Murder of Jimmy Mizen

Mizen was the son of Barry and Margaret Mizen. He was their sixth son and eighth child.[2] Mizen was 16 years old, 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall and 14 stone (89 kg). He lived in Lee Green and attended St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive School in Eltham, southeast London.

Jake Fahri had a string of convictions involving robbery and violence. On 19 July 2004, he was given a nine-month referral order for taking part in a gang knife-point robbery of a schoolboy at Falconwood railway station in Bexley, south-eastern Greater London. On 4 January 2005, he was given a 12-month supervision order for the robbery of an adult in Greenwich Park on 13 April 2004. On 13 April 2006, he was given an 18-month supervision order for an unprovoked assault on a girl in the street and burglary.[3]

The Mizen family had previous dealings with Jake Fahri. In 2001, he walked up to Jimmy Mizen's brother, Harry, in the street and asked for money before punching him in the stomach. Harry, who was 10 years old, handed over 20p but told his mother about the incident and she made a complaint to Fahri's school. Two years later, on 1 April 2003, Fahri saw Harry in Woodyates Road, Lee, and demanded to know why he had 'grassed'. Harry tried to escape but Fahri grabbed hold of his shirt and threatened to beat him up before punching him in the chest. Police visited Fahri's home on 7 May 2003, to speak to him about the incident and gave him a harassment warning. The culmination of these events led to the incident in which Mizen was murdered.

At approximately 11:30 on the morning of 10 May 2008, a day after his sixteenth birthday, Mizen was inside the Three Cooks Bakery in Burnt Ash Hill, south London, with his brother, Harry. Jake Fahri, 19, of Lee, entered the shop and an altercation began when Jimmy stood up to threats being made against him by Fahri.

5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) Fahri challenged 6ft 4in, 14st[4] Mizen to go outside the shop, which he refused.[5] Not wanting to lose face after picking a fight with Jimmy, Fahri went back in the shop and hit Jimmy with two plastic drinks. The Mizen brothers defended themselves and traded punches with Fahri. All three then crashed into a glass cake display, before Fahri was bundled out of the shop.[6]

Fahri then re-entered the shop with a metal-framed advertising sign and started poking Mizen with it. Mizen held onto the sign, and Fahri reached for a 12-inch (30 cm) hot glass dish from the counter and threw it at Mizen. Shattering on his chin, a one-and-a-half-inch glass shard pierced his neck and severed vital blood vessels. According to witnesses, Fahri exited the bakery with a triumphant grin on his face.

Mizen staggered into the rear of the bakery, and into a cupboard, to shield himself from the possibility of Fahri's returning, where his older brother, Tommy, who was 27 at the time, found him. Mizen collapsed in his brother's arms. Mizen was so afraid of the attack that when his brother tried to open the cupboard he held it close thinking it was Fahri. Their mother Margaret arrived soon after and fainted at the sight of her son. She regained consciousness soon after, and called her husband, Barry, who arrived an hour later, only to find his son had died.

Fahri handed himself into police custody three days later after the attack.[7] In police recordings of his interviews, Fahri commented: "Someone has died because of me. I didn't mean it, I didn't mean to kill him."

Fahri was remanded in custody and stood trial for the murder of Jimmy Mizen at the Central Criminal Court on 11 March 2009 before Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and a jury. At his trial, Fahri admitted throwing the glass dish but denied murder.

Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said: "A trivial incident, brought about by the defendant's rudeness, escalated into something horrific. The defendant reached for any and every available weapon with which to attack the Mizen brothers. The whole incident lasted no more than three minutes – three minutes of absolute madness on the part of this defendant."

Pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift told the court that Mizen died from blood loss. A glass shard had severed the carotid artery and jugular veins which were both 0.4in (1 cm) below the skin near the jaw.

The jury rejected Fahri's version of events and found him guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of fourteen years.[8]

In 2009, the Mizen family set up the charity The Jimmy Mizen Foundation, now called For Jimmy, which is based in Lee Green.The charity works with schools all over the United Kingdom, where Margaret and Barry share Mizen's story and help young people make their local communities safer, so they can feel safe when walking home. Margaret, Barry and their eldest son, Danny, travelled to Kenya with CAFOD, to take the charity message out there. In 2011, Mizen's brothers, Bobby, Tommy, and Harry, his sister, Joanne, and his nephew, James, travelled to Nepal with some scouts and friends to do a trek around the Annapurna Circuit in memory of him. His youngest brother George also did this trek with a local scout group in March 2016.

In 2010, The Tablet named the Mizen family as among Britain’s most influential Roman Catholics. Mizen's parents, Barry and Margaret, were both appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to young people in London.[9][10]

On 26 July 2020, Barry and Margaret announced on Facebook that they have stepped away from the charity they founded 'For Jimmy' and have now set up a new charity called 'The Mizen Foundation' In the statement it states they and the trustees of the former charity had differences in the direction they wanted the charity to go to and were left with no choice but to step away.

• The Mizen Foundation
• Prince Charles listens to Lewisham youth at Jimmy Mizen cafe