HEARING a bloodcurdling scream from downstairs as his wife answered the door, Stuart Stephens almost knew the tragedy that had unfolded before being told.
Barefoot, he raced out to the nearby fields in Emmer Green, Berkshire, where his 13-year-old son Olly had gone to meet a friend just minutes earlier and spotted a crowd gathered with a look of horror on their faces.
Olly Stephens was lured to his death by a school girl and two attackers[/caption]
The 13-year-old seen walking to a park where he would be stabbed twice[/caption]
Olly’s father Stephen has labelled social media a ‘cancer in our children’s lives’[/caption]
Pushing through the masses, Stuart felt like his “head was in a washing machine” and was overwhelmed with “shock, disbelief and horror” upon seeing his lifeless boy.
Recalling the moment he knelt in Olly’s blood as he fell to the ground, the shell-shocked dad, 56, said: “I grabbed my son’s hand. It was stone cold. I knew he was gone.”
Olly’s murder in January 2021 horrified the nation. He had been lured to his death by a scorned schoolgirl, 13, who had enlisted two boys, 13 and 14, to exact revenge. None can be named for legal reasons.
Behind the fatal stabbing was a chilling plot, developed over two weeks and fuelled by humiliating taunts, violent threats and degrading attacks online.
How the horrors of the virtual world lead to real-life violence is the focus of a powerful new Channel 5 documentary, The Real Adolescence: Britain’s Killer Kids, which is out on Thursday.
It follows the huge success of hard-hitting Netflix drama Adolescence, which follows the chilling story of a baby-faced 13-year-old boy who is arrested for the murder of his classmate.
Olly’s murder has led Stuart to label social media “a cancer in our children’s lives” and experts to warn there’s “an arms war” among youngsters due to their fear of attacks.
Speaking to The Sun, Stuart tells us: “[Social media sites] are very dangerous tools, the smallest arguments can escalate to 30 children becoming involved and we end up with dead children. It’s a horrific situation.
“We could see word for word, moment for moment, the arguments and discussions that built up to the attack over a two to three week period.
“It was so graphic, so horrific, and the complete lack of humanity in their language and threats to kill, threats to harm, was stomach-churning.
“They were very nasty kids with no value for life. The girl was just evil, Olly wanted to patch things up so they could be friends but she played on his emotions and lured him into a trap.
“After the stabbing, she ran away skipping and laughing while my son was bleeding out and I was begging him not to leave me.
“There were five or six kids there, they all knew what was going to happen and they said nothing, they were there for the joy of watching Olly being punished.
“Two minutes after Olly was stabbed it was all over social media and even one of his friends in Sweden knew. What a horrific way to find out. By then, I hadn’t even called our family.
“I hold everyone in that field responsible for Olly’s death yet we only got three convictions – two for murder and the girl for manslaughter. I feel like she got away with murder.”
Police investigating the scene where Olly was stabbed to death[/caption]
‘You’re going to die’
The sick plot that led to Olly’s death was unearthed through analysis of messages, recordings, videos and photos online.
“I’m so excited, you don’t understand,” the girl explained in a voice message the night before the attack.
Just 24 hours earlier, one of the boys recorded a menacing video in a balaclava threatening to stab Olly with a ‘nank’ – a knife – if he saw him.
One of them had also sent a voice note to Olly directly, telling him: “You’ve got poison in your heart fam… you’re going to die tomorrow.”
Disregard for his life was clear, with the girl claiming not to care if he “f***ing dies” and she appeared delighted by the plan to film a humiliating attack against him.
It’s like an arms war… the knives that are being used are massive, they are either zombie knives or machetes
Patrick Green, Ben Kinsella Trust
Stuart says the boys were “goading each other to go further and further”, which led to the “horrendous” attack.
Their feud stemmed from him defending a friend who had been ‘patterned’ – an assault or humiliating act deliberately filmed to be shared on social media.
Olly had told the victim’s older brother and the boys, who were furious he had “snitched on them”, decided to “punish him”.
‘Pure evil’
On the day of the attack, Olly was lured to the fields to meet the girl, only to be knifed in the back and chest.
“They punctured both lungs so he literally had a minute, a minute and a half, there was no way he was going to survive that,” Stuart recalls.
