The ‘outwardly regular’ teenager with a ‘worrying curiosity in knives’

This is the ‘outwardly normal’ 15-year-old killer who stabbed a teenage boy to death in broad daylight. 

Bardia Shojaeifard had a ‘worrying interest in knives’ when he took a six-inch blade from his home and plunged it into victim Alfie Lewis’ heart outside a primary school.

The murderer, who is of Iranian heritage, can be identified for the first time today after judge Mr Justice Cotter at Leeds Crown Court lifted reporting restrictions.

He said naming him would help in the ‘vitally important debate about the scourge of knife crime, among young people in particular’. 

Shojaeifard was handed a life sentence, with a minimum term of 13 years, for killing Alfie in Horsforth, in Leeds, last November. 

The court heard the killer had ‘no interest’ in crime, drugs or gangs, but horrifying images released today show the teenager posing with knives.

Shojaeifard claimed one picture had been edited to superimpose a blade in his hand – an alteration he said was made because ‘it was funny.’

Another photo shown to the court had the boy holding a knife and wearing a scarf around his face whilst on holiday to his family’s ancestral home. 

He said his uncle was a craftsman who made knives and he wanted to show his friends the cultural differences to England, while Shojaeifard’s father, a car mechanic, said it was a ‘model’. 

The teen denied murder, claiming he feared for his life when he pulled out the weapon, but was found guilty by a jury after a trial in April.

Alfie’s killer was 14 years old at the time he took a six-inch long kitchen knife from home and plunged it into the teenager’s heart.

During the trial, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the defendant attacked him. 

He said all the witnesses were ‘consistent’ in saying that Alfie was ‘not the aggressor’ that day.

But the well-spoken defendant told the jury he was scared of Alfie following two incidents in the months before.

The latter of these happened on Halloween when, according to the suspect, he walked past Alfie’s house with a bag of fireworks and Alfie said to him: ‘Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen.’

The defendant said that, when he returned to school after a half-term break, he decided to take a knife from a kitchen drawer to protect himself – and took it out when he came face-to-face with Alfie the day of the murder to ‘keep him away’.

However, eyewitnesses told the court Alfie was defenceless and had done nothing to provoke the violent knife attack.

The 15-year-old victim’s grieving mother Heather Lane hit out at her son’s murderer and said she would ‘never forgive’ Shojaeifard.

Before passing sentence, Ms Lane said: ‘Alfie’s murder has ruined so many lives.

‘No sentence will ever be enough for you because Alfie is never coming back and I will never forgive you.’  

The judge, Mr Justice Cotter, said the defendant was ‘objectively an ordinary 14-year-old, from a loving and supportive family undertaking entirely appropriate activities when out of school’.

‘He has no connection with gangs or indeed any negative peer pressure, no involvement with drugs or mental health issues,’ the judge said.

‘However he did have a worrying interest in knives as revealed by photographs on his phone including photoshopping knives into his hand.’

Lifting the restrictions which previously banned Shojaeifard from being identified because of his age, he said: ‘The question has to be asked, how it can be that it has come to this?

‘If a seemingly normal 14-year-old boy takes a knife and uses it against a boy of the same school year, how bad must things have become?’

Mr Justice Cotter said people would be wondering how a young boy ‘from a loving and supportive family’ could commit such an ‘extraordinary’ crime ‘without forewarning or any warning signs save for some pictures of knives on his phone’. 

‘Outwardly Bardia was a normal 14-year-old boy with no interest in crime, albeit with a poor school disciplinary record,’ the judge said.

Ms Lane wept as she told the court: ‘Alfie was my youngest son, my baby boy, my little mate and my gossip column.

‘He was the third corner or our little family’s triangle which is now broken. I’ve devastated and I miss him so much. He was my beautiful, kind baby boy and I was so proud of him.’

She said her soccer-mad son carried a football with him wherever he went when he grew up, even to bed.

She added: ‘We laughed, danced and smiled for 15 years and I thought we would for the rest of our lives.

‘Some of the things I miss the most are the simple every day things. I miss his kisses in the morning, goodnight and all of the ones in the middle.

‘I miss his jokes and amazing massive smile and the love he showed me every single day. It’s unbearable not to have that now.

