Senseless Violence: The Jimmy Mizen story

Episode 10!! Im not sure we thought we'd get 10 under our belts, but we're covering an incredibly sad and somewhat notorious case from literally round the corner to mark the occasion. 

Listen as Rach walks us through the case of Jimmy Mizen, who was killed with a piece of glass during a confrontation that 100% didn't need to happen, as well as the incredible way his family remember him and the work they do in his name. 

We can't lie, this one is sad...but Rach still manages to get in a discussion about France and the Hunchback of Notre Dame...how we don't know...

Sources for this episode include

• http://mizenfoundation.org/jimmys-story/
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2512331/I-helpless-Jimmy-died-arms--I-want-EVERY-child-learn-aid-The-16-year-olds-murder-bakery-shocked-nation-Here-brother-held-final-moments-tell-devastating-story.html
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jimmy_Mizen
• https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/stories-library/barry-margaret-mizen/
• https://www.reform-magazine.co.uk/2014/06/margaret-mizen-interview-in-the-name-of-the-son/
• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brother-murdered-jimmy-mizen-tells-3885591.amp
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7963756.stm
• https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/parents-call-for-peace-on-anniversary-of-jimmy-mizens-murder-8606943.html
• https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/thug-serving-life-sentence-for-the-murder-of-schoolboy-jimmy-mizen-freed-from-ja/

You can find our more about the 'For Jimmy' foundation via their website here: https://forjimmy.org/

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Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

Chapters

• 10:07 [Ad] Persons of Interest
• 10:39 (Cont.) Senseless Violence: The Jimmy Mizen story

Transcript

Rachel: Hello, I'm Rachel, 

Hannah: I'm Hannah and welcome to the Sinister South podcast. This is a podcast all about true crime that happens in South London. 

Rachel: Oh, look at you, that was so slick. Well done. 

Hannah: Succinct. 

Rachel: Succinct and slick. Love it, love it. Two things I don't think we've ever been described as.

Hannah: Well when I haven't washed my hair for a while. Then I'm pretty slick.

Rachel: Honestly, I was saying to someone at work today, that I'm never allowed to slick my hair back again. Because I caught sight of a photo of me where I had my hair pulled all the way back. And I genuinely do look like a thumb.

Hannah: It's just I tried it because it's so fashionable, isn't it? like proper slick back bun.

Rachel: Yeah. 

Hannah: And I was just at home so thought 'I'll just test it out'. Oh, geez.  I think we'd have to do a whole episode just on why I shouldn't do that.It is a crime. It's a crime in South London I'm telling you.

Rachel: Maybe that's how we should record. I was saying this to my sister. So my sister is doing a photography course at the moment. 

Hannah: As if she wasn't busy enough. 

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, exactly. She's a teteacher and then she does a bit of writing and she's doing a master's and now she's doing a photography course. The woman needs a man. 

Hannah: Haha

Rachel: I can say this because she always says that she's going to listen. She goes, Oh, yeah, I listened to it in the car on the way home. She never listens to it. I'm too busy listening to bloody Taylor Swift. 

Hannah: Stupid woman

Rachel: Don't say that because the Swifties will come for us. We're really sorry. 

Hannah: I'm not saying Taylor Swift is stupid. I'm saying your sister is an idiot.

Rachel: Oh, yeah. We say all of this with love. Ickle sister thing. Yeah. No, but she said she'd take some photos of us if we wanted them for publicity purposes.

Hannah: Nope.

Rachel: Which I thought was quite disgusting. Listen, you've just signed off on me having a fucking avatar. 

Hannah: I have.

Rachel: I was saying to Hannah that apparently, according to all the men who decided to explain to me how podcasts work on the interwebs, apparently we need to have video podcasts now. Hannah doesn't like to be perceived. 

Hannah: Don't look at me. 

Rachel: It's bad enough that I have to look at her while we're talking.

Hannah: Not directly at me. You know the rules, 

Rachel: I know. I know. Again, like the sun. Don't look directly at it. But yeah, but so I don't think we're going to get. What about right here? Hear me out. What about I get a little webcam thingy and it records us not in a weird way. This has already gone downhill, but not in a weird way. But like, because everyone's saying like YouTube, you've got to be on YouTube apparently because that's what podcasts are. Podcasts are an audio medium, people. Audio, not video. 

Hannah: Are you having a conversation with yourself? 

