{"id":538996,"date":"2025-10-31T03:37:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T03:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/538996\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T03:37:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T03:37:32","slug":"teens-found-guilty-of-killing-mikey-roynon-have-convictions-quashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/538996\/","title":{"rendered":"Teens found guilty of killing Mikey Roynon have convictions quashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people have walked freeAlex Driscoll<\/strong><\/a> Breaking news reporter and Callum Parke and Rod Minchin PA<\/strong><\/p>\n

15:28, 30 Oct 2025Updated 16:23, 30 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"MikeyMikey Roynon.(Image: Copyright remains with handout provider)<\/p>\n

Two people jailed for the killing of a young rapper at a 16th birthday party in Somerset have had their manslaughter convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal<\/a>, it can now be reported.<\/p>\n

Cartel Bushnell and Leo Knight were sentenced to nine years and nine-and-a-half years, respectively, in youth detention in May 2024 after being convicted of the manslaughter of 16-year-old Mikey Roynon.<\/p>\n

Mikey, from Bristol, was fatally stabbed in the neck with a large knife during a house party in Bath<\/a>, in June 2023.<\/p>\n

Fellow teenager Shane Cunningham was convicted of murder and detained for life with a minimum term of 16 years.<\/p>\n

\"LeoLeo Knight.(Image: Copyright remains with handout provider)<\/p>\n

Cunningham, Bushnell and Knight, who were all 16 at the time of their convictions, sought to challenge their convictions at the Court of Appeal in May this year.<\/p>\n

In a ruling that month, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Bryan and Mr Justice Cavanagh quashed Bushnell and Knight’s convictions, while dismissing Cunningham’s appeal bid.<\/p>\n

The ruling could not be reported due to a retrial scheduled to begin in November, but on Wednesday, the three judges said the prosecution had “offered no evidence” in either case, meaning reporting restrictions could be lifted.<\/p>\n

In their judgement, Baroness Carr said there had been an “accidental, but critical, error” in directions given to the jury around how to reach their verdict, making the convictions “unsafe”.<\/p>\n

\"CartelCartel Bushnell.(Image: Copyright remains with handout provider)<\/p>\n

Mikey was among dozens who attended the house party in Eastfield Avenue, Weston in 2023.<\/p>\n

A Bristol Crown Court trial heard he was stabbed in the garden and collapsed on the driveway, with two weapons later recovered by police.<\/p>\n

The first knife, which was found in a drain, was nearly 10in (25cm) long, and scientists found Mikey’s blood on the blade.<\/p>\n

The second knife, which was recovered from underneath a hedge, was 7in (18cm) long and had traces of Mikey’s airborne blood on the blade \u2013 meaning it was close to the victim when he was stabbed.<\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane Cunningham.(Image: PA Media)<\/p>\n

During the trial, Cunningham, of Devizes, Wiltshire, claimed he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mikey after claiming his victim had swung a knife towards his friends in the garden.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Saini ruled that Cunningham, Bushnell, and Knight could be identified at their sentencing hearing, despite their ages, following an application by the PA news agency.<\/p>\n

Passing sentence, the judge said Mikey’s “future looked promising” and that his family had suffered a “loss which is unimaginable”.<\/p>\n

He said Bristol and the surrounding areas “are in the middle of a plague of knife crime<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

The appeal hearing was held on May 15 in London, with the ruling quashing Bushnell and Knight\u2019s convictions handed down on May 23.<\/p>\n

In the judgement, Baroness Carr said barristers for Bushnell had told the Court of Appeal that Mr Justice Saini \u201cinadvertently misdirected the jury\u201d on the question of self-defence.<\/p>\n

The three senior judges agreed, with Baroness Carr stating the judge had \u201cno doubt inadvertently, materially misdirected the jury\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe directions directed the jury that they could convict Cartel, and Leo, if they were sure that Cartel and Leo may not have acted defensively. This was not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury could only properly convict Cartel and Leo if they were sure that Cartel, or Leo, was not acting in self-defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued that the error was not identified by barristers in the trial and that the judge \u201cmanaged the trial with conspicuous fairness, care and sensitivity\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people have walked freeAlex Driscoll Breaking news reporter and Callum Parke and Rod Minchin PA 15:28, 30…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,30,188,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-538996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115466695299034627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}