A fourth defendant, 22-year-old Ajay Edwards (below, left), of Slough, has been sentenced to six years in prison after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent.<\/p>\n
Police said Mitchell, now aged 24, had gone for a meal with friends at a restaurant in Gloucester Road, Bishopston on the night of the attack.<\/p>\n
Graham, Fay and Edwards entered the restaurant and watched Mitchell and his friends before leaving and returning 40 minutes later with Henderson as the group of friends left the restaurant.<\/p>\n
Mitchel tripped and fell in Bishop Road, where he was set upon and stabbed.<\/p>\n
Police said he suffered a brain injury, and \u201cmultiple significant wounds\u201d to his face, neck, shoulder, arm, chest and buttock.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said it was almost certainly only thanks to the efforts of passers-by, emergency services and hospital staff that he survived \u2013 but he has been left with \u201clife-changing injuries and disabilities\u201d.<\/p>\n
The defendants were jailed almost two years to the day after the attack at Bristol Crown Court.<\/p>\n
They will have to serve two-thirds of their sentence before they can be considered for release.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ajay_Edwards_and_Reuben_Fay.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sentencing them, Judge Michael Cullum said he had taken account of their youth and \u201ctragically similar\u201d adverse personal circumstances but that they are all dangerous offenders.<\/p>\n
The judge noted that Edwards did not take or use a knife, and that Henderson had not touched Mitchell but was jointly responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n
\u2018You have taken the greatest years of his life\u2019<\/p>\n
A victim impact statement read to the court from Mitchell\u2019s family said: \u201cEvery day for months I sat beside my son\u2019s bedside in hospital watching machines keep him alive, all because of what you did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was begging for him to stay alive, not knowing what son I would have when he woke up due to the brain injury that you caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I hate you for what you\u2019ve done to him, I wouldn\u2019t wish this pain on your family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son has had to keep fighting and is still fighting every day, he\u2019s had to be strong and learn how to walk and talk again. He was 22 years of age that night and you have taken away the greatest years of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has had to ensure physio to help him walk again. Occupational health to help with his memory skills, speech, and language therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has no memory. He can\u2019t remember fun exciting things he did as a child or just memories of what we used to do as a family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is now 24 years old and shouldn\u2019t be having to be told like a five-year-old to remember to do things. He is now living with life-changing injuries and disabilities, every day he will see these scars, and he will be constantly reminded of what you did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will not work, what he did have planned he will never be able to do. You caused this and took what goals he had away from him. You have taken things away from him more than you will ever know.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have no value of life, not even your own. You threw that away that night, not once did you think about your own mother or family in your twisted actions. I feel sorry for you, and I pity you.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy justice comes from you getting sentenced, but your sentence will never be long enough for what you have done.<\/p>\n
\u201cOurs is for life, but we\u2019re strong as a family unit and you will never win because you are weak.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are all cowards that hide your faces \u2013 you probably can\u2019t even tell me why you did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Horrific attack\u2019<\/p>\n
Afterwards Detective Inspector Peter Walker said: \u201cThis was a horrific attack on a young man on Boxing Day, who was simply out with friends having a meal in a local restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a consequence he and his family are living with the long-term impact of the injuries he sustained. He owes his life to the selfless efforts of members of the public who came to his aid, the emergency services at the scene and the medical professionals at hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitchell and his family have shown remarkable strength and unity. Nothing can undo the harm done, but they can now face the future together knowing these men are behind bars. We wish them all the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe three young men convicted of attempting to murder him, and a fourth who admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent, have now ruined their own lives by their actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey thought that covering their faces meant they wouldn\u2019t be brought to justice. They were wrong. We, as the police, will continue to act robustly to target and tackle those who choose to carry knives as well as those who use them to cause such terrible and devastating harm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear we all need to come together to stop the devastation of knife crime. The police all too frequently are there to pick up the pieces, bringing offenders to justice. But this does not stop the traumatic impact on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to prevent these horrific acts of violence and their tragic consequences from happening in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do so, we all need to work together, with our partners and with our communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo please, talk to the children and young people you care about. Tell them carrying a knife does not make them strong, and it certainly won\u2019t keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOUR men who stabbed a Fishponds man at least seven times in the street have been jailed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[161358,381,96178,748,161359,393,12716,4884,204147,529,161361,161362,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-670367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-ajay-edwards","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-bristol-crown-court","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-cain-henderson","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-fishponds","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-mitchell-burke","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-reuben-fay","19":"tag-tayshon-graham","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115829126197950104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670367","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=670367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}