Tragic 999 call: Olly Stephens, 13, lured to death by schoolgirl

30 April 2024 , 07:47

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Olly’s heartbroken parents recounted his final moments

A horror 999 call has revealed the moments after 13-year-old Olly Stephens was stabbed to death.

The schoolboy was lured to a field behind his home in Reading, Berkshire, where he was accosted by two boys with a knife.

Olly Stephens was stabbed to death in a Reading park eiqeeiqtuithinv

Olly Stephens was stabbed to death in a Reading parkCredit: PA

The youngster’s mum Amanda

The youngster’s mum AmandaCredit: Channel 4

Olly was killed less than a mile from his home

A Channel 4 documentary on Monday night opened with the chilling 999 call alerting police to the horror knifing.

The Murder Case episode revisits Olly’s murder in January 2021 - with his parents recounting the teen’s final moments.

In the 999 recording an ambulance operator asks if the patient is conscious and breathing.

The sobbing female caller replies: "Yes, he is - but he’s been stabbed. In the back, he’s actually got a chest wound."

They added that the victim was bleeding very heavily - and was a teenager.

The caller said: "He’s bleeding from his mouth now and I think he’s actually going to go into cardiac arrest."

The ambulance operator told the caller to start doing chest compressions.

A police officer told how blood had filled Olly’s lungs as the stab wound proved fatal.

Two 14-year-old boys, one of whom was 13 at the time of the killing, were convicted of Olly’s murder in January 2021.

The teen boys remain anonymous because of their age at the time of the murder.

A 13-year-old schoolgirl who lured the teen to his death was convicted of manslaughter.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, knew Olly in real life, but had not met the two other lads in person until the day of the killing.

She had been communicating with the boys on Snapchat, from which cops recovered almost 2,000 voice notes sent from the teens.

Many of the shocking clips gave vital clues into the build up to Olly’s death.

One, sent by the teen girl the day before Olly died, said: "By the way, I’m setting up Olly tomorrow.

"[One of the boys] just wants me to set up so then he’s going to go and bang him and pattern him and s***.

“I’m so excited, you don’t understand.”

Olly had believed he was meeting the girl to share a cigarette at the time of the ambush.

Seema Punj, an investigating officer, said: "He was meeting the girl to smoke tobacco and wasn’t expecting to see anyone else there."

Olly’s dad Stuart told how he would have been alarmed when two boys showed up.

He said: "He probably knew what was coming."

His mum Amanda told the documentary: "Poor Olly thinking he’s just going to meet that one person and then to be confronted. He would’ve known he’d been set up and that he had no protection."

During the trial, Reading Crown Court heard how Olly was a good student and not a troublemaker.

Thames Valley Police added that evidence of bullying and violent videos featuring knives found on the killers’ phones was just “the tip of a very large iceberg”.

’NO CHANCE’

Mum Amanda said she expected Olly back before dark but a boy he knew knocked on the door shortly after he left to tell them he had been stabbed.

Stuart and Olly’s older sister found him lying in a pool of blood in the field and Amanda followed.

He died in the field after friends, neighbours and dog walkers all tried to help.

Stuart told the documentary: "His hand was lifeless and cold. They got him onto a trolley.

"You’ve always got hope but I understood there was no chance."

As Olly died his mum Amanda stood watching on in the field as it got darker and started to drizzle.

An hour and a half after Olly left his home, he was declared dead.

She added: "There was a certain feeling of just leave him alone, he’s gone.

"The lady who was the surgeon, an hour and a half after he’d left the house, said I’m ever so sorry.

"In my mind I was thinking - Why would they have done this?"

The documentary recounted how cops pieced together a version of events from data hidden within dozens of phones.

Mum Amanda told how in the weeks leading up to the attack, his phone became a lifeline.

She added: "His phone was private to him. It wasn’t a place adults were supposed to be.

"You’d see his demeanour change as things came up and it took over his life. It was how he was filling his days. The online world was his world. It allowed him to create a persona.

"Even though he would look worried he wouldn’t ever talk about it."

CCTV footage showed the moment three teens, two on e-scooters, were captured near the park as cops tracked the suspects movements.

And a plastic bag dumped in another park revealed the attackers blood-spattered clothing as cops singled in on their suspects.

Cops shared the twisted voice notes of Olly’s attackers in the days leading up to his death.

In a foreboding voice message, the eldest of the two boys seethed: “I actually hate the kid with a passion, like if I was to see him right now I’ll probably end up killing him or something…”

In another message, the girl, who was known to Olly in real life, stated: “Karma – he (Olly) deserves all of this.”

In September 2021, the younger of the two was handed a minimum of 13 years in prison, while the older boy was sentenced to 12 years.

The girl was originally sentenced to three years and two months, but in December 2021, appeal judges decided her sentence was ’unduly lenient’ and increased the term to five years.

Olly was stabbed to death in this Reading park