“It was pure evil, they left him dying and ran off. They lost all perspective. There was no value in Olly, there were no consequence and they didn’t care about him.”
To cover his tracks, the boys dumped their bloodied clothes on a railway track and then began to purge their online presence.
You’ve got poison in your heart fam… you’re going to die tomorrow
One of Olly Stephens’ killers
Sickeningly in court, they claimed the stabbing was “all an accident” and insisted “Olly fell on to the knife”. All three of them would receive jail time.
The girl, 13, admitted manslaughter and was sentenced to three years and two months, later increased to five years on appeal.
The boys were unanimously convicted of murder at a trial – with the older one sentenced to 12 years and the younger sentenced to 13 years.
Describing the contribution of social media to his son’s death, Stuart said: “There is a cancer in our children’s lives.
“It starts with the use of a mobile phone with apps provided to entertain, yet are misused to spread slander, hate, misinformation, and bile and ends in cruel cold-blooded murder.”
‘Cut heart in two’
Rohan ‘Fred’ Shand was stabbed to death after a spat over a girl escalated online[/caption]
Teens are resorting to the use of increasingly bigger and more deadly weapons[/caption]
The same “cancer” was evident in the case of Rohan ‘Fred’ Shand, 16, who was knifed to death in Northampton, in March 2023.
Spurred on by friends and his fear of looking weak, the murderer, 14, who can’t be named for legal reasons, wrote: “Giving me too much talk I might have to stab him.”
Soon after, he announced his plan to “bring tools” – referring to knives – and “come ballied up” – meaning to wear a balaclava – to his 16-year-old accomplice.
The attacker’s rage was fuelled by a dispute over a girl and two subsequent fist-fights in which the young teen had “lost face”.
On the day of the killing, the killer rented an e-scooter using his mum’s credit card, before driving to the city centre to pick up his pal and headed to Fred’s college, where they stalked his route home.
A fight broke out and after Fred knocked one attacker, 16, to the ground, he turned to see the 14-year-old brandishing an “absolutely massive” blade.
I live with what happened to Olly every day and it turns my stomach. I can’t understand how a child could do that
Stuart Stephens
“It’s a really big knife,” DI Simon Barnes says. “He’s seen the knife and backs up, walking backward, doesn’t see the tree behind him and is cornered against it.”
The 25cm weapon was plunged 16cm into Fred’s chest and “cut his heart in two” according to the cop, who described the feud having “escalated so senselessly, so needlessly”.
Prior to the killing, the teens were seen posing with weapons on social media. Patrick Green, of anti-knife charity The Ben Kinsella Trust, says the platforms have a lot to answer for.
“What social media has done is create a style icon, a youth culture around knife crime. It glamourises it and normalises it,” he says.
“It’s like an arms war. A decade ago I’d be talking to parents about checking their knife drawers and particularly the small knives that would be hidden in your belt.
“Now we’re talking to parents about checking the deliveries to come to your door because the knives that are being used are massive, they are either zombie knives or machetes.”
Shawn Seesahai, 19, was knifed to death by two 12-years-olds in a case that shocked the nation[/caption]
Social media has also played a part in other high-profile murders of youngsters, including the killing of Shawn Seesahai by two 12-year-olds.
The day after the 19-year-old was knifed to death in a brutal machete attack, one of his killers wrote of the attack: “It is what it is” and “idrc” – meaning ‘I don’t really care’.
Hours before the butchering, one of them posed with a machete tucked into the top of his jogging bottoms and had shared photos of serrated-edged swords to ‘gain status’.
They are Britain’s youngest murderers since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables abducted, tortured and violently killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.
NSPCC advice on keeping teens and pre-teens safe online
- Follow age requirements – Many popular apps, sites and games are 13+, it’s important to check and follow these with pre-teens.
- Speak to phone providers – If your child owns their own smartphone then contact the service provider to make sure it is registered as a child’s device. This means additional safety restrictions can be put in place.
- Support your child with their settings – Support your child to manage their safety and wellbeing settings across devices and accounts.
- Focus on regular safety conversations – It’s important to keep conversations regular at this age. Check our advice on tackling challenging conversations including tips for how to use technology to support you with this.
- Share youth facing help and support – Make sure your child knows about services that can help like Childline. You could start by sharing the online safety advice content and the Report Remove tool created by the IWF and Childline.
