‘Sword ban means the world to me after we had been failed earlier than my son’s homicide’

The grieving mum of a teenager senselessly murdered with a ninja sword has said it “means the world” that the law will finally change in his memory.

Pooja Kanda, whose 16-year-old son Ronan was killed with the 20-inch weapon in a case of mistaken identity, told The Mirror that the long-awaited Ronan’s Law will save lives. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Labour Party Conference that she would outlaw the dangerous swords, along with machetes and zombie knives.

One of Ronan’s 16-year-old killers had purchased the murder weapon online using his mum’s ID, and picked it up on the morning of the murder in June 2022. Pooja said: “Ronan’s Law will save lives.

“It means the world to me. It means that this Government is listening, and this Government wants to make the change happen. They want these UK streets to be safe for everyone else. That means the world to me.

“Because if my son was under this Government, I believe my son would have been here today.” Since aspiring lawyer Ronan was killed while walking home from his friend’s house, Pooja has campaigned tirelessly for the law to be changed.

She said: “We have been let down, these type of weapons that have no use at all in our community, when they get into the wrong hands, they take lives.” During the trial of the two teens convicted of murder, she learned killer Prabjeet Veadhesa had been able to buy 25 deadly blades – including the one that killed her son – online.

She said: “We were shocked, we thought ‘how is this happening?’ I felt absolutely disgusted, the fact that my son’s murderer has got his hands on it, and I also believe that if he didn’t get his hands on these type of weapons my son would still be here.

“I saw that clear. He (Veadhesa) just left his house looking to kill.” Ronan’s sister Nikita, 24, said: “We were exposed this whole world of knives and machetes and how easy it is for a pair of 16-year-olds to go out there collect it from and order it from a website, using his mum’s ID and then collecting it from the Post Office with no further checks.”

She said the 16-year-old who fatally stabbed Ronan was “obsessed” with the deadly weapons. “How does somebody get to that point if they were banned?” she asked.

“It would have made it harder for him to be obsessed with something like that because it wouldn’t be on social media for him to have a look at. It’s absolutely crazy.” And Nikita continued: “It’s just common sense not to have massive weapons that are literally manufactured to kill people available so easily.”

Pooja said that two years after the senseless murder, she is still struggling to understand how it happened. She stated: “It’s absolutely disgusting that my son’s life was taken for nothing. No fault of his. No fault of our family.

“He was a happy child. He wasn’t in gangs, he never carried knives, he never bought knives. He was a good kid at school and home to his friends, to his family. And you look at that and think ‘how has that happened? How did my child just go in one minute?’

“He was then gone from me.” His death changed her life forever, she recounted, stating: “The worst thing that people can imagine has already happened to me. Nothing else matters.”

Remembering Ronan, she said: “He was an absolutely amazing, loving, caring and very funny, charismatic child. He did so well in his GCSEs, getting As and Bs, he wanted to become a lawyer because he believed in speaking the truth.

“Whichever room he walked in, he lit it up with his charismatic aura.” And Pooja revealed how she’d learned more about her son and the number of lives he’d touched after his death.

“I got to know about Ronan more after what happened to him as well, because a lot of people connected with us telling us stories about what Ronan has done for them at school and how he stopped them from getting bullied. How he would push people to stop bullying. I was amazed, I’m so proud of my son.”

During her campaign she has met dozens of other families impacted by knife crime. It absolutely makes me more determined,” she said.

“It breaks me every time knowing another child has left this earth to this crime, it takes me back to my pain and knowing another mother is crying somewhere. We need to fight and we need to get this right.”

In a heartbreaking speech at the Labour Party Conference, she said: “There was no duty or care taken by anyone involved. Knife crime is terrifying communities and destroying families like mine. Too many mothers get the devastating news that I got… In that moment your entire existence changes forever.”

Ms Cooper told delegates: “It is just two years since Ronan was killed, but Pooja has not stopped fighting for him since. Fighting for Ronan. Fighting for other children, for other mums and dads.

“Because no parent should have to go through this unimaginable pain. So Pooja, we salute you, we support you, and now we are in government we will back you in your fight to save young lives.”