A Nigerian couple recently left people heartbroken after narrating the events leading up to the deaths of their three sons in London.
The couple, Linda and John Burke-Monerville, living in London, have demanded justice for their three sons – Trevor, 26, Joseph, 19 and David, 38, who were killed in three separate attacks over two decades in London.
Sharing their ordeal on the Good Morning Britain show last month, Linda broke down in tears, compelling the husband to step in during the interview.
“We are trying very hard. It’s very difficult times for us, but we are trying. I have to hold on to what’s left of our family,” he said.
Their son, David Bello-Monerville, 38, was stabbed to death near the family’s north London home last month amidst a knife crime epidemic in the capital.
His brother, Joseph Burke-Monerville, 19, was six years ago shot in the head in a drive-by shooting in a case of mistaken identity – with no one ever convicted for the killing, according to the Sun UK.
The eldest brother, Trevor Monerville, 26, was stabbed to death in 1994 – no one has been convicted for his death.
The heartbroken parents had earlier sent Joseph and his twin Jonathan to a boarding school in Nigeria to keep them away from crime after they both came home once with a knife offered to them by a classmate.
“They came home from school one day and they had got into a fight at school.
“One young lad who spectated this fight offered one of them a knife and told them to use it.
“They came and they told us that story and we decided to the send them away,” Linda said.
However, six months after Joseph had returned from Nigeria to London with his twin Jonathan, he was shot in the head and died.
“I just want justice now. The police have promised us heaven and earth but… justice has not been done to Joseph. Justice has not been done to Trevor.
“It is too much, too much to carry on. Too much to bear,” the mother said.
Three men have been charged with aggravated burglary in relation to David’s death – Francis Appiagyei, 27, Nathan Harewood, 27 and Khalil Rehman, 26. They appeared at Harrow Crown Court on July 19, according to Daily Mail.
A trial into the 2013 death of Joseph collapsed, with a coroner ruling he had been unlawfully killed.
Britain has had to deal with a knife crime epidemic since the Second World War. London’s knife epidemic has so far reached unprecedented levels with 84 deaths in the capital since the start of 2019.
According to the Sun UK, last year was London’s bloodiest in a decade when the number of homicides reached 132.
Between September 2017 and 2018, there were approximately 40,000 offences involving a knife or sharp object in England and Wales, an 8% increase from the previous year, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The Nigerian couple, who are scared at the level of violence on Britain’s streets, said they wouldn’t want what they had gone through on their worst enemy.
“No mother should go through what these boys are putting me through innocently,” Linda said.
