, unaware of what had happened, called him a taxi and he travelled home to Selly Oak, before coming back into town rearmed to continue his attacks.

Jacob and Michael were slashed at about 01:50 on Irving Street, on the south side of Birmingham city centre. McLeod would go on to attack three further victims in the next 10 minutes, before leaving the scene.

Both friends were stabbed in the neck. For Jacob it was fatal and he died at the scene.

Michael's jugular vein, carotid artery and vegus nerve were "completely severed", his mum said. He would go on to have a "catastrophic" stroke and be completely paralysed down his left-hand side.

Michael's condition was life threatening in the aftermath of the attacks

Since police officers knocked on her front door a few hours later, Mrs Billington has been asking why it happened.

"For me there's quite a lot of unanswered questions about what happened on that night and what led up to that night," she said.

"I'd love to ask him [McLeod] why? Why did he pick Jacob? Why did he pick Michael? Why did he pick those other people who were doing no harm?"

McLeod admitted Jacob's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. At the time of the attacks, he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Zephaniah McLeod admitted a charge of manslaughter and four counts of attempted murder

Due to his condition, he was not interviewed by police when he was taken into custody and there has been no trial where victims and families might hope to better understand what exactly happened that night.

"I've tried my best to concentrate on what I can change, or what I can have an impact with, rather than the things I can't change, and I can't change him or why he did it," Mrs Billington said.

"We have had a lot of debate among the psychiatrists about his mental state. I just felt like saying to them, can we just come back to the fact that this person left my son to bleed to death?

"I think sometimes that from the victim's side, the sheer enormity of what's happened gets lost in this legal process and in this clinical process, so I found that really difficult."

The Billington family remember Jacob in a number of ways. A picture in every room, playlists with his favourite songs and his "ridiculous shirts" that have been altered to fit his two younger sisters.

"He was amazing, always made me laugh, always made me smile," Abbie said of her older brother

"Jacob's our only brother, he'd always led the way," his sister Abbie, now 22, said. "This is someone who I've shared my life with and now I have to go forward in life without him. Just not having him around doesn't feel real."

Like her mum, she tries not to think about McLeod.

"I never knew him before he took so much from me," she said. "I feel like he's kind of the personification of the problems of the legal system and mental health in this country."

As McLeod begins his sentence, Michael will continue his recovery.

Michael is still unable to move his left arm, but his recovery is continuing

He still has no movement in his left arm, however his family says he has come a long way. His passion, music, is still out of reach.

"If his function came back in his hand, that would just be huge. Everything doesn't depend on the hand but a lot does, because it's everything he loves in life," Mrs Callaghan said.

"If he could do music, play the guitar again, that would be wonderful for him."

Her son is "so determined - single minded at some points", she said, that she has no doubts of him living a full life.

"If you look back to how it was a year ago, and how it was 14 months ago, it's just so much better."

Questions have been raised about whether enough was done to prevent McLeod's crimes

Since the attacks, the practices of a number of authorities have been called into question. West Midlands Police had to defend the time taken to link the attacks as well as its decision not to declare a major incident.

Neither of the families are critical of the force, however Mrs Callaghan said: "I certainly wish they got [McLeod] before he came back to the city centre."

A review is also under way to examine the contact McLeod had with authorities and whether more could have been done to prevent his actions.

"I'm hoping that when we get that report in a few months time that we'll have some openness and some honesty from the agencies involved as to the circumstances of this," Mrs Billington said.