Rachel: Yeah. Welcome. Welcome into the inside workings of my brain. This is why I never get anything fucking done. But no, I could get like a video camera and we could film the tiny, tiny shed. And then I could just put like, you know, when people post pictures of their children and they just put that smiley face over the top. 

Hannah: No, I want like in crime watch and stuff when they're protecting people's identity.

Rachel: Pixelated face, girl, 

Hannah: You can pixelate me.

Rachel: Okay. All right.

Hannah: That's a lot of pixels. For this stocky blonde. 

Rachel: Stocky blonde and the thumb. There we go. New crime fighting duo. Oh, dear. Anyway, apart from that you alright? 

Hannah: Yeah. All right, mate. All right. Life be life-ing what I've been up to. There's not been a huge amount of excitement in life recently.

Rachel: I feel like that's all we say in these days. 

Hannah: I know. I need to do something. I was thinking about this in the shower. I'll start a list. Because we've got like the cases list. And we know who's doing what it's very organized. And I love it. And I'm here for it. And there's a folder structure with a file convention and everything.

Rachel: I know.

Hannah: I'm here for it. And I was thinking, Oh, right, we need a list of personal stuff that we we can talk about in the chatty bit. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that'll sound organic.

Rachel: Sound great. What shall we chat about? Pick from the list.

Hannah: Do not deviate. 

Rachel: I love it. 

Hannah: What have I been doing?

Rachel: Um, yeah, not much. It was the bank holiday. I didn't do much then. Well, no, actually, having said that, I didn't do a lot. But will, hi Will, I'm finished off loads of jobs around the house, which is quite helpful and very much appreciated. You watching anything good. 

Hannah: We are, you know, they released the the jinx 2?

Rachel: No! I haven't seen it, where is it?

Hannah: Sky. I'm gonna assume. Yeah.

Rachel: Is it on Now TV yet. 

Hannah: I have no idea. I don't know.

Rachel: I'm gonna have to see if it's on NOW TV. 

Hannah: You're normally the really relatable and down to earth one, right? 

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hannah: No, I'm not. I've got sky. I wouldn't know.

Rachel: I watched Oh, no, I tell you what I did watch yesterday. I watched a movie that was new out on Netflix. Really helpful. I can't remember what it was called.

Hannah: Brilliant. This is a great story.

Rachel: No, but it's got that Kieran Spicter. What's her name? The one from Sabrina and Mad Men. Oh, Netflix. Really organic content, guys. I don't even have the list.

Hannah: Really good. And we've managed to make this dull. 

Rachel: I know. Oh, I can't remember what it's called. But it's new. And it's about it's essentially like Donnie Darko. But without it being really weird, it's time travel. She goes back in time, something happens. She has to stop the killer. That's not a spoiler. But what I really liked about it was the fact that she goes back to 1987. And there's a lot of dialogue from the point in time when it's 1987. And, and the way that they get away with it is just by having her constantly going, No, no, no, we can't say that. Stop doing that now. So the 80s were wild. It's kind of really annoying me now. 

Hannah: I tell you what we also watched, which I loved. Ripley.

Rachel: Oh, I haven't seen it. It's Andrew Scott?

Hannah: Andrew Scott. Yeah. Is that his name? 

Rachel: Yeah.

Hannah: Yeah. I love it. And it just reinforces how much I'm just need to be in Italy all the time.

Rachel: Yeah, I mean, to be fair, it is where if again, really relatable content. If I could have a second holiday home, 

Hannah: a second holiday home?

Rachel: Yeh, because I've got the caravan. No, if I could have a holiday home anywhere, it would be in Italy, somewhere on the Amalfi Coast. Bliss. By the way, her name is Kiernan Shipka. And she is in the movie Totally Killer that's the name of it. I found it. 

Hannah: Well done. Oh, cool. Gonna tell me a story then? 

Rachel: I suppose.

Hannah: I'm gonna settle in. All right. 

Rachel: Yeah, get yourself cozy. Because it's me. So you know, I'm like, there's, there's a lot. So today, I am talking about a murder that is, if you're from South London, you definitely know, this case. If you're not, then buckle in. It is, yeah, it's fairly infamous. Round these there are reports. I'm also very conscious of the amount of times I've said um. So yeah, I'm going to talk about Jimmy Mizen.

Hannah: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.

