Stab victim's mother in knife plea

8:45am Monday 12th March 2007

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THE mother of stabbing victim Samuel Marriott-Gray has appealed for an end to knife violence.

Sonia McCarthy's message is simple - don't carry a blade: "People need to be educated about what knives and guns do... something needs to be done."

She said: "Put that knife down. You don't know what damage and devastation that can cause not only to the victim but to the entire family."

Her 21-year-old son's life still hangs by a thread as he lies in a vegetative state in a nursing home following the knife attack.

Samuel was stabbed with 10cm blade following an argument outside a party in Pegasus Road, Blackbird Leys, last year.

His attacker Leonard Morrison - known as Gold Teeth - was last week jailed for life and told his crime was tantamount to murder.

The knife Morrison wielded was described in court as a dreadful weapon and has sparked fresh calls for a clampdown on blades.

Now Ms McCarthy, 44, hopes her message could save other families from a similar nightmare.

She said: "Don't walk with a knife. These days everyone has got to be 'big and bad', but at the end of the day someone gets injured or they lose their life.

"What is the point, what is the purpose, what are you trying to prove?"

Her son left Streatham in south London in 2004 to live with the family in Blackbird Leys after he was mugged for his mobile phone.

Samuel enjoyed dancing and football but after the stabbing is confined to a bed in a nursing home.

His only form of communication with family or friends is by blinking.

Ms McCarthy said: "In London, stabbings are an everyday occurrence and when you hear these things in the news your heart goes out to the families. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this could happen to Samuel.

"He fled the violence to live in a peaceful place where he had friends and I never ever thought I'd be living my life like this, or that Samuel would be in this position.

"I don't understand how any human being can take a knife and actually put it into someone's flesh like that.

"I can't see what could possess you to want to harm somebody like that.

"That mentality needs to be wiped out. People need to be educated about what knives and guns do."

Samuel studied Business and Drama at the Brits School of Performing Arts in Croydon, and was in the same year as X-Factor winner Leona Lewisok.

Ms McCarthy said: "He could captivate an audience. He made people laugh. He was a performer, always happy. There was always a smile on his face.

"He never walked with a weapon or in gangs. He always professed peace and love. That is how I brought my children up. It was about respecting other people."

Ms McCarthy added: "Something needs to be done. There is the knife amnesty and gun amnesty but there needs to be a change in the law to stop people carrying these things.

"Goldteeth walked with a knife with the intention to use it.

"I never want to see his face again. There was pure evil in his eyes.

"He used to laugh and joke with my family in The Blackbird pub.

"If Samuel upset him in some way why didn't he come to us and say something? There is no peaceful reason for carrying a knife."

Det Supt Steve Tolmie, the man who led the hunt for Goldteeth, appealed for people to take heed of Ms McCarthy's appeal.

He said: "Everyone has got to listen to the relatives of victims of crimes like this and think very very strongly before they carry a knife.

"It only takes one blow to change someone's life. No-one can justify carrying a knife on the streets. The knife used against Sam was designed to be easily concealed because it could be folded down to a length of about three inches.

"The way it was used was so devastating because it embedded into his brain through the bottom of his skull."

Since the court case, Thames Valley Police have confirmed Morrison was an overstayer and Judge Julian Hall has called for the Home Office to consider deporting the 37-year-old back to Jamaica when his sentence ends.

Ms McCarthy added: "What that guy did to my son, he doesn't know the impact on my life. He has devastated my family, friends and people who knew Samuel."