Heartbroken mum of murdered Jermaine Cools has kept teenager's room intact since he left house for last time
13 May 2023, 16:17 | Updated: 14 May 2023, 02:34
The heartbroken mother of murdered teenager Jermaine Cools has kept her son's bedroom intact since the last time he left the house, revealing the family "don't really have a life anymore" after his death.
Jermaine, 14, was fatally stabbed with a machete in Croydon, south London, on November 18, 2021.
He became the youngest fatality involving knife crime in the capital that year, with his 16-year-old killer, Marques Walker, jailed for life at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
His mother Lorraine Dudek, 36, has set up shrines to her son around the family home, and keeps his bedroom as it was when he walked out the house for the last time.
Speaking to The Times, she said: “We just take each morning as it comes.
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"There’s days where the pain overrides everything and you just can’t really function. You just stop living. You just exist, that is it.
You can’t hide from it. And when it hits you, this realisation that you’re not going to see Jermaine again, you just crumble. Just stuck in a circle, there’s no way out.”
Jermaine Cools' father speaks to LBC
Ms Dudek has called for tougher penalties for people who carry knives and automatic custody so that carriers of dangerous weapons aren't on the streets putting other young people in danger.
She said her son was "just a normal child" who wasn't in a gang, and said the insidious gang culture needs to be addressed, including in drill music videos which glorify violence.
“There’s such a mentality here with the young population where it’s something normal, it’s okay. It’s acceptable," she said.
"The kind of drill nonsense these boys produce after doing these crimes.
"There’s so many youths that feel that you know, they support the music, support the gun. They think it’s something to aspire to.”
Speaking with LBC this week, Jermaine's father, Julius Cools, said there was "a missed opportunity" when it came to police stopping Walker before he killed.
"I feel like had it been addressed earlier, he may not have had the opportunity to go out there and kill my son, and I feel like this is something that's increasingly being seen of young males being caught with knives, released back onto the street, and then they go forward to kill somebody," he added.
During the case, the Old Bailey heard how Marques had a history of carrying deadly weapons and had been on bail for carrying a Zombie knife six weeks before.
The court heard how Walker showed a lack of remorse when it came to the killing, writing about the murder in rap lyrics saying: "Even if that youth was a civillian I would still rewind and chef up (stab) his back."
Walker, now aged 17, pleaded guilty to murder, possessing a knife and causing grievous bodily harm to a fellow inmate while in youth detention after the killing.
On Tuesday, Walker became the first youth to be sentenced on television as he was detained for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 19 years.
Judge Sarah Munro KC, who was briefly interrupted by angry shouting from the public gallery, said: "This is yet another case of the senseless murder of a young teenager committed for reasons no mature adult could fathom."
She said Walker stabbed Jermaine "mercilessly" and the victim "must have been terrified and in agony".
Speaking following the verdict, Jermaine's mother added: "Young males get caught with a knife, the knife gets confiscated. Within an hour they get another one from Snapchat or social media.
"Stop and search has its place and it's very, very good for removing weapons but the follow-up has to be there.
"When Jermaine got stopped and searched I was happy about it. Some parents complain about their children being stopped and searched - that could be the deterrent that stops them."
The court heard how Walker, from Bromley, Kent, was caught on CCTV footage calmly walking towards Jermaine and drawing a machete from his coat.
Jermaine had previously confided in his parents that he was worried about knife crime.
Following the attack, he was driven by a passer-by to the Mayday Hospital where he later died from a chest wound inflicted by the machete.
Police identified the defendant from CCTV footage but he went to ground, sleeping on the sofas of friends for nearly six weeks.
On December 27 2021, he was found at an address hiding behind a bed and initially gave a false name to officers.
The court was told the defendant had previously been caught carrying three large knives.
A Rambo-style blade was seized at his school and at the time of the murder he was on bail for possessing a Zombie knife six weeks earlier.
Superintendent Richard Vandenbergh, of Scotland Yard, said: "It was a horrific event that should never have happened. He was the very youngest that year to have lost their life to knife crime.
"Jermaine's family have spoken out about knife crime and I hope that their courage in speaking out may stop some other family losing a child to this evil crime.
"This youth was able to obtain knife after knife. Anyone seeing the pictures of those weapons police seized from him in the months leading up to the killing of Jermaine should be concerned that weapons like this seem so readily available to young men."