Rachel: So as I say, this is a very well known case. There is a lot of, it didn't happen that long ago either. So there is a lot of, there are lots of people who still know his family. So yeah, I'm gonna put all of the links in the show notes. Also, as I'll get on to later in the story, Jimmy's parents are, they have the Jimmy Foundation offered for Jimmy. And they have lots of other things that they do that supports youth in the local area. They are incredibly, I'm going to go as far as to say like inspirational people. 

Hannah: Yeah, they are. They are awesome. So very generous with that time. 

Rachel: Yeah, yeah. And they're just, I mean, the best people then I think I will ever be. And we'll get into why.

Hannah: So I'm ready to be angry.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah. So the Mizen family were a close knit group. And they were dad, Barry Colin Mizen, and mum, Margaret Annette Mizen. And they had nine children.

Hannah: Bloody hell.

Rachel: Before anyone asks, they are a Roman Catholic family. And yeah, nine, nine kids. That's a lot of kids.

Hannah: It's a lot. 

Rachel: It is a lot. No, no shade on anyone.

Hannah: Like, no, that's just a lot to deal with. 

Rachel: Yeah. I just feel like I wouldn't remember all their names. I struggle with the two I've got. 

Hannah: I just, I mean, that's, that's a lot of dinners, that's a lot of shoes. 

Rachel: Yep. 

Hannah: God, that's a lot of shoes.

Rachel: Yeah, so many shoes. Anyway, anyway. So Jimmy, he was the sixth son of the family, and the second youngest. And tragically, he was just 16. And when I say just 16, I mean, his birthday was the ninth of May, and he was murdered on the 10th. 

Hannah: God.

Rachel: Yeah, he was just 16 when he was fatally attacked by a 19 year old boy who was known to him in what was considered an unprovoked attack in the Three Cooks bakery in Leigh. The story, while it's heart breaking, as I say, it has become incredibly ingrained in the local community. And specifically the local community to where I currently am, like I live in this area, it is, it's very difficult not to know who Jimmy is.

Hannah: Where I used to work was literally down the bakery itself. And it Yeah, there it's, it's part of the fabric of the whole place. 

Rachel: So yeah, and it's, as we were saying earlier, it's kind of the reason it's gained so much notoriety is not just because it was horrific, and a young boy very sadly lost his life. But it's also in no small part due to the actions of Barry and Margaret Mizen, and their drive to kind of like, forgive, but also to try and enact societal change in the local area, which is incredibly admirable. So who was Jimmy? Jimmy was six foot four. And he was known to many of his friends as the gentle giant or the BFG. According to his mum, though, he was not muscly, but he was really like he was tall and skinny.

Hannah: Yeah.

Rachel: And a witness who saw Jimmy in the baker's shop, described him as looking quite awkward, like he wasn't he wasn't comfortable in his in his body at that point, with just 16. 

Hannah: He's a baby, six, four, and it's got to be like, I mean, I'm not an ex, like an especially tall person. But I happened to be taller than a lot of a lot of my friends for a long time. Yeah. And that like, you stoop down, you're like that incredibly like don't know what to do with your limbs.

Rachel: Yeah.

Hannah: God, there's too much of me. 

Rachel: It is just a bit like you do feel because I'm the same. I'm five, nine, and spent a lot of time with people who were five, five and under. And you do feel like an absolute ginormous human next to them. And I always felt very much like a daddy long legs. 

Hannah: Yeah, 

Rachel: Like all bumbly. And like, yeah, didn't know what to do with my limbs. So bless him. And Mrs. Misson said that it was a family joke that he was the BFG. And he would always say, Yeah, but I just don't like being this tall. And, and you know, and this is what breaks my heart a little bit because I have a cousin who is taller than this, quite a bit taller than this. And he was always a very like lanky kid. And then he's now like built. And like, he's properly grown into his heart and he owns it. And you know that the same would have happened to And it just makes me really sad. His family remember him as always smiling and radiating warmth and positivity. 

Jimmy attended St. Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive School in Eltham. And he was an altar boy until the age of 14 at Our Lady of Lords Church, which is near their home in Leigh. And it's also where children that I know do beavers.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, if you're outside the UK, that's just a very random thing to say. Where children do beavers. 

Hannah: Children do beavers.

Rachel: Beavers is the younger version of the scouts.

Hannah: Yeah, there you go. 

