Father narrates heartbreaking film of his son's murder in plea to stop knife crime

The father of a young man who was stabbed to death has narrated CCTV of the moment his son died as part of a powerful film made to raise awareness about the devastating impact of knife crime.

Tagbeu Lebato came to England from the Ivory Coast with his five-year-old son Lauric to seek a better life, but now says he has nothing left to live for after Lauric was knifed to death, aged 22, at a party in Leicester.

Lauric had travelled from their home in Hackney to the get-together on 11 February along with some other men from north London.

A fight broke out between the men and a group from Leicester, which included Sulaiman Sillah, 20.

The fracas spilled onto the road outside the Albion Street property and Sillah stabbed Lauric, while he tried to defend himself with a fire extinguisher.

Tagbeu said: "You have just watched my son Lauric being stabbed to death. I do not ask you to pity my life. I have no need of your pity. Instead, I ask you to think about that knife that took the life of my beautiful little boy.

"Now, think about another knife that may one day take your life or the life of someone close to you."

Sillah was jailed for life with a minimum of 24 years at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday (21 August). Leicestershire Police released the film after the sentence was announced.

In the film, Tagbeu says: "I have never seen this footage. I never want to. I don't need to. For me the knife that killed him destroyed me as well.

"I was born into a very poor family in the Ivory Coast. We had very few things and very little money, but I had a dream that one day I would have a child.

"When that moment came I would take my child far, far away to a different culture, a different place, where I would bring my child up to be a happy, successful and safe person.

"Lauric was born in the Ivory Coast. He was and always will be in my mind a beautiful, happy little boy. Five years later, having saved and saved, I fulfilled my dream.

"We broke that link with my home country, with poverty, and with my family, and Lauric and I set up home together in London. Slowly we began to shape our future. Our new way of life was nothing like before.

"I worked hard and saved hard to support us both. Bit by bit we got used to our whole new way of life, to the customs and traditions of this country.

"I sent him home twice to the Ivory Coast so he could compare the life the children have there and how fortunate we were to have broken that link.

"And we spoke every Saturday about the week that had gone and the week that lay ahead, planning the future.

"On Saturday February 11 2017 Lauric decided to go to a party with some friends. He told me he would be late home.

"It was the last time I saw him. There was a fight at the party and Lauric and others ended up in the street outside.

"Lauric armed himself with a fire extinguisher to protect himself from attack. A few seconds later, he was dead. In that split-second my life finished.

"Now I have no future, I just exist in a dark and painful present. I spend my money, I don't save it. There's no one to save it for.

"My Ivory Coast dream has become a daily nightmare. I don't sleep anymore – I just suffer."