Harrowing words of machete attack victim as emotional judge pays tribute

A mum has recounted the devastating moment she held her dying son in her arms after he was fatally stabbed. Max Dixon, only 16, was murdered, and during the sentencing of one of his five killers at Bristol Crown Court, his mother Leanne Ekland spoke about the heart-wrenching experience.

She described rushing to where her son lay injured after being alerted by a car arriving with the news that "Max has been stabbed". Initially thinking it was a prank because she believed Max was safely in bed, the grim reality soon became apparent.

At the court, Ms Ekland shared with the judge: "I sat on the ground with Max's head between my legs, telling him to open his eyes. He said he just wanted to sleep. The paramedics were working on him, cutting away at his clothes. He was so pale."

She also told of the moment she learned her son wouldn’t make it at Southmead Hospital: "We were taken to a room where a doctor came in and said, 'I am sorry...' I didn't let him finish. I screamed and ran out of the room and fell to the floor."

Leanne added, speaking about the unbearable pain and her feeling of loss: "My heart was ripped out and the pain was unbearable. I knew then my life had been changed and my heart ripped out. I have never felt so much pain. When we were allowed to see Max, we walked in on them trying to save him, then stop and record his time of death. All I wanted to do was hold him and I wasn't allowed because he was a crime scene."

Ms Ekland, who was present every day of the six-week trial at Bristol Crown Court, including what would have been her son Max's 17th birthday when the pathologist's evidence was heard, spoke of her son as a "big character" - funny, kind, caring, and well-liked by his peers. Addressing 45-year-old Antony Snook directly, Ms Ekland said: "My son didn't deserve to die and neither did Mason. Our families didn't deserve to go through this. Due to your actions that night, two families have been destroyed. There are no words to describe how much I love my son, no words to describe the pain of losing him. Our family unit has been destroyed."

Today marked the sentencing of Snook, the first among five individuals involved in the murder of the two boys. As the getaway driver, he assisted three teenagers aged 15, 16, and 17—who cannot be named for legal reasons—and 18-year-old Riley Tolliver in fleeing the crime scene. His sentence is life imprisonment with a minimum term of 38 years, reports the Mirror.

Mrs Justice May, visibly moved, commended Max Dixon and Mason Rist as "two good boys from loving homes". She acknowledged the "dignity and grace" displayed by their families throughout the trial and reflected on the tragedy of the young lives lost, saying: "Mason, 15, and Max, 16, had been best friends for a long time. These were two good boys from loving homes with their whole lives ahead of them."

She expressed a "burning sense of unfairness of the attack on these two boys" who were simply on their way to get food within their own community. "Nothing can undo the dreadful events of that night, or bring Mason or Max back."