Barry and Margaret Mizen have been campaigning for safer communities since their son, Jimmy, was killed by another youth in a bakery in Lee, south-east London, a day after he celebrated his sixteenth birthday. Jimmy bled to death in the arms of his brother Tommy.

Nearly eleven years on from Jimmy’s death, the Mizens have turned their pain into an unstoppable force that drives a nationwide project to raise awareness about the causes of violent crime.

They were the main speakers at a gathering organised by the Jesuits of Farm Street to discuss “Violent Crime in our City: What Can be Done?” It came as latest police statistics showed that 41 per cent of those being caught for knife crimes in London are aged between 15 and 19. The number of fatal stabbings in England and Wales last year was the highest since records began in 1946.