'Watch TV with your children': Knife campaigner's heartfelt message to parents on Ronan's 21st birthday
Ronan's mother, who campaigns on cutting knife crime, urged parents to spend time with their children, and to know where they are at all times, to prevent them being lured into crime.
The mother of murdered Wolverhampton schoolboy Ronan Kanda urged parents to ‘play board games and watch television’ with their children as she marked what would have been his 21st birthday with a visit to his home city.
Sitting on a memorial bench dedicated to her son, Mrs Kanda said that parents sharing interests with their children could play a crucial role in preventing them being lured into crime.
The bench, in the play area off Hill Avenue in Lanesfield, is yards from where 16-year-old Ronan was stabbed to death in a case of mistaken identity as he returned to his home from a friend’s house.
Mrs Kanda, who moved to Bedfordshire following Ronan’s murder, now campaigns on cutting knife crime, and spends her time visiting schools, lobbying decision makers and talking to parents about the warning signs that their children may be at risk.
She said that while she had moved away from the city, her heart remained there, and she returned on a regular basis to remember Ronan.
“I like to sit here and watch the world go by,” she said.
“Because of what I’ve lost, I treasure it all the more.”
Mrs Kanda urged parents to spend time with their children, and to know where they are at all times.
“I always tell parents, ‘don’t put a TV in their bedroom, you’re caging them in their room’,” she said.
“Do you play the board games with the children, like I used to? Do you laugh with each other? Do you have a TV programme that you watch together?
“Me and Ronan always used to watch one TV programme all the time, it was New Amsterdam, a US hospital drama, me and him used to watch it together.”
Mrs Kanda urged parents to know who their children’s friends were, and to keep an eye on their online activity.
“If your child is going, saying ‘Mum, I’m gonna go out to see my friend’, do you have a knowledge of which one they’re going to see, and how long they’re going?,” she added.
Ronan was stabbed to death on June 29, 2022, in Mount Road, Lanesfield, while walking home from a friend’s house, where he had been playing snooker after finishing his exams.
He was stabbed twice with a 'ninja sword after being attacked by Prabjeet Veadhesa and Sukhman Shergill, who were fellow pupils at his school, the Khalsa Academy in Bilston.
It emerged during their trial that they saw Ronan leaving his friend’s house, and mistook him for the boy who lived there. In 2023 Veadhesa and Shergill, both 17, were jailed for life.
Ronan’s Law, a package of measures tightening the sale of knives, was implemented in full last year.