Heartbroken mum tells Kyle Files she sent 14-year-old son away over London knife crime fears – but he was stabbed to death in Manchester a year later
DISTRAUGHT mum Rachel Webb put her head on her son’s chest, heard his heartbeat fading and wept into the hospital bedsheets. Her son, 15-year-old Kyron was dying after being stabbed in the heart in an unprovoked attack by two teenagers, aged just 16 and 17. The mum-of-five had sent him to live with his dad […]
DISTRAUGHT mum Rachel Webb put her head on her son’s chest, heard his heartbeat fading and wept into the hospital bedsheets.
Her son, 15-year-old Kyron was dying after being stabbed in the heart in an unprovoked attack by two teenagers, aged just 16 and 17.
The mum-of-five had sent him to live with his dad in Manchester after seeing kids losing their lives on the streets near her south London home in the UK’s knife crime epidemic.
But in a cruel twist of fate, in October 2017, Kyron was brutally killed in the place his mother thought he would be safest.
Last year, 250 people died in knife attacks in the UK – an increase of 69 per cent from the year before.
Talking on tonight’s episode of The Kyle Files Rachel, 41, warned other teens: “There are huntsmen out there wanting your blood, just for the sake of having your blood.”
In a moving interview, she also opened up about the moment her beloved son slipped away after she made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support machine.
She told the ITV show: “I just remember leaning forward and I put my head on his chest.
“I closed my eyes and I thought of every single baby picture I could think of, every happy memory, every smile, every joy, anything that I could think of that would remind me of my Kyron.
“I felt strong powerful heartbeats and I thought: ‘They’re going to switch the machine off and his heart’s going to keep beating and it’s going to be OK.
“They were coming really strong and then it started to slow down a little bit. Then I felt it fading out and then, he’s gone. His heart’s not beating anymore.
“It felt like someone robbed a piece of me and that’s hard.”
‘I knew I wasn’t bringing my son home’
In the final show of the series, Jeremy Kyle talks to the perpetrators and the families of victims as he tries to get to the bottom of the knife crime crisis.
Mum-of-five Rachel, from south London, told the show: “Kyron was a really sensitive little boy. The best thing about him was his smile.
“He had the most magnetic, contagious smile and he’d just want a hug. He was so loving. Even at 15.”
Although he was not involved in gangs, Rachel believed Kyron would be safer in Manchester because of the rising crime in the capital.
But a year after he moved, Rachel got a phone call to say her son had been stabbed and was in hospital.
She said: “When I got to the hospital, there were two plain clothed police officers there and they told me Kyron had been stabbed and I said ‘where’? One of them said ‘his heart’.
“As soon as she said his heart I knew I wasn’t going to be bringing my son home. I remember breaking down and just screaming and screaming until I didn’t feel I could even breathe anymore. I had no more words. I just knew.”
In May 2018, Kyron’s attacker Michael Idehen was jailed for 15 years for murder and his 16-year-old accomplice was jailed for five years for manslaughter.
Police said the murder was not gang-related – and Rachel says that is all the more terrifying.
“I’m now so frightened for all my other children when they are not with me at home because you don’t have to be misbehaving or having an argument with anybody,” she said.
“You simply have to be in a postcode and it’s going to be a problem.”
The show revealed that there were, on average, 100 victims of knife attacks every day last year – and 20 per cent of those charged with offences were aged 10-17.
Jeremy also reveals that a fear of crime is silencing communities and victims.
In 2014, two per cent of victims were too afraid to identify the perpetrator but today, almost a quarter don’t press charges.
‘You’ve got to be alpha’
Michael Jonas, whose son Michael was stabbed to death in Bett’s Park in 2017, says his killer has never been convicted and the wall of silence greeting police means his family’s suffering is increased.
“I would really like that person to tell me why they killed Michael,” he said.
“We know there’s nothing we can do to bring him back but tell us why you killed Michael. We need to know.”
In another chilling interview, Jeremy quizzes two anonymous gang members who admitted carrying knives every day.
One, who had carried a weapon since he was 14, said: “You know you’ve got to be alpha, and to be that alpha you have to take out those who want to step out of line.”
Asked if he would stab the ITV host, if he didn’t like the look of him, he said he would “ask questions first” but if he didn’t get an answer he would attack.
He said: “I ask you a simple question, just answer it. You don’t turn your back and walk off from me. You’re basically making me look like a d***head in front of my boys.”
He also said that he had seen someone die after being stabbed in the neck, but added that would make him more likely to use a weapon.
He told Jeremy that there was no way to break the cycle of violence once you’re involved, saying: “The only way you can get out of the gang is to move to another country. Why should I do that? Turn my back on my boys? That’s my brothers.”
The Kyle Files airs on ITV at 8pm tonight.