Boy jailed for at least 13 years for murdering 15-year-old Alfie Lewis in Leeds | Knife murder

A 15-year-old schoolboy with a “worrying interest in knives” who stabbed another teenager in the heart on his way home from school has been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 13 years.

Bardia Shojaeifard was convicted in April of murdering 15-year-old Alfie Lewis outside St Margaret’s Primary School in Horsforth, Leeds, last November.

Shojaeifard was 14 years old at the time of the murder. He admitted stabbing Alfie twice with a 13cm long kitchen knife he had brought from home, but denied murder, claiming he feared for his life when he pulled out the weapon.

He can be named publicly for the first time after the judge, Mr Justice Cotter, lifted reporting restrictions preventing him from being identified on Friday. Cotter said lifting anonymity would help in “the vitally important debate about the scourge of knife crime, particularly among young people”.

The judge said the public would wonder how an “outwardly normal” boy “from a loving and supportive family” could commit such an “extraordinary” crime “with no warning or warning signs, except for pictures with knives from his phone”.

He said a witness described the attack as “vicious”, with Shojaeifard “trying as hard as he could to do some sort of damage to Alfie”.

He added: “Knives have stolen so many lives and you and others need to understand how dangerous this obsession is. Without your interest in knives, Alfie would be here today.”

A statement read by Alfie’s aunt Emily Lane outside Leeds Crown Court after the sentencing said: “There is no sentence that can be given that will take away our pain. Alfie, your mother loved you for 15 years and thought she would have you here for the rest of her life. We love you, miss you and will forever.”

She said the family were devastated by the sentence as it did not “demonstrate how serious the actions of Alfie’s killer were”.

At the start of the case, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said Alfie had been walking to meet friends when the defendant attacked him near the school just before 3pm on November 7.

Hassall said Alfie was stabbed twice, once in the chest and once in the leg. An autopsy found the fatal wound was a 14cm deep gash that punctured Alfie’s heart.

Hassall said all the witnesses were consistent in saying Alfie was not the aggressor that day.