A teenage robber who fatally stabbed a 16-year-old boy for a mobile phone has been jailed for at least 19 years.

Kyi-Riece Sylvester, a prolific robber, targeted Stelios Averikou in broad daylight as he was sitting on a park bench on August 1, 2021.

Sylvester, 18, repeatedly stabbed his victim in the leg in Lordship Recreation Park before running off with his mobile phone.

At a trial at the Old Bailey, jurors were told that his partner in crime, 18-year-old Leon Gruber, had made off on a bicycle belonging to one of the victim’s friends.

Stelios fell unconscious and died in hospital on August 10, 2021.

A post-mortem examination found Stelios died from blood loss after sustaining three stab wounds to the upper thigh, with one 16.5cm deep.

The court was told that the defendants had acted as a “team” of robbers targeting anyone they came across in the park.

There was no dispute the defendants robbed Stelios of his mobile phone and his friend’s bicycle, or that Sylvester stabbed him.

Sylvester had denied meaning to kill or cause really serious harm, and Gruber denied encouraging the violence.

Following an Old Bailey trial, Sylvester, of Edmonton, was found guilty of murder and Gruber of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, was cleared over the death.

On Friday (December 20), Sylvester was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 19 years.

He was handed concurrent sentences for six robberies before and after the murder, which he had admitted.

Judge Hillen said: “The courts have to deal with the consequences of knife crime on the victims, their families, and also on the young perpetrators whose own lives and their families’ lives are ruined by this terrible trend of violence.”

The judge noted that Sylvester was 16 at the time of the murder and had been robbing people since the age of 13, with six previous convictions for nine offences.

On the impact on Stelios’ family, he quoted his mother as saying: “It was not as though he had a long-term illness and we had the chance to care for him and say goodbye. He was literally there one minute and gone the next.”

As he was sent down, a member of the victim’s family called for him to “rot” in jail and left the courtroom screaming.

Gruber had admitted five robberies and was sentenced to 34 months in custody.

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