Shaquan Sammy-Plummer with mum Jessica

THE fatal stabbings of four Islington teenagers in 2015 made for a shocking rise in knife crime that devastated communities across the borough.

Ten years on, the mothers who lost their sons say there is still not enough being done to keep young people safe.

Shaquan Sammy-Plummer, 17, Alan Cartwright, 15, Stefan Appleton, 18 and Vasilaki Kakko, 17, all had their young lives violently cut short in 2015.

“It’s not an easy month for us because that empty chair is still there,” said Jessica Plummer, whose son Shaquan, a college student who worked for Waitrose and Tottenham Hotspur, was killed on 30 January.

“This boy was a lovely boy, he was the sweetest boy,” she said, adding that Shaquan “would get 80 per cent in maths, and he would come home and say: ‘Mummy, I promise next time I’m going to get 100 per cent.’ So said, so done, this boy got 100 per cent.

“When he tells you he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it.”

Jennifer Appleton lost her son Stefan in June of the same year when he was stabbed in broad daylight in Nightingale Park, Canonbury, near his home in the Marquess Estate.

She said: “The pain is still hard, it’s still a struggle. It seems like it’s just happened the other day.

“Stefan was such a free spirit. He was just so lovely. Everybody loved him. He just had this calm nature about him. That’s what I loved about him. When he passed, I had so many people coming up to me and saying how lovely he was, how he taught their children how to ride their bike – every child just loved him.”
Tanisha Appleton, Jennifer’s niece, also spoke to the Tribune about losing her cousin.

“When you say 10 years it sounds like a long time, but when you lose someone you love in that way, it just stays with you. Time doesn’t mean anything.

“He had a really, really great energy, he was just really warm, friendly, funny, polite, just a genuinely good person.”

While fewer children are now being killed by knives in Islington than in 2015, ever younger teenagers continue to lose their lives, including Deonte Mowatt-Slater, 16, who was fatally stabbed in October last year, Leonardo Reid, 15, who was killed in 2023, and Romario Opia, 15, murdered in 2021.

Ms Plummer and the Appletons have campaigned against knife crime since the boys’ deaths.

Through the Shaquan Sammy-Plummer Foundation, set up in her son’s name, Ms Plummer tells Shaquan’s story to young people in schools, and also speaks at No Knives Better Lives, a programme at the Old Bailey aimed at deterring young people from carrying knives.

Stefan Appleton

Ms Plummer said: “It’s 10 years since my son’s life was taken for no reason and nothing has changed. Every day there’s a stabbing. This is getting ridiculous now. We want our children to bury us, not the other way round. I’m not saying I have the answer for knife crime but all I can do is try to change the mindset of these young kids. What are we doing in Islington to help the problem?”

After Stefan’s death, Jennifer and Tanisha Appleton set up Love and Loss, a peer support group for bereaved families.

Jennifer Appleton told the Tribune: “For me, not much has really changed. We just keep talking… and not moving forward. When are we going to take that next step and actually do something?”

As well as giving them space to talk to others who understand some of what they’re going through, Love and Loss helps grieving families cope with everything that comes with losing someone so suddenly: finding the money for a funeral, dealing with the police, getting through a court case.

Tanisha explained: “After the court case it was like, now what? Is this it now, is this life? We felt that if this is how we feel, then obviously there are other people out there feeling the same.

“There are so many different things that you go through and I think it’s only if you’ve been through it that you will understand. So we’re able to come together in a room and everybody just gets it. We can all speak freely and support each other.”

Islington’s community safety chief Councillor Angelo Weekes told the Tribune: “Any loss of life in any knife crime incident is dreadful. We don’t want to see any in Islington. I’ll not deny – the young people that we talk about are getting younger and I do think its something we have to be on the front foot for.”

He cited a 23 percent reduction in knife crime offences in Islington compared to pre-pandemic levels and referred to new youth spaces, youth employment centres in the Andover Estate and the West Library, and continued collaboration with schools, police, Arsenal in the Community and the Ben Kinsella Trust as examples of how Islington is taking action against knife crime.

The council’s Youth Safety Strategy is also set to be reviewed in 2025.

He added: “I want the community to keep the council and my feet to the fire on this. The work does not stop, it never stops. My ask to parents is that I want to work with them. If they want to met with me and share ideas I’m always open to that.

“If a young person walks into a library I can sleep well at night because all the information is there. But I do think we need to be meeting young people where they are too.”

Contact Love and Loss on info@loveandloss.org.uk or 07951455034, or donate at: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love-and-loss–support-for-loved-ones-bereaved-t
Contact the Shaquan Sammy Plummer Foundation for school workshops about knife violence.