Youths admit machete murder of 14-year-old boy on bus

Two youths have admitted murdering a 14-year-old schoolboy in a machete attack on a London bus.

Kelyan Bokassa was stabbed around 27 times as he travelled home on a route 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on Tuesday January 7.

Emergency services were called to Woolwich Church Street, near Woolwich Ferry, just before 2.30pm.

Kelyan, an aspiring rapper, had sustained a severed femoral artery and died shortly after medics arrived at the scene.

In an unusual move, Scotland Yard had issued CCTV images and named two boys as part of a public appeal for information.

Two boys, both aged 16, were charged with murder and appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday for a plea hearing.

The pair pleaded guilty to Kelyan’s murder and having a knife on Woolwich Church Street.

Relatives of Kelyan gasped and appeared tearful as they sat metres away from the dock where the two boys sat flanked by officers.

Reporting of the case was briefly delayed after one of the boys’ barristers had called for time to speak to his client in light of what had appeared to be an unexpected plea.

Later, the youth returned to court and confirmed his guilty plea.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered reports ahead of sentencing on July 25.

At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the victim was sitting on the back seat of the bus on the upper deck when he was attacked by two youths both armed with “lengthy machetes”.

The defendants knew in advance of the presence of Kelyan when they boarded the bus and walked directly towards him, the court was told.

Mr Little said: “It is clear this is not a form of spontaneous incident. The two defendants must have known the deceased was on the bus.

“They approach him and almost instantaneously, the two of them pull out machetes and attacked the deceased.

“He is stabbed or attempted to be stabbed on a total of 27 occasions before the defendants made their way off the bus.”

One of the machetes was discarded in the River Thames but was later recovered.

Both defendants remained at large for a few days before being arrested.

Both had previous convictions, including for having a knife in a public place.

One of them had a referral order in place at the time of the murder.

The defendants cannot be named because of their ages.

However, Judge Lucraft indicated he would hear a media application to lift the reporting restriction at their sentencing hearing.

Published: 23/05/2025 by Radio NewsHub