Leo Ross was making his way through The Shire Country Park in Birmingham when he was stabbed in the stomach.
The 15-year-old killer was today detained for a minimum of 13 years for the stabbing.
Leo’s devastated mum Rachel Fisher blasted the “ridiculous” sentence and branded the country “an absolute joke”.
“Nothing will bring my lovely Leo back, but with just 13 years it will just keep on happening,” she said.
“This is why kids are killing kids because the sentences are a joke. He’ll be out in his twenties and he’ll have a big reputation.”
Ms Fisher continued: “I am just sad because nothing is going to change. If it was a life for a life or if life meant life then they might stop and think but 13 years isn’t going to make any difference at all.
“That kid has been failed by social services and the police and they have a lot of questions to answer.
“I just want it known what a beautiful, kind, caring little boy Leo was. He didn’t deserve any of this.”
The tragic teen’s dad, Chris Ross, also told the defendant in the dock to look at him as he gave his victim impact statement from the witness box.
The defendant looked up from the floor as Mr Ross said: “You killed my son, your horrendous act has destroyed me. Look at me.
“Leo was loved by everyone, everyone said how special he was. He was the kindest little boy.
“It breaks my heart to think he was alone and I wasn’t there to protect him because of you. He was on his own, scared, lying in a bush.
“Leo would never have hurt a soul, he never did anything to anybody. That day has meant I am living a life sentence, you know.
“Without my special little boy there is no minimum term to my sentence. It breaks my heart. Leo, I will always miss you and I will get justice.”
In the aftermath of the killing Leo’s attacker – who had violently assaulted two elderly women in the days before the stabbing – threw the knife he used into a nearby river.
He then hung around to talk to cops at the murder scene – playing the hero and falsely claiming he had stumbled across Leo lying injured beside the River Cole.
He told officers at the scene: “I seen him and I seen this woman – she was walking down so I told her to call you guys.
“Then I went to get some help from different people, and that’s all I know about it.”
Leo’s attacker pleaded guilty to murder at Birmingham Crown Court last year before his sentencing today.
The teen killer previously admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to previous attacks on separate victims.
He further admitted having a bladed article, denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating in relation to two other people – those charges were ordered to lie on file.
The court previously heard the teen, aged 15, had also carried out a string of chilling attacks on several women before killing Leo because he wanted to inflict “violence purely for violence’s sake.”
Detective Inspector Joe Davenport from West Midlands Police said the boy was “known” to the police but did not have an extensive criminal record.
The officer added that the teen loitered at the scene of the murder because he liked to watch the “chaos of his actions unfold.”
Rachel Brand KC, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court that before he stabbed 12-year-old Leo to death, the 15-year-old had attacked three women in separate incidents.
Days before he murdered Leo, the killer pushed an 82-year-old woman into a river and hit her with her own walking pole.
Ms Brand said: “The defendant approached her from behind and pushed her forcefully down and forward.
“She fell into a ditch next to the river. She believes she had been underwater and found herself soaked.
“The defendant told her: ‘I tried to drown you. But now I’m going to kill you instead’ and he struck her several times with her own walking pole.”
The 15-year-old attacker then told the terrified woman: “I would like to get some help, but you will tell on me”.
When a passer-by went to help, the victim was “injured and very shocked” and told him she thought she was going to die.
The victim was taken to hospital and was found to have sustained multiple bruises and a laceration to her head, a broken nose and black eyes.
She had also fractured a rib and two of her fingers, which required surgery.
Additionally, the day before he killed Leo, the 15-year-old attacked a 72-year-old woman.
Ms Brand said he approached this woman from behind and “either pushed or struck her with and object” – the woman was left bleeding “profusely” from a head wound before becoming unconscious.
The teen said “I’m sorry” to the woman before fleeing the area.
In a witness statement given to the police, the woman said: “I think this incident will make me feel nervous about going out alone. I feel emotional about what has happened.”
Before sentencing the teenage killer today Mr Justice Choudhury KC addressed the defendant directly.
The judge said he wanted to take a moment to remember Leo and said he was “an innocent boy” who was 12 years old and “loved by all who knew him with future ahead of him.”
He told the killer “What you did in the park was horrific and shocking”, adding that he had “robbed Leo Ross of his future.”
In a victim impact statement given to the court today, Leo Ross’s mum said her son was “truly the most kind, funny and caring little boy.”
Speaking from the witness box, she said her family had been “shattered” by Leo’s death, which happened on his grandmother’s birthday, adding that his grandfather suffered a heart attack at his funeral.
The defendant looked down at the floor as Ms Fisher sobbed.
Leo’s mum said: “He was just an innocent little boy whose life was taken before he even became a teenager. He was only 12 years old. He was my first-born child. I love Leo more than life itself. My life will never be the same again.”