- Revisit parental controls – you will likely need to revisit your parental controls again at this age and adjust them. Keep checking these regularly to make sure they are in place.
- Explore healthy habits together – Healthy habits work best when all the family agrees to following them. This could be agreeing to charge devices away from beds to support sleep and not using devices during mealtimes to help take breaks.
If your child asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, or speaks to you about a negative experience they had online, here are some of things you could do:
- Visit the NSPCC online safety hub: nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety.
- Call the NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000 to speak to an advisor.
- Ask another parent.
- Speak to your child’s teacher.
- If your child needs more support, they can contact Childline: childline.org.uk.
The mum of Brianna Ghey, who was violently stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife, in February 2023 has called for a ban on social media for kids under 16.
She considers it an “absolute cesspit”, believing it was in-part responsible for warping the minds of her daughter’s twisted killers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15.
As for Stuart, Olly’s mum Amanda and his sister, they continue to battle the emotional wounds of losing such a “loving and kind” member of their family.
“I live with what happened to Olly every day and it turns my stomach. I can’t understand how a child could do that,” he tells us.
They continue to fight for a stronger Online Safety Bill – including holding social media bosses accountable for dangerous content and the algorithms that push more of it towards vulnerable youngsters.
Brianna Ghey’s twisted killers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe[/caption]
They plotted to kill the teenager on social media[/caption]
Violence-obsessed Jenkinson even penned a plan about how to kill Brianna[/caption]
He says: “These companies are so big now, it’s almost like the Government is scared of them. They shouldn’t be, it’s a privilege to work in this country, not a right.
“There are a lot of bullying tactics and too many politicians in the pockets of these companies.”
As Olly’s peers pass their GCSEs, learn to drive and grow up, Stuart is forever reminded of the milestones his beloved son will never reach.
But that hurt and anger serves a purpose, driving his battle for changes, as he tells us: “I could stay in bed for the rest of my days but I put my feet on the floor because Olly can’t.”
The Real Adolescence: Britain’s Killer Kids, part of the Lawless Britain season by ITN Productions, airs 9pm Thursday on Channel 5.
‘No school kid feels safe’
STANDING before scores of students, Alison Cope reaches into her bag and unveils an urn containing the ashes of her late son.
The mum, 51, talks to 4,500 kids a week as part of her anti-knife campaign work and says there’s not a single school – primary, secondary nor college – where kids feel safe.
She blames social media for much of this harm, believing content depicting stabbings, violence and drugs serve to not only glamorise but desensitise and normalise such terrors.
The risks are clear to Alison, who lost her son Joshua Ribera, 18, in a knife attack outside a Birmingham nightclub. Chillingly, it was a memorial event for another stabbing victim.
She’s tirelessly campaigned to reduce blade-related crime ever since and tells us sometimes she brings her late son’s ashes to school talks.
“Most young people accept the message but for those exposed to more deep-rooted negativity, a more powerful message is needed,” she says.
“Occasionally, I bring my son in with me and say, ‘Is this really the future you want for you or for another young person?’
“Many young people are so desensitised due to social media that they need a reality check and there’s nothing more real than my son’s remains – even though some find it shocking.”
Alison adds: “Some feel they have no choice but to carry a knife to protect themselves. They are terrified and that’s not ok. The Government needs to listen to them to save their lives.
“As we speak now, there is a little boy leaving primary school who won’t be here in four years. He’ll be dead. Combatting this could be a priority for the country.
“Thousands and thousands of kids are terrified to live in this country, but they don’t have a choice to move house, get chauffeured into school or go to expensive afterschool activities.
“Keir Starmer telling every school to play Netflix’s Adolescence won’t solve the problem, emojis aren’t causing deaths. It’s a cheap reaction, we need reinvestment in services for young people.”
Alison believes a crackdown on social media content should be an urgent priority – insisting dangerous videos should be removed immediately.
She says: “Kids’ biggest concerns were the level of arguments, bullying, confrontations and fights social media has arranged that have led to fatalities. But where is the national outcry?
“If you had a paedophile on YouTube with 50 million views per video, promoting abuse against children there is no way it would stay online for more than a few seconds.
“It would be removed and the creator would face a lifetime ban but a young person talking about stabbing, violence and drugs remains.”