Rayon Pennycook: 'Traumatic' scene as PC tried to save stabbed boy

PC Alex Prentice says incidents like the stabbing of Rayon Pennycook are familiar throughout the country

A police officer has described the "traumatic" scene as he tried to save the life of a boy who had been stabbed.

PC Alex Prentice used a defibrillator, chest seal and a blood clotting agent as he treated Rayon Pennycook.

The 16-year-old died in Reynolds Road, Corby, on 25 May following an altercation with another teenager.

PC Prentice, from Northamptonshire Police, said knives were "incredibly dangerous" and such scenes were all too common across the country.

On Friday, Stefan Draca, 18, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison for Rayon's murder.

Rayon Pennycook died from a single stab wound

During the trial, the court heard how PC Prentice had attended the scene to find Rayon bleeding from a 9cm (3.5in) wound.

The confrontation followed another fight between two women, and the trial judge said both the murderer and his victim had been involved in a "two-way knife fight".

Speaking to the BBC, the police officer said the force had originally being called to reports of violent disorder.

They were then told someone had been stabbed and had "staggered into one of the addresses" nearby.

PC Prentice said they were met by people "screaming and shouting that somebody had been stabbed".

He said he had gone into the house Rayon had entered where he found the teenager had suffered a single stab wound to the top right hand side of his chest.

Floral tributes were left in Constable Road, Corby - next to Reynolds Road where the stabbing took place

"It was probably about two inches in height and appeared to go down towards his heart and lungs," he said.

PC Prentice said officers had found two people carrying out first aid on Rayon.

He said they took over using specialist trauma skills, including applying a clotting agent called Celox "to try and stop the catastrophic bleeding" and using a haemorrhage kit and chest seal.

Helped by his colleagues, PC Prentice also used a defibrillator to try to the boy.

"Initially Rayon was responsive," he said. "His eyes were flickering and he had some movement in his hands, but that soon faded.

"The people there - some were family members, some were close friends - were very, very distressed. There were people crying."

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"It was very traumatic," he added, "but it's something we are trained to deal with.

"Unfortunately it is not the first time I've come across an incident like that.

"Knives are incredibly dangerous. We come across them on a day-to-day basis, be it kitchen knives through to machetes and 'zombie' knives."

A police forensics team searched Constable Road and Reynolds Road following the stabbing in May

PC Prentice said the weapons were not only being used in conflicts between teenagers, but for offences such as aggravated burglary and street robbery.

"It is a familiar scene not just in Northamptonshire, but all over the UK," he said.

"Knife crime is one of our priority areas, but they are just so regularly available.

"For whatever reason young people in general appear to be carrying weapons on a regular basis."