A teenage killer who stabbed a boy in the back at a school bus stop laughed as he was handed a life sentence for murder.
Myglor Yambuya, 17, chased after Renell Charles and knifed him in the back outside Kelmscott School in Walthamstow, east London, on May 5 last year.
Yambuya was on bail at the time for threatening a moped rider with a machete. He also has convictions for assaulting a police officer who caught him damaging a bus shelter and possession of a machete in 2022.
Renell was a passionate campaigner against knife crime and had appeared in a video by the filmmaker Kay Rufai where he said innocent ‘young black boys just like me’ are getting killed as a result of increased violence.
Yambuya, who can now be named after a judge lifted an order on his anonymity, smirked as he was today handed a life sentence and ordered to serve a minimum of 19 years in jail.
Myglor Yambuya, 17, was today jailed for life for the murder of a schoolboy who he stabbed in the back at school bus stop
Renell Charles, 16, was stabbed to death close to Kelmscott School in Walthamstow in front of his fellow pupils on May 5
Renell is pictured appearing in a video by the filmmaker Kay Rufai about knife crime
Judge Murray Shanks told the smirking thug as he was jailed: ‘This was a brutal murder in broad daylight in a busy London street.
‘It seems that you believed you could do anything you pleased without any consideration of the consequences for others. I cannot be sure you intended to kill Renell when you stabbed him.
‘But as I’ve described you plainly knew what you were doing and you must have known it involved the certainty of really serious injury and a very substantial risk of death.
‘The consequences of what you did are truly appalling. You’ve taken away the life and the future of Renell at the age of 16.
‘There’s nothing I can add to the fulsome tributes paid by his parents and grandmother and by his headteacher which we’ve heard.
‘You have left his family and friends and a whole community utterly bereft. The sense of loss, sadness and justifiable anger on the part of his parents and grandmother is palpable.
‘You’ve contributed to an exaggerated and understandable sense of fear and insecurity which plagues our streets.
In CCTV footage of the horrific attack, Renell can be seen walking towards the bus stop with a group of friends
Myglor Yambuya is then seen getting out of a taxi just metres away from Renell
Yambuya then marches up to Renell while carrying the machete in his waist band
Yambuya can be seen her confronting Renell. Yambuya claimed that he and Renell then got into and fell on the floor before chasing after the 16-year-old and stabbing him
‘You’ve contributed to an unfair perception of a generation of young men growing up in certain parts of London.
‘You’ve brought misery and shame on your own family. You’ve pretty much ruined your own life for absolutely no discernible reason’.
Reading an impact statement earlier, Renell’s mother Jenita Charles spoke through tears as she addressed Yambuya in the dock: ‘Myglor Yambuya you were the darkness that met my beautiful boy.
‘I am absolutely broken and forever changed because of Michael Yambuya’s violent temperament. The finality of his death continues to shatter me a million times over.
‘Renell spoke to me about boys like you. Having this need to ingratiate themselves with violent acts in order to gain acceptance with violent gangs.
‘Renell would say it’s all for clout and attention. Renell’s family and friends and the wider community believe that you Myglor Yambuya murdered Renell because you were jealous of Renell’s popularity status.
‘Myglor Yambuya you mocked us with smirks and laughter and awful looks and slouching in the chair with no sign that reflection has taken place.
Renell’s father Charles said: ‘Renell had charisma and offered something different. He wanted to bring out the best version of people he met. He could calm an angry kid and make him listen. I admired this in him.
‘5 May is a day I will never forget.I saw my son lying on the ground motionless. There was a paramedic sat over him and Renell’s chest was wide open.
‘I can’t erase this image from my mind. I believe Renell’s murderer has not displayed an ounce of remorse or regret. I cannot help but feel disturbed by this.
‘I still feel numb and am still trying to make it all make sense. I ask myself how someone can be so evil towards someone who had not hurt them in any way’.
Police were called on the afternoon of May 5 to reports of a stabbing at Markhouse Road
Police closed the road and cordoned off the crime scene following the attack in May
Renell’s grandmother described the killer as a ‘predator hell bent on fulfilling his demon driven assignment’.
Sam Jones, Renell’s headteacher at Kelmscott School, said in his statement that Renell had ‘wanted a fair world for everyone’ and described his death as ‘completely senseless.
‘He was charismatic, smart, fun, good-looking and the life and soul of his tutor group. He would always stand up for what he believed in and for those who could not stand up for themselves’.‘
Judge Murray Shanks lifted Yambuya’s anonymity order, made under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, as he will turn 18 and lose his anonymity in June.
He said: ‘I am firmly of the view that in this case it is appropriate to lift the restrictions.
‘It is plain that a story in the press that lacks essential details, most essentially the identity of the perpetrator, lacks a great detail of its interest and power.
‘The defendant’s name can in fact be published in three months’ time when he turns 18 in any event, but by that time any story would no longer have the same power.’
Earlier prosecutor Peter Ratliff said Renell was attacked at around 4pm after leaving school for the day. He said: ‘The defendant was travelling in a taxi but when he saw the victim he demanded the driver stopped.
‘The defendant got out of the vehicle, ran towards the victim and assaulted him, knocking him to the ground.
‘He then chased the victim, pulling out a large machete as he did so and stabbed the victim several times.’
Kelmscott School in Walthamstow, which was attended by 16-year-old Renell Charles
Ambulance and air ambulance services attended but Renell died at the scene.
Yambuya made his getaway in a taxi, changed his SIM card and headed to the Tottenham area of north London.
Three days later he handed himself into Forest Gate police station. He made no comment when questioned by detectives.
Yambuya claimed he had never met Renell before but the 16-year-old had mocked a friend of his on social media.
He admitted he had a knife for protection when he came across Renell by chance on 5 May. Yambuya said that he confronted Rennell and they started fighting.
He told the court: ‘We traded punches. He says “you f-cking pussy I’m going to wet you up”. I panicked and pulled a knife out of my waistband. I thought I needed to scare him off.
‘He reached for his bag. I was thinking of my safety, I was panicking. I was scared and panicked. I thought he was going to do something. I felt in danger when I was chasing him.
‘I had no intention of killing him of causing him any serious harm. I wanted to stop him from taking whatever it was out of his bag.’
‘We both fell to the ground. I’m not sure when the fatal stab wound was inflicted.
‘Maybe when we were on the floor, maybe when I was grabbing, I don’t remember doing that [fatally stabbing him].’
In her closing speech Naeem Mian, KC, defending Yambuya, told jurors: ‘Imagine, like him, speaking in front of a room full of strangers, men in funny outfits, before a judge. The only people rooting for him in this room are me and him.
‘I hope, I urge you, that when you go out through that door and sit around that table to apply the same standard to him that you would apply to anyone else, that you would want applied to you, that you would want applied to a loved one of yours.’
‘He’s an idiot, not a murderer’.
