Man jailed for ‘senseless’ stabbing of friend who died five years after attack

Jamel Boyce was 17 when he was stabbed in the heart in 2016, and died more than five years later after suffering severe brain damage.

Jamel Boyce was stabbed in the heart by his friend (Family Handout/PA) (PA Media)

A man has been jailed for life for stabbing his friend in a “brutal and senseless attack”, leaving him blind, unable to speak and paralysed for more than five years before he died.

Jamel Boyce was 17 when he suffered catastrophic brain damage in the attack outside Sainsbury’s in Clapham, south-west London, in October 2016, and died in a care home on February 13 2022 at the age of 22.

Tyrese Osei-Kofi, now 25, pleaded guilty to murdering Jamel in November, admitting eight years after the attack that he had been the attacker.

The defendant, of east Dulwich, south-east London, was jailed for 10 years in 2018 after he was convicted of wounding Jamel with intent, and he was locked up for at least 14 years at the Old Bailey on Friday for his murder.

Judge Lynn Tayton KC said: “The statements of Jamel’s parents can only give an idea of the profound grief they and the rest of Jamel’s family have suffered and will continue to suffer and will stay with them always.

“The sentence I will impose is in no sense a measure of the value of Jamel’s life.”

The court heard that Osei-Kofi, in a letter to the judge, said he and Jamel were “good friends” and told of how Jamel had been to his house, how his mother had cooked for him and they had spent a lot of time “chilling together”.

Jamel’s parents gave emotional addresses to the court on Friday, both of them detailing the “agony” of waiting eight years to hear Osei-Kofi admit he killed their son.

Patrick Boyce, Jamel’s father, said: “Having to wait all these years for the truth to be revealed, the agony, the pain, the doubts that pass through my mind cannot be explained.”

Referencing his son’s killer, he continued: “I wish before his sentence he could say that he is sorry and ask for forgiveness from Jamel’s family.

“No amount of sentence can justify what he has done to me and my family but I hope that in time somewhere in his heart he can find some remorse and ask whichever god he serves for forgiveness.”

The brutal and senseless attack that occurred on October 14 2016 left him blind, unable to speak and… unable to interact with the world around

Pansy Boyce

Pansy Boyce, Jamel’s mother, said her son was “full of life” before the attack – and he was nicknamed “smiley” at college.

“The brutal and senseless attack that occurred on October 14 2016 left him blind, unable to speak and… unable to interact with the world around,” she told the court.

“All of the above stolen from him in the thrust of a knife wielded by the hand of a person he felt safe with.”

She said her son fought “tirelessly” to survive for five years and four months.

“I miss the sound of Jamel’s voice, the way he smiled and the joy he brought in my life,” Mrs Boyce went on. “I have lost the future I had envisioned with Jamel, the moments that will never be, the memories we will never celebrate, the quiet days and the joyous memories that were stolen from us.”

At the end of her statement she addressed her son, recalling how he closed his eyes for the final time in February 2022, and saying: “May you finally rest in peace.”

On October 14 2016, Osei-Kofi stabbed Jamel directly to the heart causing him to suffer a cardiac arrest, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court.

Emergency services managed to restart his heart but he had been deprived of oxygen for so long that he suffered a “catastrophic brain injury that left him in a permanent vegetative state”.

It is a trite cliche... but what happened that evening just outside Sainsbury's was just moments of inexplicable madness

Graham Trembath KC

“He never recovered full consciousness,” Ms Heer said. “Unable to communicate, he was paralysed in all his limbs, he required 24-hour nursing care.

“He remained largely in the same state of health when he died at the age of 22 in 2022.”

She told the court Jamel and Osei-Kofi, who were pupils at the same college in Clapham, had been at McDonald’s together earlier that afternoon before meeting up outside Sainsbury’s in the evening.

Two witnesses saw what happened in the supermarket car park, telling of seeing Osei-Kofi holding Jamel against some railings and overhearing the defendant saying: “Do you want me to do it? Do you think I won’t do it? Hand me the shiv.”

One of the witnesses shouted at Osei-Kofi to help his friend after Jamel collapsed, and the court heard he tried to move Jamel and told him to wake up but eventually left and boarded a bus when his actions had no effect.

Medical experts said that whatever resulted in Jamel’s death “at the heart of it was the stabbing that took place back in 2016”, Ms Heer told the court.

Graham Trembath KC, defending, argued that his client did not intend to kill Jamel.

“It is a trite cliche… but what happened that evening just outside Sainsbury’s was just moments of inexplicable madness.

“He stabbed Jamel twice. Why? Why? Some farcical, petty argument developed.”

The judge accepted that he did not intend to kill Jamel, also telling the court: “I have read your letter in which you say you are sorry for everything and you pray for Jamel and his family.”