Browse By

MOTHER OF MURDERED SCHOOLBOY JIMMY MIZEN ‘NOT SATISFIED’ WITH BBC RESPONSE

THE mother of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen, whose killer has been featured on the BBC, has said she is not satisfied with the statement provided by the organisation.

Margaret Mizen also said she believed Jake Fahri has broken the terms of his license and called for the Ministry of Justice to investigate.

Speaking on GB News, she said: “To be honest, Jimmy was really excited. It was the day after his birthday and he was leaving school on the Monday to start his GCSEs.

“He went around the corner to buy his first ever lottery ticket, went to the local bakery and Jake Fahri came in who is a very angry young man.

“To cut a long story short, because I was sitting here all day talking about it, he threw a glass dish at Jimmy, it shattered on Jimmy’s neck, and a piece of glass cut through his carotid artery and his jugular vein and embedded itself in his spine.

“Within three and a half minutes, Jimmy bled to death. So, Jimmy went out and just never came home again.

“I got a phone call from a friend telling me to get round the corner quickly because Jimmy was being attacked. And I remember running around there and taking my shoes off to run a bit faster because I couldn’t get there fast enough.

“And it was just all chaos when I got around the corner. When I got to the bakery, there was blood and glass and sausages absolutely everywhere. And when I eventually saw Jimmy, he was in a cupboard. My son, Tommy, was holding him, and Tommy just said to me, ‘Mum, go back, he’ll be okay.’

“But something he told me he wouldn’t, and then Jimmy died.

“After Jimmy was killed we spoke to the press the day after. We’d never been in the papers, on the telly or anything.

“I spoke about not being angry, because anger breeds anger and bitterness, and I’m not going down that road.

“We also spoke of the person who killed Jimmy. He wasn’t caught but we did have a rough idea who it was. But after that, the following day, we were headline news saying ‘Barry and Margaret Mizen forgive the boy that killed their son.’

“I’ve got to be honest, we didn’t have time to eat, let alone think of forgiveness. But it did give me a chance to think about it, and I realised very soon after Jimmy, there was something missing from my life. It was my smile. I’d lost it completely.

“And I knew that the only way that I was going to bring that back was to start forgiving. I do forgive the boy, but I think what people need to know is because I forgive him, it doesn’t mean to say I want to be his best friend or it doesn’t matter what happened to Jimmy. It certainly does.

“But by forgiving him, it’s allowed me to smile, but it’s also allowed me to lead this new life that I had to lead, because I had to find a way of managing the death of my beautiful son. I do it through my forgiveness.

“I was asked today, ‘you can’t possibly forgive now?’ and my words stay the same: forgiveness, peace and hope. That was the legacy that Jimmy left, and they’re the words that I will always use.

“I won’t be beaten by what’s happened even today.

“We can often say, what is justice? After Jimmy was killed people said, what is justice? And do you know, for me, justice was the truth about Jimmy coming out.

“When we went to court, I wanted the truth about him, because the defence tried to say that Jimmy wasn’t even a good boy, and we knew he was. But when we got the verdict of guilty, I got my justice.

“I have justice, but even so we can look at all these things, but I think you know 15 years, maybe you’ll end up back in now, who knows?

“I think I’m still in a bit of a mode of, this isn’t real that’s going on. It doesn’t feel real. And I think I’m still a bit numb by what has come out since yesterday.

“How do I feel about it? I think it’s absolutely beyond disgraceful. I can’t believe that the BBC would do this. Now. I know that at the moment they’re saying, well, they didn’t know who he was, etc. But there must be ways of looking at these things? Perhaps people show their passports with a name or something.

“But they’re making excuses. There’s no excuses. They played his music, and you’re playing the music of someone who’s committed murder. I think it’s disgraceful.

“Perhaps he would say, well, actually, I’m not using Jimmy’s story, but we know he is.

“But there was one bit in the music about it, when he was in court that he lied. Well, he actually did lie in court. He went into the witness box and he spoke, and he did lie. so we do know he’s talking about Jimmy.

“But my Jimmy is too precious to let someone like Jake beat us, and so he can say what he likes. I’ll still be way above him. He’s not going to beat me down with these words.

“I’m going to do my best to stop these kinds of things. I think the BBC need to certainly come up with a plan to stop it, and I think we need to find out from the Justice Department what they’re prepared to do, because Jake is on license at the moment.

“Has he broken his license? I think he probably has, actually.

“What worries me is all the publicity he is getting at the moment, could that actually boost his career? Does he feel he’s just going to be a celebrity, and there’s that possibility, and that’s something that really worries me.

“And I urge anyone listening who might even think they want to follow him, please don’t. Don’t make him into a celebrity, because that’s the one thing that would really break me, I think, to have that celebrity status, because that’s what he wants.

“Of course [drill rap] is not doing any good. It’s far from doing good. I really worry about our young people, because they’re so vulnerable, some of them, and they see this, and they think it’s glamorised, etc.

“So absolutely, it’s the worst thing possible. What they’re saying, the words are absolutely abhorrent. I can’t, I can’t believe that we would allow it, and I can’t believe that any radio station, BBC or any other would play something so bad. So something needs to be done, without a doubt.

“I don’t want to criticise [the BBC] too much now, because maybe they’ll come to me, but at the moment, they have done nothing.

“All I’ve seen put out is that they only played two of these songs and they didn’t have the words about Jimmy and etc and knife crime. It’s unacceptable, isn’t it? I’m hoping they will reach out to me, but I’ll have to wait and see.

“I don’t think an apology alone is enough. For them to say we’re going to start looking at this and to see if we can make it better, that would help, most definitely.

“But an apology, well, we can all apologise, can’t we? It’s not going to really make much difference.

“But they need to do something. We all need to do something. Our children are precious. This shouldn’t be like this.

“[This latest incident] has made me more determined than ever to work for forgiveness, peace and hope, and I absolutely say the words as I’ve always said them.

“It will make no difference to me. I carry on.

“If the victims’ service do investigate properly, then I’ll be satisfied with that one. But [the statement] from the BBC? No.”