Rachel: So yeah, he was an altar boy. He was seen as being really well behaved, really good mannered, really friendly, really happy. And I know a lot of people will often say that about victims of crime. Like, you know, there's always the whole...

Hannah: They become angels, don't they? 

Rachel: Yeah, like they're smile always lights up a room. But for all intents and purposes, all anyone says about Jimmy was that he was just a lovely lad, which is really sad. Jimmy struggled at school. And he was deemed to have special educational needs after he had contracted meningitis at 14 months old, but he still went on to get eight GCSEs. Yeah, and he he worked really hard, like he had to, he had to put effort in. He wasn't one of those kids that just could do it. And I think that always makes it a little bit more... you always root for people a little bit more when you know it's taken them a lot of work. 

Apparently, though, he was counting the days until he would leave school, and was about to start an apprenticeship working at Southwark Council in the building services team. And yeah, he was known, as I say, for his gentle and caring nature, and was always said to stand up for his friends and help those who are in need. And again, I would imagine that because of his height, sometimes he could be, again, same thing with my brother, 

Hannah: When they're tall, kind of pulled in.

Rachel: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Jimmy was said to have enjoyed fixing things and helping out around the house. And in his community, his he had an elderly neighbour who was in her late 80s, Kathleen. And he used to go around to house and mow her grass for her. And he always would refuse any money that she tried to give him.

He was also involved in sports, he played rugby, was a member of the Sidcup Rugby Football Club. And he had just completed work experience with another property maintenance company, where he'd made a really lasting impression. And they'd actually planned to offer him an apprenticeship as well, after he finished his GCSEs. 

His parents said, and I quote, Jimmy was an unusually good baby and grew quickly into a lovely little boy. He was always smiling. He had a beautiful smile. There was an innocence and a boldness about him and uncomplicated love of life. 

Hannah: This is heart breaking.

Rachel: It doesn't get any better. I'm not gonna lie. Okay, so Jimmy's family, as I say, he was one of nine. 

So I would be remiss if I didn't mention the rest of the family. So yeah, they were a very large Roman Catholic family, but they were incredibly close. And his siblings, Harry and Tommy, were with him at the time of his attack.

Hannah: Oh, wow, I didn't know that. 

Rachel: Yeah. So he was with Harry at the time. And then Tommy was called by Harry to come to the scene. And they have both been incredibly vocal about how much they loved him. And they do not shy away from it. And it's incredibly lovely to see two men just be very open about how much they love their brother. And more should be done like that. Okay, so I tried to find the names of all the Mizen children, just because I wanted, I was trying to find out like, how many boys there were, how many girls there were. And there were different names given in different places. But these were the ones that I found most regularly. So if any are wrong, I apologise.

These are just what I could find. So they were Danny, Tommy, Bobby, Harry, Billy, George, Samantha, Joanne and Jimmy.

Hannah: So only two girls

Rachel: Two girls Yeah. 

Hannah: Yeah, imagine I just I have this thing, right? Like, so I'm the eldest of three.

Rachel: Yeah. Same. 

Hannah: And I've always wanted an older sibling. But in particular, I always wanted an older brother. And I wanted to be able to like pull out like my older brother will come for you kind of thing. Imagine having six or seven.

Rachel: Yeah, having seven brothers. 

Hannah: Yeah, come on then. Do you want to have a go?

Rachel: Bless. So now we're going to get into the bit that's a bit horrible. 

Hannah: Okay, deep breath.

Rachel: I think the other thing I'm going to say, and I'm going to say it right now, and it may be controversial, and I don't mean it to be controversial. But I think part of the reason why this case is so notorious, well known, and why it's quite difficult to talk about is actually because I'm not sure that the murderer meant to kill Jimmy. 

Hannah: Okay.

Rachel: And we'll get into why. But that then gives it there's an edge to it about like... 

Hannah: It's just another element of sad.

Rachel: Exactly. Exactly. You know, but we've covered some cases on here before where it's been like, yeah, he's a fucking arsehole. 

And I'm not for a second giving this guy any leeway because you are in charge of your own actions. And, you know, but I just, I don't see it as being a premeditated, maliciously intended act. Right.

