The grieving sister of a 15-year-old murdered alongside his best friend by a machete gang in a case of mistaken identity brought his ashes to show his killers in court – telling them ‘this is what you have done’.
Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, were stabbed by a mob of masked youths in Knowle West, Bristol, after being wrongly identified as having carried out an attack on a house in the rival Hartcliffe area earlier on January 27.
Their killers – Riley Tolliver, 18, Kodi Westcott, 17, and two boys aged 15 and 16, who cannot be named due to their age – were ‘armed to the teeth’ with huge blades and a baseball bat when they set out looking for vengeance.
They were driven to the scene in Ilminster Avenue by Antony Snook, 45, who was jailed for life last month and ordered to serve a minimum term of 38 years.
Mrs Justice May sentenced Tolliver and Westcott to life imprisonment with minimum terms of 23 years.
The latter’s identity had previously been withheld due to his age, but the judge lifted reporting restrictions allowing him to be named.
She detained the 15-year-old boy for life with a minimum term of 15 years and 229 days, and the 16-year-old boy for life with a minimum term of 18 years and 44 days.
Before the four teenagers were jailed this afternoon, they were confronted by Mason’s sister Chloe Rist, who also showed them her brother’s hair and handprint.
She told the killers: ‘This is Mason’s ashes and this is what you’ve done. If anyone is upset about me bringing them to court today, that is all I have left of him.
‘I shouldn’t have to look at my brother’s bone fragments either. I also have a piece of his hair which has his blood on it, if you want to see it?
‘This is my dead brother’s handprint. Another thing you’ve done. I should be able to hold my brother’s hand, not look at it on a piece of paper. This is all I have left of him.
‘I hope your sorrys are genuinely but unfortunately I can’t be sure.
‘I hope you don’t forget Mason because he didn’t deserve any of this.’
The teens remained emotionless as she described how the devastating impact of his death on her family, including the ‘ripple effect’ of her grandmother suffering a heart attack and her baby being born prematurely.
Max and Mason, who had been best friends since attending nursery together, were heading out for a pizza when they were spotted by the gang.
Within 33 seconds, the attackers had returned to the Audi Q2 motability car – leaving Max and Mason dying in the street.
They were both declared dead in hospital in the early hours of January 28.
On Monday, barristers for Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy relayed apologies to the families of Max and Mason at Bristol Crown Court.
Ignatius Hughes KC, representing Tolliver, described how the teenager had only started to read and write since being remanded into custody.
Mr Hughes said Tolliver had written a short letter addressed to the judge and families of Max and Mason.
Printed and in a mix of capitals and lower case, Tolliver wrote: ‘To judge and families, I just started to learn to read and write. I would like to say how deeply sorry I am.
‘I should have never got into that car. I am sorry for the pain and sorrow, and I will carry this for the rest of my life.
‘Deepest sorrow, Riley Tolliver.’
Anna Vigars KC, representing the 16-year-old, told Mrs Justice May that her client’s IQ is on the second percentile and he has clinical indicators for mental health disorders.
She said: ‘As well as what was going on within his home, he has faced community tensions from before an age of knowing better. Rivalries between areas of Bristol which he was born into. He was simply, by virtue of where he was born, an inheritor of some appalling division and rivalry between our city.’
Mrs Vigars described how there was ‘adrenaline running high and fear running high’ after a property in Hartcliffe was attacked on the evening of January 27.
‘Somebody with the extremely low functioning that he had is profoundly ill-equipped to form a rational response to that fear and adrenaline from others,’ she added.
She told the court the teen had been carrying a ‘fearsome weapon’ when the group fatally attacked Max and Mason on Ilminster Avenue in Knowle West shortly after 11pm that day but he did not stab either of them.
Kate Brunner KC, representing the 15-year-old defendant, also told the court: ‘He is sorry beyond words for what he has done.
‘He has written to the court, and it is a genuine expression of how he feels.
‘The letter was written with the help of a support worker because he could not have done it on his own.’
She said the boy was ‘indoctrinated into a horrifying reality where children were regularly armed with ferocious weapons’ rather than receiving a normal upbringing.
Psychiatrists found the 15-year-old had a mental age of eight-and-a-half and lacked the skills to make rational choices and understand the consequences of his actions, Ms Brunner added.
Christopher Quinlan KC, representing the 17-year-old, described his client’s upbringing as ‘bleak and desolate’ and said he had suffered from ‘malign influences’.
‘The one thing he lacked was structure, care and love,’ Mr Quinlan said.
He added that the teenager ‘thinks about the harm he’s caused the families every day’.
On Tuesday, Jamie Ogbourne, 27, of Hartcliffe, and Bailey Westcott, 23, of Whitchurch, were both jailed for five years and three months for helping the teenagers after they committed the murders.
Ogbourne and Westcott, who previously pleaded guilty to charges of assisting an offender, were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court by Mrs Justice May.
The court heard how the pair helped to clean weapons used in the fatal attack.
Westcott lit a fire to dispose of items linked to the attack, while Ogbourne arranged taxis and a change of clothing for two of the teenage murderers.
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