Mikey Roynon's family speak of 'living nightmare' following murder of 'happy' son

The family of Mikey Roynon emotionally shared the pain and "living nightmare" they suffered following his murder. The teenager from Kingswood was at a 16th birthday party when he was stabbed in the back of the neck with a zombie knife by Shane Cunningham in Eastfield Avenue in the Weston area of Bath on June 10, 2023.

He made his way through the property before he collapsed. Despite the efforts of emergency services, Mikey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cunningham was found guilty of murder while his two co-accused friends Cartel Bushnell, aged 16 and from Dorset and Leo Knight, aged 16 and from Wiltshire, were found guilty of manslaughter at a trial at Bristol Crown Court. They can be named after press restrictions were lifted by Justice Saini.

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Hayley Ryall, Mikey Roynon's mother, recalled in a moving victim impact statement the horrific impact of her son’s death. On the night of his death, she received 37 missed calls as she attended a work ball in Birmingham. When she found her phone, she heard Mikey had been stabbed and immediately drove three hours to the scene.

She said: “Every morning I wake up and it hurts as much as the last morning. I keep having awful dreams that Mikey is lost and I’m looking for him, but even the awful dreams are better than waking up to reality.

“At least in my dreams, he is somewhere, whereas in reality he is gone.”

Hayley said she found comfort in sitting in Mikey's bedroom or daily visits to his grave. But she described crippling panic attacks and struggling to sleep after the loss of her beloved son.

She described how difficult she found what would’ve been Mikey’s 17th birthday in November and Christmas without him and spoke of her sadness at never being called ‘mum’ again. She also spoke of her fear of the court process and of the future.

“I feel like I’m living in a film or a nightmare and soon I’ll wake up and I’ll be able to hug and kiss him and Mikey will say 'it’s OK mum',” she said.

“Will justice help me? I don’t know and I’m not even sure I want to know because life will never be normal again.”

Mikey’s father, also called Michael, said he was heartbroken by the loss of his “buddy” and the aftermath of his death had been a “living nightmare”. He added: “I can only hope and as time goes on, I feel less wounded and can find a way to rebuild my heart and life which has been shattered.”

Since his death, Hayley set up Mikey’s World to raise money to fund more bleed kits and raise awareness of the devastating impact of knife crime. Mikey's team Bristol Rovers donated a signed shirt and tickets to the cause to help "prevent more lives being destroyed by knife crime".

Mikey’s World and the Bristol Rovers Community Trust are signatories in Bristol Live's city-wide campaign to tackle knife crime in Bristol. The Together for Change campaign has brought together community leaders, charities and organisations, as well as the city’s media, to show a united front to help prevent more lives being taken by a knife.

Cunningham was issued a life sentence and must spend 16 years in detention before he is considered for parole. Bushnell was jailed for nine years in prison and Knight was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison.