Leeds dad tells of agonising pain over murdered son: 'There is endless aching love'
A devastated father has spoken of the agonising pain left by his son’s murder at a party in Leeds, telling a court that “nothing can prepare you”.
Saymore Kwashira was killed in cold blood by teenager Romaine James at the gathering in a Belle Isle flat last year.
James was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 24 years at Leeds Crown Court today, having been found guilty of murder after a trial.
A moving impact statement, penned by Saymore’s father, Petros Kwashira, was read out by the prosecutor, Mark McKone KC.
He said that Saymore was born in Zimbabwe in 2000 but came to the UK to join his father when he was 13.
He said Saymore “flourished” and made friends easily.
Mr Kwashira said: “He was bigger than life both in stature and in personality. He was full of life.
“On November 12, 2024, he was murdered. He was just 23-years-old. He was a young man with so much life to live.
“My world stopped, my knees buckled and my breath vanished with the words: ‘Your son is dead’.
“My life changed forever in an instant. There’s nothing that can prepare you for this kind of grief.
“It’s not just the loss, but the violence, knowing his final moments were filled fear and confusion.
“There is guilt I cannot shake. There is endless aching love. A love that has nowhere to go but the void he left behind.
“I have lost something that I can never get back.”
Saymore Kwashira, also known as “S”, had been at the gathering at the flat on Winrose Avenue late at night on November 11 last year.
James and his pals arrived, with the jury being told that they were inhaling nitrous oxide - laughing gas - while cannabis was also being smoked.
A witness said at around midnight James approached Saymore, asking if he had been talking about him to others.
In the confrontation that followed, James plunged the machete into Saymore twice, once in the stomach, and once to the neck.
The neck wound severed part of his ear and part of the base of the skull, while the stomach wound proved fatal, rupturing two major blood vessels and causing huge volumes of blood to collect in his abdominal cavity.
James, who was 17 at the time but is now 18, fled but handed himself into police weeks later.
He maintains he was acting in self defence, that Saymore had turned on him, but failed to convince the jury during his nine-day trial, who found him guilty of murder.