DAD'S AGONY
Jodie Chesney’s distraught dad says he ‘will never come to terms’ with daughter’s stabbing as he vows to tackle knife crime
THE devastated dad of tragic teen Jodie Chesney will NEVER come to terms with the grief of her horrific stabbing.
Peter Chesney said he is living “hour-to-hour” as he deals with trauma of his daughter’s death.
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Jodie, 17, was knifed in a playground in East London on March 1 this year.
Peter told Good Morning Britain that life has been “terrible” ever since.
DAD'S GRIEF
He said: “I’ve never dealt with something like this before.
“It’s the worst thing that’s happened to me in my life. However, bad you think it’s been – it’s been worse.
“I left my job, I was working in the City, and I’ve just tried to take each day as it comes.
“You lose yourself when something like this happens. I’ve lost myself and I’m trying to claw it back because it’s traumatic.
"It’s absolute trauma.
“[You have to take] Each hour as it comes.
It’s the worst thing that’s happened to me in my life. However, bad you think it’s been – it’s been worse.
Peter Chesney
“You just don’t know. When that overwhelming sadness comes over you have no idea how you could react. So it’s just day-by-day, hour-by-hour.”
Jodie, from Dagenham, was killed as she spent time with her boyfriend Eddie Coyle and another pal at around 9.20pm.
It is believed three balaclava clad youths attacked the group and A-level student Jodie was stabbed so hard the blade of the knife snapped – leaving it lodged in her body.
KNIFED IN THE PARK
Witnesses described hearing “blood-curdling” screams for help from Eddie as Jodie died in his arms.
Manuel Petrovic, 20, Svenson Ong-A-Kwie, 19, and two boys aged 16 and 17 - who cannot be named for legal reasons - have been charged over the teen's death.
They have been remanded in custody and will face trial in September.
Mr Chesney described his daughter as a “beautiful young lady”.
He said: “I’m going to say amazing, but she really was. Everything you’ve read or heard about her is definitely true.
'BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY'
“She was a girl scout, volunteer, she did her Duke of Edinburgh up to Silver - I think she was two weeks away from gold -which is quite a feat for such a young girl.
“She was blossoming into a beautiful young lady who was once a very young, painfully shy girl.
“At primary school she got so many friends doing what she did.
“She was just was just wonderful, clever intelligent, not ounce of malice. She judged nobody.
It’s still such a shock, I don’t know if I’ll ever come to terms with what happened.
Peter Chesney
“She was kind. I want to emphasise the kind.
“It’s still such a shock, I don’t know if I’ll ever come to terms with what happened.
“Because of the way it happened there is no real reason there’s no, putting two and two together and say ‘ok I can sort of comprehend that’.
“You can’t because it’s so random.
“If you’ve told me four months ago this was going to happen you just can’t ever foresee this happening.
“When it does you just have to deal with it, there’s no manual. You just have to go through the motions.”
Mr Chesney now plans to launch a charity in Jodie’s memory in an effort to “educate” children, parents and carers about the dangers of knife crime.
He said: “I want to try and minimise the culture of knife crime – because it is a culture now.”
London's knife epidemic has reached unprecedented levels with more than 78 deaths in the capital since the start of 2019.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Last year was London's bloodiest in a decade - when the number of homicides reached 132 - and it shows no signs of abating.
As of July 17, Scotland Yard have launched 78 murder investigations in London.
Shocking figures this week revealed knife crime in England and Wales soared to a record high, with 43,000 offences last year.
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