Britain's youngest knife killer made 'gun signs' in chilling picture before Wolverhampton park murder

Two 12-year-old boys have been locked up for life with a minimum term of eight years and six months

A schoolboy 'fixated on violence' made 'gun' signs in a picture just months before he brutally knifed a stranger to death. The knife-obsessed child pretended to pull a trigger in the disturbing photo.

Months later, he murdered Shawn Seesahai in a random machete attack in Wolverhampton. He confessed in court that he armed himself with blades because he 'thought he was cool'.

They did not know each other and the victim was unarmed. The same boy also posed with the 42.5cm murder weapon just hours before executing 19-year-old Mr Seesahai.

READ MORE: Killer boys, 12, to serve eight years minimum behind bars after executing stranger in horror machete murder

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In the photo, he can be seen donning a tracksuit with his grey hood up and his hands placed inside the waistband of his jogging bottoms. He menacingly peers down while the black-handled machete tucked into his trousers reaches almost up to his chin.

The child admitted during his murder trial that he bought the machete for £40 from a 'friend of a friend'. But West Midlands Police said it had uncovered 'some evidence' suggesting he had tried to buy knives online.

The boy and his accomplice were today (Friday, September 27) detained for life with minimum terms of eight years and six months each for killing Mr Seesahai. They had denied murdering him in Stowlawn playing fields, in East Park, last November and blamed each other but were unanimously convicted by jurors.

They are now believed to be the youngest knife killers in Britian, joining the ranks of child criminals including two-year-old James Bulger’s murderers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. A trial at Nottingham Crown Court earlier this year heard how the victim had been discussing Christmas plans with a friend when he was ambushed by the two schoolboys.

He was shoulder-barged by the smaller of the two defendants - who had purchased the machete and bought it to the park. Mr Seesahai - from the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, in the Caribbean - was then punched, kicked, stamped on and 'chopped' at with the weapon.

Emergency services were called to the park, near Laburnum Road, just after 8.40pm on November 13 but the victim was 'already dead'. Detective Inspector Damian Forrest, who led the investigation for the force, previously said the murder weapon would usually be used as a 'gardening tool'.

He said: "The weapon was a large machete that really no person who doesn’t need it as a tool of their trade should have any reason to own. Obviously, originally it would be a gardening tool."

Det Insp Forrest added: "Although the facts of this case mean we can’t say for certain how that weapon came into the possession of the suspects, there is some evidence that suggests that one of them had tried to purchase knives on the internet." The boy who bought the machete admitted having an article with a blade or a point ahead of the trial while the second boy was convicted of the same charge by jurors.

The boys, from Wolverhampton, were 12 at the time of the killing and are now 13. They cannot be named due to legal reasons.