‘Even when he was in a mood with me, he’d text me and say ‘even though I’m not talking to you, I still love you’.

‘Alfie used to call me every hour when he was out with his friends talking rubbish. I’d do anything for that phone call now.

‘Our house was filled with Alfie and his friends. He goes out in the afternoon and he’s murdered.

‘I can’t accept what happened as the pain is too much. I don’t know how to live without him and I don’t want to. I don’t know why this has happened to us.

‘The impact Alfie had in our lives was larger than I could could ever describe and because of these horrific senseless actions – and his murder – so many lives have been affected.

‘I received a phone call on November 7 that my Alfie had been stabbed. Just minutes before he left the house.

‘The reality was I was never going to hold him, see him or cuddle him again. Never be able to hear him say. ‘I love you mum’ because he was murdered.

‘Alfie would never use or never had any kind of weapon because I brought him up better than that.

‘Alfie was my heart and when he was stabbed in the heart it killed me too. My heart is broken and I don’t know how to live my life without him.’

Addressing the killer, she said: ‘Alfie’s murder has ruined so many lives. No sentence will ever be enough for you because Alfie is never coming back and I will never forgive you.

‘I love you so much Alfie and I’m so sorry that this happened to you.’

Relative Emily Lane told the court she’d took her terminally-ill mother – who has since died – to the hospital for tests before they had a ‘lovely afternoon’ planned as her uncle was flying in from New Zealand.

She told the court: ‘Instead, I had to tell her that her grandson had been killed. Her first words were ‘why can’t I swap places with him’ as she was going to die anyway.’

Alfie’s brother Antony said in a statement: ‘Losing Alfie has changed my life and nothing will ever be the same again. I’m heartbroken and our family is heartbroken.

‘Alfie was such a loving and caring little man and he has been taken away from us. I’ve had sleepless nights hearing mum crying herself to sleep.

‘I’m left dealing with the most important person in mine and Alfie’s lives completely broken to bits.

‘I miss Alfie’s 12 phone calls again, the nights we stayed up playing FIFA together, his smile, his loving and caring, his annoyingness, everything. I love you so much Alfie.’

Nicholas Lumley KC, defending, said the crime was ‘out of character’ and that Shojaeifard was the son of ‘utterly decent, loving parents’.

During the trial, Mr Hassell said witnesses recalled Alfie looking ‘surprised and shocked’ and saying: ‘What are you doing?’ as the incident unfolded close to St Margaret’s Primary School in Town Street, Horsforth, just before 3pm on November 7 2023.

The prosecutor said: ‘Alfie did not get as far as meeting any of his friends that day.

‘He was approached by (the defendant), and stabbed twice – once in the chest and once in the leg.

‘He collapsed and died in the road close to the primary school in full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them.’

Mr Hassall said a post-mortem examination found that the fatal stab injury was a 14cm deep wound to Alfie’s chest which punctured his heart.

He told the jury the defendant ‘then fled the scene, dropping the murder weapon in the road close to the primary school’.

The court heard all the witnesses were ‘consistent’ in saying that Alfie was ‘not the aggressor’ that day.

The defendant told the jury he was scared of Alfie after two incidents in the months before.

The latter of these happened on Halloween when, according to the teenager, he walked past Alfie’s house with a bag of fireworks and Alfie said to him: ‘Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen.’

The defendant said that, when he returned to school after a half-term break, he decided to take a knife from the kitchen drawer to protect himself.

Mr Justice Cotter said he did not accept Shojaeifard’s evidence that he was ‘trying to scare Alfie away and swung the knife aimlessly’.

‘You intended to cause him really serious harm. You carefully planned to confront Alfie to gain revenge for whatever happened on October 31,’ the judge told the defendant.

He said one witness described Shojaeifard’s attack as ‘vicious’ and that he was ‘trying as much as he could to inflict some sort of damage to Alfie’.

The judge said: ‘Alfie was a much loved and loving son and nephew, a friend to many – kind and big-hearted with a love of football, something you shared, you even played together in Year 5.

‘Despite his difficulties at school he had many positive qualities. He had a long life ahead of him and you took that away.’

He added: ‘Knives have stolen so many lives, and you and others must understand how dangerous this obsession is.

‘Without your interest in knives Alfie would be here today.’