We'll get to it. So approximately 11:30 on the morning of Saturday 10th of May 2008, a day after his 16th birthday, Jimmy Mizen was inside the Three Cooks Bakery in Burnt Ash Hill, South London, with his brother Harry to buy a sausage roll after he had purchased his very first lottery ticket. Jimmy was supposed to have been working at his dad's shoe repair shop that day, but had been given the day off as a treat to celebrate his birthday.

Jake Fahri, 19, of Milborough Crescent, entered the bakery. Fahri had a prior history with the Mizen family, having previously harassed Harry. In the bakery, Fahri brushed past the brothers.  Jimmy said some manners would not go amiss, and the situation escalated into a confrontation. Now, I, when I was reading that, like, there was a part of me that was just like, oh, yeah, my mouth gets me into trouble. 

Hannah: Oh, yeah.

Rachel: Oh, my God. The sort of thing that I would say, and this is the thing like they tried to say, and I'll get into it later on, but they tried to say that it was almost like he'd brought it on himself because of saying it. 

Hannah: No, no, no. I say it all the time. If someone, like, if you hold a door open for someone, they don't say thanks. I'm like, well, do you think this is my job?

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with you. 

Hannah: And even if it was my job, you say thank you.

Rachel: You say thank you. Exactly. But yeah, so apparently he said some manners would not go amiss and the situation then escalated into a confrontation.

So Fahri challenged Jimmy to step outside for a fight, saying, think you're a big man, come outside and I'll show you how big you are. But Jimmy, who was known for his peaceful nature, just refused and ignored him. Harry, his brother, he then called for his other brother, Tommy, to come and help.

And Fahri, who didn't want to lose face, he'd gone outside to try and have this fight, didn't want to lose face. He's come back into the shop and he saw Harry on the phone and he said, who are you fucking calling? And then he used a couple of plastic drinks bottles that he chucked at the brothers to kind of start a fight, basically.

The confrontation escalated further with Fahri grabbing a metal framed advertising sign and using it to poke at Jimmy. And then in the ensuring chaos, all three individuals crashed into the glass cake display in the bakery. The brothers then retaliated against this and pushed Fahri out of the shop.

And the manager of the bakery that day was Leslie Crocker. And she says at that point, Fari just went berserk. And he took a 12 inch hot glass dish from the bakery counter and threw it at Jimmy.

The dish shattered upon impact with Jimmy's chin and a shard of glass severed vital blood vessels in his neck. Severely injured, Jimmy staggered to the back of the bakery and sought shelter in a cupboard. The fight from start to finish was over in three minutes.

Hannah: Jesus Christ. 

Rachel: His elder brother, Tommy, found him in the cupboard shortly after. And despite their efforts to save him, Jimmy succumbed to his injuries and died in Tommy's arms.

Hannah: Oh, my God. 

Rachel: I know. It's horrific. Jimmy's mum Margaret was also in the shop within a matter of minutes. And this is what she said. Everyone was screaming at me not to go into the baker's. I said, don't tell me what to do. It's my son. Where's Jimmy? And they said, don't go out there. And when I got out there, I just remember seeing Jimmy in Tommy's arms. And Tommy looked at me and said, Mum, go out. He's fine. And I went out like a child. And I knew Jimmy wasn't all right. And then I'm told I fainted. Seeing and knowing Jimmy was in Tommy's arms gives me more comfort than you can ever imagine. Because I know Jimmy loved Tommy. And Tommy loved Jimmy. I know. It's horrible.

It was said, though, that Fahri fled to the bakery grinning. So, oh, with all of that, and obviously having just read how horrific that was, and the fact that it was over in three minutes is just. But the reason why I'm going to try and validate my earlier point around.

Hannah: No, I get it. I get it. Like I assumed it was a knife. 

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah. Same before I started researching it. 

Hannah: And for as much as this case has been in our lives so prominently. And, you know, most people in this region, in SC9, not SC9, in SC, would say the same. I didn't know that.

Rachel: I didn't.

Hannah: And I could exactly see what you mean. Like, he was trying to cause harm. He was trying to have a fight. He was being violent. But there is a very big difference between like throwing something at someone or pushing something at someone and expecting it to break and expecting that to be the full impact of what you've done is very different to taking a knife and stabbing someone. 

Rachel: Exactly. A hundred percent. And it's like, it reminds me of those cases where, you know, a man punches someone and the one punch kill. And it's like, you're a fucking idiot for having a fight, but you haven't, you've not gone out to do that. I mean, I just find it really difficult because it is horrific what happened to Jimmy. And again, I'm not giving Fahri a break on it. He was, he was being violent.

