The mother of a murdered Nottingham teenager has explained how she and her family are living every day to honour his memory.
Sixteen-year-old Joseph Whitchurch was fatally stabbed in the early hours of Boxing Day morning 2020 by Jake Rollinson, a violent criminal and small-time drug dealer.
Nottingham Crown Court
Rollinson, aged 21, was today (Friday) handed a life sentence by a judge at Nottingham Crown Court and will spend at least the next 19 years behind bars.
In an emotional statement read out during the hearing, Joe’s mum Lisa paid tribute to a “loving and caring young man, with a smile that would light up a room.”
She said: “Joseph loved being around people and people loved being around him. He had a happy nature, and his warm and caring personality was loved by everyone.
“He was always looking out for his younger brothers and was a kind and loyal friend. I was always told ‘what a lovely polite young lad’ he was.
“Over the past year, we have all had to come to terms with losing our beloved Joseph.
“Words seem inadequate to describe the hole he has left in our lives and yet we will live to honour him in everything we do, inspired by his attitude to life and his smile. Cherished memories of him are never far from our thoughts.
“Nothing or no one can prepare you for the loss of a child. It is not something anyone should ever have to experience.
“To have a child die is so devastating but to also deal with the fact that somebody brutally stabbed your precious child is another level.”
Lies and deceptions
Rollinson, who had previously posed on social media with wads of cash and a large knife, was in the kitchen of his grandmother’s house in Hickings Lane, Stapleford, when he stabbed his victim four times in the chest and leg.
Supported by his former girlfriend, 26-year-old Lorna Richardson, he then tried to cover his tracks with a series of lies and deceptions.
During a panicked 999 call shortly before 5.30am from the scene in his grandmother’s kitchen, Rollinson claimed Joe had been stabbed by an unknown assailant outside.
Supported by Richardson, he claimed to have been waiting in a car outside the address when he helped a gravely injured Joseph into the kitchen for treatment.
Officers, however, had already been alerted to a disturbance at the address and could find no evidence of blood outside.
Joseph was rushed to hospital but died of his injuries three days later.
The knife used in the attack was later found hidden in the garden of the address, having been hidden there in the minutes before paramedics arrived on the scene.
Rollinson, who had previously been convicted of possessing an offensive weapon, battery and affray, finally admitted to stabbing Joseph but claimed he had acted in self-defence during an argument.
After a trial at Nottingham Crown Court lasting almost three weeks, he was found guilty of murder by a jury.
Rollinson, formerly of Hickings Lane, had previously admitted to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Richardson, of Blake Road, Stapleford, who had already admitted to the same charge, was handed a two year prison sentence.
Police statement
Detective Inspector Steve Wragg, of Nottinghamshire Police, led the investigation into Joseph’s death.
He said: “During the course of the trial Rollinson was exposed as a violent and aggressive drug dealer with a fondness for violence and knives. He claimed to be Joseph’s friend but in reality he was a controlling bully who had threatened and intimidated his victim in the past.
“We may never know exactly what happened in that kitchen but it was obvious from the start that Rollinson’s version of events were entirely dishonest.
“When his first lie was exposed, he simply moved onto another – offering a final insult to Joseph’s memory by falsely painting him as the aggressor. The squalid, sordid reality of what happened that night was evident almost immediately to the officers who first arrived on the scene. Rollinson, for reasons we may never fully understand, repeatedly stabbed his young victim with a large hunting style knife he had no legitimate reason to have in his possession.
“Today’s sentence brings to an end a long legal ordeal for Joseph’s family, but I am acutely aware that it will never ease the pain they feel every day at the loss of their son, brother and ‘little protector’. I would like to thank each of them for the enormous courage and dignity they have shown in unimaginably difficult circumstances.”
*The knife shown in this image is not the murder weapon
