The teenager who fatally stabbed both Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Knowle back in January can be publicly named for the first time, after the judge in the case lifted a legal order banning his identity from being known. Kodi Wescott was 16 when he carried out the double murder alongside Riley Tolliver, 18, and two other teenagers who still can’t be named because of their age.
The judge lifted the Section 45 order after a challenge from legal representatives of the media, backed by the families of both Max and Mason, but the orders banning the naming of the two youngest teenagers in the trial remain in place until they turn 18. Kodi, now 17, has been sentenced today, Thursday December 19, for two counts of murder, alongside Riley Tolliver and the two other teenagers. They were all jailed for life, but given different lengths of a minimum term they must serve.
Mrs Justice May jailed Riley Tolliver, the 18-year-old who attacked Max and Mason with a baseball bat, to life with a minimum term of 23 years and 47 days. Kodi Wescott, who is now 17, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and 44 days.
The 15-year-old who had pleaded guilty to stabbing Mason at the start of the month-long trial, and who cannot be named because of his age, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years and 229 days. A 16-year-old, who also still cannot be named, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years and 44 days.
Last month, the four were all convicted of both murders under joint enterprise laws, alongside Antony Snook, the 45-year-old who drove the car that took them from Hartcliffe into Knowle West and back again. At an earlier hearing, Snook was jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years for his part in the two murders.
The lifting of the order means it can be reported for the first time that the house attacked in Hartcliffe an hour before Max and Mason were fatally stabbed was Kodi Wescott’s family home. Three masked teenagers armed with machetes broke all the windows in the house and injured Kodi’s mum. Around an hour later, the four teenagers set off into Knowle West on what was described in court as a ‘revenge mission’. Max Dixon and Mason Rist had nothing to do with the attack, but were stabbed in a horrific attack outside Mason’s home in Ilminster Avenue as the four teenagers stopped and attacked the first young people they saw on the streets in Knowle West that night.
Kodi’s older brother Bailey Wescott, 23, was jailed on Tuesday for two counts of assisting an offender - he burned clothes worn by Kodi and another attacker in the garden of the Hartcliffe home. His friend Jamie Ogbourne, 27, was also jailed for helping to hide Kodi and another of the attackers at his home. The pair were given sentences of five years and three months on Tuesday.
During the trial, the jury heard that Kodi Wescott was the only one of the four to attack both Max and Mason. At the start of the trial, the court heard the now 17-year-old had admitted he chased Max Dixon with a large zombie knife and inflicted the single stab wound which killed him. Wescott admitted manslaughter but denied the murder of Max, saying he didn’t intend to kill or cause serious harm to the 16-year-old. The jury convicted him of murder.
The court also saw shocking CCTV footage showing Kodi Wescott, after stabbing Max, run back to Mason Rist, who was lying on the pavement opposite his house. Mason had already been stabbed once by the 15-year-old defendant - who cannot be named for legal reasons - and attacked with a baseball bat by Riley Tolliver. The video showed Kodi Wescott stab Mason as he struggled to get back to his feet. The jury found him guilty of Mason’s murder too.
You can follow updates from the sentencing hearing for all four teenagers convicted of the double murder of Max and Mason here.
For the full story on the sentencing of Bailey Wescott and Jamie Ogbourne, click here. The full report on the sentencing of Antony Snook is here.
