Finbar Sullivan, 21, was fatally stabbed on Primrose Hill in London on Tuesday evening, according to multiple reports. He was a film student and the grandson of cinematographer Michael Seresin. Sullivan had just bought a new Sony camera with his birthday money and went to Primrose Hill to test it, leaving his home in Maida Vale around 4:30pm and arriving at the hill around 5pm to meet friends. He received multiple stab wounds, including a fatal injury to the leg that severed an artery.
Police were called to Primrose Hill at around 6:40pm after reports of a fight. Paramedics attempted CPR for 20 minutes, but Sullivan was pronounced dead at the scene. His friend AJ was also stabbed, possibly while trying to protect him, according to Finbar's family. AJ was stabbed in the back and hands, his father Chris Sullivan said, and he staggered into a nearby pub at 6:45pm seeking refuge.
Footage of the fight circulated on social media, showing Finbar stumbling away after being stabbed and AJ punching a man with a knife, multiple reports indicate. A second man in his 20s was found with knife wounds on Regent's Park Road and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the police said. No arrests have been made in the Primrose Hill stabbing, according to police, who are urging a woman who recorded the fight to come forward as a key witness.
This incident is part of a broader pattern of knife violence across the UK in recent days. In Bristol, a man was found dead with multiple stab wounds in the back garden of a property on Cleve Road in Filton on April 9, with a post-mortem confirming he died from multiple stab wounds, police reported. A man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of murder in the Bristol case on April 11. In Peckham, Aurelio Mejía, 26, was stabbed to death outside a nightclub in Ruby Street in the early hours of Monday, after going to help his friend during a disturbance, multiple reports state. Four men, one aged 18 and three aged 24, were arrested on suspicion of murder in the Peckham case, and two other men in their 20s were injured and are in life-threatening condition, police said.
In Bournemouth, James Blanch, 41, was killed in an attack outside MyBar on Monday around 3am, with five men arrested in connection and one remaining in custody, according to police. In Shadwell, east London, a man in his late 20s or early 30s was stabbed to death in Watney Street on Tuesday after 4pm, and a second man in his 50s was injured and taken to hospital, multiple reports indicate. It is not known if these multiple stabbing incidents across the UK are connected in any way.
He was the most beautiful, kind child, funny, sweet.
Separately, a teenager has been sentenced to a minimum term of 13 years for murdering a 12-year-old boy, according to research sources. The perpetrator was 14 years old at the time of the murder and pleaded guilty to murder and other offences. He was given a life sentence by Mr Justice Choudhury KC. The perpetrator attacked three elderly women in the days leading up to the murder, research sources state. After the attack, he asked a passer-by to call the police and lied about his involvement, then rode home on his bike. The judge said the perpetrator chose Leo because he was a smaller boy, and Birmingham Crown Court heard that the defendant had formidable mental health problems but knew the consequences of his actions. The judge added that the perpetrator appeared to get pleasure from seeing the consequences of his actions, and he cycled around Trittiford Mill Park telling people a boy had been stabbed, according to research.
Leo Ross is believed to be the youngest victim of knife crime in the West Midlands, research indicates. He was walking a 10-minute route home from Christ Church CE Secondary School in Yardley Wood when attacked, after speaking to a friend on the phone to arrange a meeting near a certain tree in the park. The friend turned up as planned, but Leo did not. The perpetrator stabbed Leo and discarded the knife in bushes by a stream, where it was later recovered. A 12-year-old boy was stabbed to death as he walked home in Birmingham, found with serious injuries near Scribers Lane in Hall Green shortly after 3pm on Tuesday, and taken to hospital but died from his injuries, research sources report. The exact location and park name where the Birmingham stabbing occurred, such as Trittiford Mill Park versus Shire Country Park, is not fully clarified, and the full identity of the victim, named as Leo Ross in some sources but not others, remains partially uncertain.
Christ Church, Church of England Secondary Academy in Yardley Wood shared a statement of condolence, and police have cordoned off several entrances to the Shire Country Park. Residents spoke of shock at discovering the victim's age and death, with one resident saying a member of the public asked for the postcode to assist emergency services. Some areas of the park had been plagued by anti-social behaviour involving local youths, according to one resident. Police are asking for information via the major incident public portal or phone, quoting log 3324 of January 21, and Detective Inspector Joe Davenport said police are urgently reviewing CCTV and speaking to witnesses. The boy's family have been informed and are being supported by specially-trained officers, police confirmed.
The judge said he was minded to lift reporting restrictions on the perpetrator's identity. According to research sources, a member of the victim’s family described him as 'the most beautiful, kind child, funny, sweet'.
This surge in knife crime comes as the government addresses related policies. The fatal stabbing of Finbar Sullivan happened on the day MPs were told a ban on knife sales to under-18s has not proved effective, research sources indicate. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper revealed that Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon at age 17, and she said stronger measures to tackle knife sales online will be brought in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.