The mother of a boy who was hacked to death in a case of mistaken identity told the court how her world turned upside down when he died in her arms.
Max Dixon, 16, went out for food with his friend Mason Rist, 15, in the Bristol suburb of Knowle West on January 27.
But what was a trip to buy a pizza turned into a tragedy when Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17, ‘hunted down’ the two boys.
The young boys, who had been friends since nursery, left Mason’s house in Ilminster Avenue at 11.13pm but were savagely killed just moments later.
They had been wrongly identified as being responsible for bricks being thrown at a house in the rival Hartcliffe district earlier that evening.
Max and Mason suffered ‘unsurvivable’ stab wounds and died in hospital, while Snook drove off in his Audi Q2 before the murderers burned their clothing in an attempt to cover their tracks.
Passing sentence at Bristol Crown Court, Mrs Justice May became visibly emotional as she described Max and Mason as ‘two good boys from loving homes’.
She told Snook his actions were ‘weak and cowardly’ as she sentenced him to life behind bars for a minimum of 38 years.
Max’s mother Leanne Ekland told the court she remembers her son looking at her as his eyes closed, telling her he ‘just wanted to sleep’.
The sobbing parent said ‘I couldn’t even say goodbye to him properly’ because it was a crime scene, she couldn’t touch him, as she said: ‘All I wanted was to hold him, and I wasn’t allowed.’
Max Dixon, 16, died in his mother Leanne Ekland’s arms after saying he ‘just wanted to sleep’
Close friends Max Dixon and Mason Rist were ‘hunted down’ and stabbed to death in the street on the evening of January 27
Anthony Snook, the getaway driver, was on Tuesday jailed for life
Snook had driven Tolliver and the three boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to and from Knowle West as part of a revenge mission.
Tolliver, who had a baseball bat, and the three teenagers armed with machetes jumped out of the car and chased after the two boys.
Max and Mason were seen going to different sides of the street, each pursued by two people from the vehicle before they were attacked.
A CCTV camera on Mason’s nearby house captured how the incident lasted just 33 seconds from the car pulling up to the teenagers getting back in and leaving.
Mason and Max sustained fatal stab injuries and both died in hospital in the early hours of January 28.
Snook, a one-legged landscape gardener, drove the teenagers from the scene and dropped them off in Knowle West.
A fire was lit in a back garden and items linked to the attack disposed of.
Before sentencing was passed, Max and Mason’s family read out statements to the court. They had previously revealed how the pair went to nursery, primary and secondary school together and enjoyed playing PlayStation and spending time together.
Max’s mother said: ‘That night was the worst night of my life. I will never be the same again.’
Best friends Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, were murdered in a case of mistaken identity
Max Dixon with his mother, Leanne, who said she will ‘never be the same again’
David Knight, the uncle of Mason Rist, speaks next to his sister Nikki Knight, Mason’s mother
She recalled a car pulling up outside the house and being told her son had been stabbed.
‘I thought it was a wind up as I thought my son was in bed,’ she added.
She then screamed and begged people at the hospital to let her see him but said there were ‘people around stopping me.
‘I can remember finally sitting on the ground with Max’s head between my legs, telling him I was there and to open his eyes.
‘I remember him looking at me and his eyes closing, he said he just wanted to sleep.
‘It was so frantic as the paramedics were working on him, cutting away at his clothes, he was so pale.’
‘When we were allowed to see Max, we walked in on them trying to save him and then stop and call out his time of death,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t even say goodbye to him properly, I wasn’t allowed to touch him as he was a crime scene. All I wanted was to hold him, and I wasn’t allowed.’
When told he had passed away, Leanne added: ‘I screamed and ran out the room and fell to the floor. I knew then life had changed. I had never felt pain like it.
‘I could not say goodbye properly – all I wanted to do was hold him.’
She told how she had attended each day of the six-week murder trial, having to listen to evidence from the pathologist on what would have been Max’s 17th birthday.
Leanne said watching the CCTV footage, she just wanted to ‘pull him out the screen and make him safe.’
Mason Rist pictured with his grandmother, Gail
The scene in Bristol where two teenagers were stabbed to death, on January 28
The three younger ones had long knives described as ‘truly fearsome’
Nikki Knight, mother of Mason, said following her son’s death she felt ‘frightened’ and would ‘never feel safe’ in her own home again with the murder scene right outside.
She added: ‘As a mother I feel I failed to protect my son. That is a thought that will stay with me.’
She said she can no longer go into his bedroom as it ‘hits me all over again that he has gone.’
Mason’s sister Chloe Rist described her brother as ‘vulnerable and harmless’.
She added: ‘He wouldn’t know how to defend himself. I want to shake the world to tell everyone how special and important he was.
‘He was a kind, sweet boy. I beat myself up that I did not stop him going out that night.’
Max’s sister, Kayleigh Dixon, added: ‘It was 33 sinister seconds and my life changed.’
She said she was haunted he had to life her ‘loving’ brother had faced his ‘final moments in unbearable pain.’
She added: ‘He just wanted to go to sleep. None of you knew anything about them. How kind they were and how desperately they are missed.
‘I am unable to sleep and have flashbacks of that night. I blame myself, could I have done anything different? I was supposed to keep him safe and I failed him.’
Snook in the back of a police van as he is arrested by officers
Max can be seen calling round Mason’s house and the pair then walk down the street to get a pizza
She told Snook: ‘I want you all to know that you killed me that day. You ripped out my heart and soul. It’s broken and unfixable.
‘I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t function, all I see in my mind is my lifeless brother’s body, I can feel how cold his hands were and how stiff his body was. His soul disappearing from his brown eyes.
‘He did not deserve to die. Due to your actions two families have been destroyed and there is no justification for that.’
She said the killers had subjected the family to a ‘lifetime of torture and grieving – both forever 15 and 16.’
She added: ‘Max and Mason should have been safe. I hope you spend the rest of your lives suffering as much as we are.’
Snook, of Dowling Road, Bristol, was convicted by the jury last week of two counts of murder following a six-week trial.
Passing sentence, Mrs Justice May described Snook’s actions as ‘so weak and cowardly’ and said he could have refused to take the ‘posse of armed teenagers’ to the scene.
‘Death was a matter of chance. You were the only adult. There were multiple opportunities for you to stop this madness.’
The pair walk down the road at around 11.15pm shortly before the attack but are horrifically set upon moments later
CCTV footage shown to the jury captured the gang of five men getting out of a car holding machetes before setting on the fleeing teenagers in a frenzied attack lasting just 33 seconds
Video of the attack released by police after the five attackers were convicted last week
The judge added that it was ‘impossible to fathom’ why he had agreed to drive the four boys in his car to the area.
‘The boys you took were then 14, 15, 16 and 17,’ she said.
‘The three younger ones had long knives. The 17-year-old had a baseball bat. The recovered knives were truly fearsome.
‘You would have experienced the atmosphere in that car. Felt the blood lust. Mason and Max, tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Members of Max and Mason’s families wept and embraced after the sentence was passed, while Snook remained emotionless.
Mrs Justice May praised their families for the ‘dignity and grace’ shown during their attendance at the six-week trial.
The judge told the court: ‘Mason, 15, and Max, 16, had been best friends for a long time.
‘These were two good boys from loving homes with their whole lives ahead of them.’
She described the ‘burning sense of unfairness of the attack on these two boys’ who were walking to get food in their community.
‘Nothing can undo the dreadful events of that night, or bring Mason or Max back,’ the judge said.
The four teenagers will be sentenced on December 16 following the preparation of reports.