Murdered teenager Olly Stephens remembered on first anniversary of death
Knife crime involving children "has to stop", the parents of a 13-year-old boy who was stabbed to death over a social media row have said.Speaking ahead of a service to mark a year since his death, Stuart and Amanda Stephens said they wanted to "bring everybody together" in his memory.A service to remember his life is due to be held at St Barnabas Church in Emmer Green at 15:00 GMT.
It will be led by the Bishop of Reading, the Right Reverend Olivia Graham, and will be attended by invited family and friends, with members of the public able to listen on loudspeakers outside the church.Mrs Stephens said the past year had been a "living nightmare".Mr Stephens said: "When you come home, it's the quiet and the silence and the sadness and everything's painful because there's a memory in everything.
The couple said they wanted to continue to highlight the problem of knife crime among young people and have called for measures to prevent them being exposed to harmful material on social media."[The service] will raise awareness of knife crime and get those conversations started in households - talk to your children.
"We need to work together as a community to reduce knife crime - children murdering children - it has to stop." A trial at Reading Crown Court. was told Olly had been lured to Bugs Bottom Field near his home by a girl he knew and trusted, after a dispute on social media, and "ambushed" by two boys.The girl, who was 13 at the time, admitted manslaughter. She was sentenced to three years and two months but it was later increased to five years by the Court of Appeal.
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