Alfie Lewis's heartbroken mum sends six-word message to 14-year-old killer (2024)

Flowers were laid down for Alfie Lewis near where the stabbing took place. (Image: )

The heartbroken mother of a boy stabbed to death by a 14-year-old schoolboy told the killer “no sentence will ever be enough”, as he was yesterday jailed for life.

Bardia Shojaeifard had carried a six-inch blade inside his school uniform trousers, which he wore all day in class, before fatally attacking Alfie Lewis, 15.

Shojaeifard, the eldest son of two Iranian parents, had a ban on his identity lifted yesterday as he was told he must serve at least 13 years behind bars.

Sobbing as she read her victim impact statement, Alfie’s mother Heather Lane said: “No sentence will ever be enough for what you have done. I will never, ever forgive you.

“Alfie was my heart and when he was stabbed in the heart it killed me too.”

She described her son as a “big-hearted boy” who was known for “sorting out everyone’s problems and being the peacekeeper”.

“We laughed, danced and smiled, we loved each other for 15 years and I thought we would for the rest of my life,” she added.

Alfie’s older brother, Antony Lewis, said he was his “loving and caring little mate” who “never deserved what happened to him”.

Leeds Crown Court was told how Shojaeifard, now 15, was an outwardly normal child who had a “worrying interest with knives” and had posted photographs on social media brandishing blades.

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She described her son as a “big-hearted boy” who was known for “sorting out everyone’s problems and being the peacekeeper”.

“We laughed, danced and smiled, we loved each other for 15 years and I thought we would for the rest of my life,” she added.

Alfie’s older brother, Antony Lewis, said he was his “loving and caring little mate” who “never deserved what happened to him”.

Leeds Crown Court was told how Shojaeifard, now 15, was an outwardly normal child who had a “worrying interest with knives” and had posted photographs on social media brandishing blades.

He had endured an ongoing feud with Alfie, who had been expelled from school but would wait for his friends to finish class every day, when violence erupted in the leafy Leeds suburb of Horsforth, last November.

Horrified fellow pupils and parents collecting children from a primary school watched in horror as the cold-blooded killer plunged the kitchen knife through Alfie’s chest, piercing his heart.

A doctor and nurse were at the scene and desperately fought to keep Alfie alive as paramedics and an air ambulance scrambled.

But the teenager could not be revived and was pronounced dead on arrival at Leeds General Infirmary as his devastated parents arrived.

Shojaeifard had denied murder claiming self-defence but was found guilty of murdering Alfie by jury in April.

Mr Justice Cotter, said lifting the defendant’s anonymity would help in the “vitally important debate about the scourge of knife crime, among young people in particular”.

He said people would be wondering how a young boy “from a loving and supportive family” could commit such an “extraordinary” crime “without forewarning or any warning signs save for some pictures of knives on his phone”.

He added: “Outwardly Bardia was a normal 14-year-old boy with no interest in crime, albeit with a poor school disciplinary record.”

The court heard he had no interest in drugs, gangs or mental health issues.

Nicholas Lumley KC, mitigating, insisted the crime was “out of character” and that Shojaeifard was the son of “utterly decent, loving parents”.

The couple, both middle-class professionals, have been forced to flee their family home with their younger son amidst fear of reprisals. The semi-detached property remains boarded-up.

During the trial, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC told how Alfie had looking “surprised and shocked” and asked: “What are you doing?” as trouble erupted close to St Margaret’s Primary School in Town Street, just before 3pm on November 7 2023.

The prosecutor said: “Alfie did not get as far as meeting any of his friends that day.

“He was approached by Bardia, and stabbed twice – once in the chest and once in the leg.

“He collapsed and died in the road close to the primary school in full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them.”

Shojaiifard sprinted away, dropping the murder weapon in the street, as he ran home. He was arrested less than an hour later and told Alfie had died.

Passing sentence the judge added: “Knives have stolen so many lives, and you and others must understand how dangerous this obsession is.

“Without your interest in knives Alfie would be here today.”

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