Five years after Jack Woodley was surrounded and stabbed to death by a gang of teenagers, his mother fears nothing has been learned from his death. Zoey McGill, 39, said the pain is as raw as ever and that she is angry that little seems to have been done to tackle the country's knife crime epidemic, which has claimed more young lives in the North East since Jack's death.
The attack and the trial
Jack, 18, had enjoyed a day out at the Houghton Feast fair when he was attacked on October 16 2021. A court later heard how he was surrounded by a violent mob of strangers who kicked, punched and stamped on him before he was knifed in the back. He died in hospital the following night.
Ten teenagers, aged 14 to 17 at the time of the attack, were found guilty of murder following a long trial. They were all handed life sentences with minimum terms of between eight and 17 years' detention, a total of 124 years between them.
A mother's ongoing torment
For Zoey, who is mum to four other boys, it does not feel like five years since she lost her son. "It just still feels like it was yesterday," she said. "I think it actually gets worse as the years go by. It just stalls your life."
Following Jack's death, Zoey worked with police to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying knives. She said Jack's story has been shared with pupils in local schools to discourage them from carrying a blade. She also met with then Labour leader Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, who was Shadow Home Secretary at the time, to discuss the issue. Zoey was instrumental in bringing the Knife Angel sculpture to her home town of Newton Aycliffe last year.
Calls for harsher sentences
Zoey believes more and more lives will be lost until the sentences for carrying knives match those for possessing guns. "It's still happening all the time," she said. "It's so distressing to see, and then I see the sentences. You can kill someone with a knife as much as with a gun. It's happening so often they should have the same sentences as they do with gun crime. It's never going to stop until the sentences get harsher. People know they can get away with carrying a knife now. If that person doesn't die the chances of them walking out of court are massive. But it's well known that if you are found with a gun you will go to jail for a long time. They are not scared of being caught with a knife, but at the end of the day it's a lethal weapon. It's like the courts are waiting for these people to go and kill someone. If they know they can get away with it they are going to keep doing it."
Family's further trauma
Since Jack's murder, Zoey has become mum to Ralph, now two, and Reggie, who is four months old. She says the youngsters, along with her other sons, Jenson, 11, and 18-year-old Jayden, are what keeps her going. But the family has faced further trauma when Jayden, who struggled to cope with his brother's death, ended up being jailed for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, following an incident in Grangetown near Middlesbrough.
Zoey believes her son's life spiralled downwards after Jack was murdered. "When we lost Jack he was just 13 years old," she said. "He just went down a really bad path. It's the ripple effect. It devastates the whole family. It's ruined Jayden's life as well. It's been awful. I just don't think the support is there for siblings, there's nothing in place for them, they are just left to get on with life. I find that really hard to accept. It's going to be with all of us for the rest of our lives. It wrecks every single part of your life because it's always there."
Zoey says she often thinks about what Jack would be doing now, and the type of young man he never got the chance to become. "He would be 24 in February, he would probably have kids by now, knowing Jack," she said. "I do sometimes try to imagine what he would be like. I have been robbed of the chance to see him as a young man."
Grant Wheatley, Clayton Owen, Sonny Smith, Joe Latham, Calum Maddison, Leighton Mayo, Blaine Sewell, Lewis Rose, Tyler Alexander Brewis and Rhys Wear were convicted of Jack's murder.
