Machete killer, 12, inspired by drill musician who rapped about ‘ripping through guts’

A 12-year-old machete killer was inspired by a jailed drill musician who rapped about “swinging a blade” and “ripping through guts”.

A jury on Monday unanimously found two boys, both aged 12, guilty of murdering 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in a park in Wolverhampton.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that the boy who owned the machete used to kill Seesahai idolised a drill rapper serving a life sentence for a fatal machete attack.

The rapper SJ, whose real name is Jayden O’Neill-Crichlow, was convicted of murdering a young father in a north London hair salon in 2019.

He had been a major part of the drill music scene, a form of hip-hop which has been accused of glorifying violence, and his lyrics made frequent references to carrying knives and stabbing people.

Such lyrics included: “Swing my shank [UK slang for knife] aim straight for your head” and “my rambo [another slang for knife] gon’ rip through guts”.

The violent lyrics were referenced in court as one of the boys had mentioned the drill artist before the murder of Seesahai.

The boy, who bought the machete for £40 online, sent an image of himself with the weapon inside the leg of his tracksuit bottoms to his co-defendant and a schoolgirl.

The picture was captioned ‘Prison Freestyle’, a song created and published online by O’Neill-Crichlow from behind bars.

Addressing the court, the boy claimed he “didn’t listen to loads” of O’Neill-Crichlow’s music and was unaware of his conviction.

Yet he admitted that music videos had inspired him to clean the machete with bleach, and one of O’Neill-Crichlow’s songs includes the lyric “got my Rambz [knife] all bleached up”.

Shortly before murdering Seesahai, the boys were passing the machete between them at Stowlawn playing fields in East Park, Wolverhampton.

They attacked Seesahai, who had only been in the country six months and was originally from Anguilla in the Caribbean, as he discussed plans for Christmas with a friend in a Wolverhampton park in November last year.

The fatal wound to his back was more than 20 centimetres (7.8in) deep, with the blade going through the victim’s heart and almost out of his chest.

He died at the scene after being hacked by the nearly 17in-long blade and beaten by his attackers, who are believed to be the youngest boys to have committed a knife-related murder in the UK.