Hannah: Yeah. He's being provocative. 

Rachel: Yeah. I just don't see it as premeditated. 

Hannah: No. Yeah. Like I said, it's a very big difference between that being the outcome of an action and picking up a knife and going. 

Rachel: Exactly. Very different. So on that note, I'm going to tell you a little bit about who Jake Fahri is.

So Fahri grew up a few streets away from the Missons with his father, who was a heating engineer, his mother, and a younger sister. He styled himself as a, and I quote, gangster rapper.

Hannah: Oh great.

Rachel: And apparently went by the street name Dirrty Dets. A dirty with two R's. 

Hannah: There you go.

Rachel: Um, he, so he, he'd been in trouble before, um, and he had a string of convictions that involved robbery and violence. So on the 19th of July, 2004, so that's four years before this happened, he was given a nine month referral order for taking part in a gang knife point robbery of a school boy at Falconwood railway station in Bexley. On 4th of January, 2005, he was given a 12 month supervision order for the robbery of an adult in Greenwich park.

On the 13th of April, 2006, he was given an 18 month supervision order on an unprovoked attack on a girl in the street and burglary. He was then expelled from his school Crownwoods in Eltham after a so-called happy slap attack. Do you remember happy slap?

Hannah: I was happy slapped. 

Rachel: Were you? 

Hannah: Yeh on a train.

Rachel: Oh God. I remember what my sister-in-law was as well. Um, and Will and one of his mates decided to go out and try and find them, took a baseball bat

Hannah: That was sensible.

Rachel: They didn't find them. Anyway. 

So he was, he was kicked out of school for that. And then in 2007, so the year before the murder, a charge of rape against him was dropped at Camberwell youth court, but it had been raised. 

Hannah: Is it literally the thing that kept him out of prison is because he was a kid?

Rachel: Yeah. Basically, basically the family had actually had previous dealings with Fari. As I said earlier, um, he'd had altercations with Harry before. So in 2001, he'd walked up to Harry in the street and asked for money before punching him in the stomach. And at the time Harry was only 10 and he handed over the 20 P he had.

Um, but he told his mother about the incident as she made a complaint to Fahri's school. And then two years later, on the 1st of April, 2003, Fahri saw Harry in Wood Yates road, Lee and demanded to know why he had grasped. Um, Harry tried to escape, but Fahri grabbed hold of his shirt and threatened to beat him up for punching him in the chest.

Police visited Fahri's home on the 7th of May, 2003, to speak to him about the incident and gave him a harassment warning. The culmination of these events was the incident in which Jimmy was murdered. 

Hannah: So again, there's, there's an escalating pattern.

Rachel: It really is. And he is obviously a violent person anyway. 

Hannah: Just a very, very angry young man, 

Rachel: Very angry young man. And we don't really know why, which is interesting. The trial. So, um, as I said earlier, Jake Fahri left the bakery very soon after the incident, but he did turn himself in to the police three days after the attack.

Um, and during his initial interviews, he did express a lot of regret and he stated, and I quote, someone has died because of me. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to kill him, which is really sad.

Although his tears and the apology were not seen as particularly genuine. The police, yeah, the police and Jimmy's family saw it as insincere and more of a tactical play than genuine remorse. 

Hannah: What a slap in the face for them.

Rachel: I know, I know. It's just, there's nothing, there are no, well, there are some redeeming features of this case later, but for right now, nothing makes you feel good. So yeah, so he was remanded in custody and charged with murder.

The trial began on March 11th, 2009 at the Old Bailey with Mr. Justice Calvert-Smith presiding, which is a brilliant name. Yep. Great name.

Hannah: And he only had one career option. 

Rachel: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. When I was researching this, because it was very late, full disclosure, I couldn't sleep. So I researched it in the middle of the night. And when I was writing that bit, it did take me a moment because I did go, Oh, that's funny. His name's Justice and he's a judge. No, Rachel. No. Anywho. So the prosecution was led by an equally well-named gentleman called Crispin Eilit QC. And he argued that the incident was a result of Fari's aggressive and unprovoked behaviour. Eilit described the altercation as escalating from a trivial incident into a horrific act of violence within three minutes. Fari had multiple opportunities to walk away, but chose to re-enter the bakery to continue the confrontation.