Two teenagers plead guilty to murdering schoolboy in machete bus attack

Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to murdering a schoolboy with machetes on a London bus.

Aspiring rapper Keylan Bokassa was stabbed around 27 times with two "lengthy machetes", the Old Bailey heard.

The 14-year-old was on the top deck of the 472 bus in Woolwich, southeast London, at around 2.30pm on 7 January when the two defendants, both aged 16, approached him with weapons.

Prosecuting, Tom Little KC said it was "clear" the attack was "not a form of spontaneous incident" and the defendants "must have known the deceased was on the bus".

"They approach him and almost instantaneously, the two of them pull out machetes and attacked the deceased," he told the plea hearing on Friday.

"He is stabbed or attempted to be stabbed on a total of 27 occasions before the defendants made their way off the bus."

Emergency services rushed to the scene in Woolwich Church Street but Mr Bokassa had suffered a severed femoral artery and died shortly after medics arrived.

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In an unusual move, given they were both minors, the Metropolitan Police named the two suspects in a public appeal to trace them.

The victim's relatives gasped and became tearful as they were brought to the dock on Friday.

One of the defendants appeared to change his plea to guilty at the last minute, with his barrister leaving court briefly before returning with confirmation he admitted the charge.

Both teenagers also pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

Groomed from age six

Speaking to the media after his death, the victim's mother Mary Bokassa revealed he had been groomed by gangs from the age of six.

Although he had returned to school and the pair had spent Christmas together in the weeks before his death, she was concerned he still had "one foot in the streets" and was "not surprised" when she found out he had been killed.

One of the machetes used in the attack was thrown in the River Thames but later resurfaced by police.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered reports ahead of sentencing the pair on 25 July and said he would consider a media appeal to name them.

(c) Sky News 2025: Two teenagers plead guilty to murdering schoolboy in machete bus attack