Parents mark anniversary of teenage son’s murder with book plea for peace

Jimmy Mizen was killed on May 10 2008 – the day after his 16th birthday – after he was attacked in Lee, south-east London. Jake Fahri is serving a life sentence for the teenager’s murder.

After his death, Jimmy’s parents Barry and Margaret Mizen created the Jimmy Mizen Foundation which works to make young people more aware of the consequences of violent crime.

To mark the fifth anniversary of their son’s death – a day after what would have been his 21st birthday – they have released a book, Jimmy: A Legacy Of Peace, and are planning a memorial service for Friday as well as three weeks of action including sponsored challenges and community initiatives dubbed Jimmy21.

Mrs Mizen, 60, said: “Take me back to May 9 2008 and I was a housewife and a mother, that was my life. In a way I feel that was taken away from me when Jimmy’s life was taken, but the things we’re doing now are things I would never have in a million years thought I would be, meeting people I can’t believe I’m meeting.

“But I have to keep my feet on the ground, why are you doing it? Why are you meeting these people?

“Because you lost your beautiful son, and that keeps my feet very much on the ground.”

Mrs Mizen said although they had struggled at times over the past five years, the family has drawn strength from each other and “cried together and laughed together”.

Her husband said: “I think there was a determination that we weren’t going to be beaten by what happened, it was important that no more damage was inflicted upon the rest of our family, and secondly that something good had to come from this.”

Mr Mizen, 61, said they had made a conscious decision not to harbour anger or feelings of revenge against their son’s killer and not to be “sucked down into a sewer of hate”.

The couple said support for the foundation was still growing, with people supporting their message, and felt lucky to have received the support they had.

“Some people say, ‘How can you feel lucky, you lost your beautiful son?’,” said Mrs Mizen. “But we can’t bring him back. It doesn’t matter how angry I feel, how vengeful I want to feel, I can’t bring Jimmy back.”