Mum of 19-year-old stabbed to death by repeat knife offender wants law to 'stop protecting criminals'

Date18 June 2021
Published date18 June 2021
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
Becky Beston spent time this week with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick discussing her desire to see the law changed.

Becky’s only son Archie, 19, was killed last year by Tyrone Bryan, 20, who was free despite having two knife convictions prior to the attack, reports The Mirror.

She met Dame Cressida at Scotland Yard on Tuesday June 15 as a report into the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan was released.

It branded her force institutionally corrupt.

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Becky said: “I can’t thank the commissioner enough for meeting me, especially at such a difficult time for her.

“She was very compassionate and I have full faith in her.”

Archie was attacked outside a nightclub in Kingston, South West London, on February 29, 2020. He died six days later.

Bryan, who was cleared of Archie’s murder but got 19 years for manslaughter, had also stabbed another teenager.

Becky, from Barnes, broke down as she said: “I want to change the law for Arch. No mum should have to have to get that knock at the door and then watch her son go up to heaven.

“This could have happened to anyone. The streets are not safe.”

Sentences for possession of a knife range from a community order to a maximum of four years’ jail, plus a fine.

Becky said: “People like Bryan have no regard for the law because it has always been on their side.

“That needs to be changed. If he’d been in prison, Archie would be with me now.

Becky met Dame Cressida on her 40th birthday, bringing back bittersweet memories of Archie.

She said: “I can’t celebrate it anymore and I never will again.

“It used to be a day for the two of us. Arch would take me for afternoon tea at places like the Savoy and the Dorchester.

“He would have been 21 this year and I’d been saving up for us to go...

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