Two teenagers who brutally murdered a 14-year-old boy with machetes on a London bus have each been jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years and 10 months.

The killers, who are both aged 16 and cannot be named because of their age, stabbed aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa 27 times as he travelled on a 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, at 2.30pm on January 7. Both had previous convictions, including for having a knife in a public place, while one of them had a referral order in place at the time of the murder. The younger of the two appeared to smirk as he was led out of the dock following the hearing today.

Both boys had pleaded guilty to Kelyan's murder and carrying knives during a previous court appearance. During the same hearing, prosecutor Tom Little KC said Kelyan was sitting upstairs on the back seat of the bus when he was attacked by the pair, who were both wielding "lengthy machetes".

Kelyan died shortly after being attacked on the 472 bus in Woolwich on January 7 (

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Kelyan was on the bus when they boarded and walked directly towards him before launching their deadly attack. 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."

The emergency services were called, but Kelyan, who had sustained a severed femoral artery, died shortly after medics arrived. The killers, who were themselves aged just 15 and 16 at the time of the murder, fled the scene and went on the run.

Forensic officers gathered evidence on board the red London double-decker in the hours after Kelyan's murder (

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One of their machetes was discarded nearby in the River Thames, but was later recovered and they were finally caught six days later after police issued CCTV images of them both and named them as part of a public appeal for information.

Kelyan, a keen footballer and Arsenal fan, was the first teenager to be killed by knife crime in London in 2025. While visiting the spot where he died, his devastated mum Mary previously told the Mirror how she wants the killings of youngsters on our streets to end.

She said: "This has to stop. These Black people who die on the streets, it’s not fair, this has to stop.”

Kelyan's mum Mary bravely visited the spot where her son was killed (

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Mary also told us how Kelyan, who was her only child and an aspiring rapper who used the name Grippa, had been groomed by gangs after growing up without his father and being taken into care. She said: “My son was taken advantage of by gangs. He was targeted by gangs and groomed.

“All the time when he left home I was just hoping he would come back. He was on edge, very scared going out. He had challenging times, but was very kind and caring. He had a good sense of humour.”

Mary, originally from the Central African Republic, said she begged for help to try to stop Kelyan associating with gangs, but claimed she got no support from the authorities. His temporary homes included one in Deal, Kent, but he ran away back to London twice.

Mary said when he was first in care, she received reports from social workers describing him as “a very polite boy, he was very kind and he listened and was good in school and doing well”. But she added: “The last two years it was the opposite. He lived in the streets for a year after he ran away from the children’s home.

Mary has been left devastated by the murder of Kelyan, who was her only child (

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“This is where he became an aspiring rapper because he had no other options. When he came back he was literally lost. The care system just completely broke him.

“When he finally turned up at my doorstep he was underweight, very hungry, tattooed and exposed to drugs. He was just bones. He had become a very angry child. He probably experienced something because I sensed it.

“He was not himself. If I questioned him he wouldn’t tell me anything about his friends. He was upset and he could not concentrate. He was very anxious. He was worried about his safety.”

Kelyan's mum Mary told how being in care destroyed him, but he had been trying to turn his life around when he was murdered (

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Around an hour before he was killed, Kelyan posted a haunting message on Instagram, asking if any of his followers had a “mindy” – a street slang term for knife. Documents also showed he had previously been due in court on charges of possessing a machete in a public place on May 3 last year.

And he had been convicted of possessing a Stanley knife at a bike shed and faced charges of stealing from a shop and failing to surrender to court bail.

But Mary said Kelyan had begun to turn his life around and was on his way to see social workers when he died. She also told how he had been looking forward to returning to Newhaven School in Eltham, a referral unit, after the Christmas break.

She said: “In the morning it was a normal day. He was very happy because it was his first day back to school. He put his uniform on and was very proud to wear it. He was full of life.”

Mary told how Kelyan dreamed of becoming a chef

Mary was told the tragic news her son had died when police turned up at their flat in Greenwich, south-east London, almost two hours after the murder. She had to be held back on her balcony by a pal, who feared she was about to throw herself off.

Speaking of the future Kelyan was robbed of, she said: “He wanted to be a chef. He had type one diabetes so it was important to him to learn to cook. We cooked together. He had just started watching Jamie Oliver.

“He was very articulate and loved English. He was also good at football and drawing. He was a very talented boy.”