PCC Clare Moody’s statement after Eddie Kinuthia murder trial sentencing
This week a man was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison, following his conviction for the murder of Eddie Kinuthia in Bristol.
Eddie needlessly and tragically lost his life, at the age of 19, in a fatal knife attack in St Paul’s on July 23rd 2023.
I want to pay tribute to Eddie’s mother, Irene, and his family who have shown great strength, courage and dignity throughout their wait for justice.
Despite their unimaginable pain and loss, Irene and her family have tirelessly campaigned in Eddie’s memory to promote a message to young people of unity, hope and putting knives down.
Earlier this year, when I attended a renaming ceremony of a local park in St Paul’s dedicated to Eddie’s memory, I could see how many young people’s lives he had touched.
Eddie was known to be a bright and much loved young man and it is clear that his loss devastated his family, and had a profound impact on the community where he grew up and across the city of Bristol.
The perpetrator in Eddie’s case was also convicted and sentenced, alongside another man, for a separate offence of attempted murder involving a different victim six months after Eddie’s death.
Throughout the trial, evidence was heard about senseless ongoing postcode-based feuds between young people in different areas of the city of Bristol that had fuelled and led to this awful tragedy and the attack on the separate victim.
I am pleased to see justice served and two very dangerous men behind bars who will no longer be a danger to other young people on our streets.
This case is a stark reminder of how vital it is to focus our resources on early intervention, prevention, diversion and support for young people.
We must invest in young people. We must provide safe places to go, adults our young people can trust and turn to, opportunities to learn and grow, but most importantly we must provide hope for a better future.
Eddie’s unnecessary loss has only served to strengthen my resolve to use my term in office, and my role as chair of the Violence Reduction Partnership in Avon and Somerset, to build on this existing work and to push even further to tackle the root causes of knife crime and serious youth violence.
I want to also thank Avon and Somerset Police and Senior Investigating Officer in this case, Marc Almond, for their diligent investigation and securing justice for Eddie and his loved ones.
You can read more about the trial and the outcome here on Avon and Somerset Police’s website.