Murder of Olly Stephens

Common card · No. 461311

Oliver Lucas Stephens (1 November 2007 – 3 January 2021) was a 13-year-old schoolboy who was fatally stabbed near his home in Reading in Berkshire, England, on 3 January 2021. He had been lured to a field by a 14-year-old girl, where he was attacked by two boys aged 13 and 14, the younger of whom was armed with a knife. In July 2021, the two boys were each convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 12 and 13 years' imprisonment. The girl pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to be detained in a Young Offender Institution for three years and two months, which was later increased on appeal. The murder attracted considerable media attention, primarily because of the young ages of the victim and the perpetrators. Considerable scrutiny was paid to the role played by social media and knife culture in the attack, with Stephens's parents calling for more stringent regulation of social media companies. As they are under the age of 18, English law prohibits the identification of...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Emilia Stephens, CC BY 3.0