L’Vaion Peniston was detained for at least 17 years
L’Vaion Peniston(Image: GMP)
Aged just 16, L’Vaion Peniston had already racked up an unenviable criminal record. His involvement with knives began at school, and was the first step in a worrying path of escalation.
Aged just 14, he would go on to kill another teenager in the street. Kennie Carter happened to be his unfortunate victim, the pair crossing paths as he walked home. Kennie was a ‘fun’ 16-year-old, the youngest of four siblings, who had his whole life ahead of him.
He was his mum Joan’s ‘baby’. But he became another young victim of knife crime on Greater Manchester’s streets.
His killer, now serving at least 17 years in custody as part of the youth equivalent of a life sentence after being found guilty of murder, can be named for the first time after he turned 18.
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Following his conviction last year, the Manchester Evening News applied to the judge for reporting restrictions to be lifted so Peniston, then aged 16, could be named.
The application was refused. He was known as ‘Boy A’ throughout the proceedings. But now after those restrictions lapsed, Peniston’s terrifying criminal past can now be revealed.
Peniston was first before the courts at the age of 13. In 2021 he received a youth conditional caution, after he was caught with a large knife on school premises.
It was in January 2022 that Peniston, armed with a knife, stabbed Kennie to death on the street in Stretford. He was arrested in February and June that year, but was not charged until October 2023.
Kennie Carter(Image: GMP)
In the meantime, Peniston continued committing crimes. In August 2022 he admitted violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon, a machete.
Peniston, then 14, was part of a group of about 12 to 15 people who chased the victim, who was stabbed. “The defendant was part of the group which inflicted those injuries,” his murder trial heard.
In 2023 Peniston carried out a ‘machete attack on a defenceless person in public’. He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and being in possession of a machete.
On September 10 that year, Peniston, then 16, was in Leeds when he and another youth chased down and attacked a 16-year-old boy who was on his way to a mosque. Peniston and his accomplice chased the boy on electric bikes, both brandishing machetes.
Police at the scene in Stretford following Kennie Carter’s death(Image: PA)
His victim sustained deep wounds and a fractured arm. The judge in the Kennie Carter murder case also sentenced Peniston for these offences, handing him a three year sentence of detention in a young offender’s institute to be served concurrently with his sentence for murder.
How was it that a boy so young became involved in horrific offending from such a young age?
A pre-sentence report drawn up ahead of his sentencing hearing for the murder case said that Peniston had suffered ‘significant trauma’ in his early childhood, and experienced ‘delayed emotional development’.
He witnessed domestic abuse in the home and spent time in care. In August 2022, Peniston was referred to the National Referral Mechanism, a framework for identifying potential victims of modern slavery.
It was accepted that there were ‘reasonable grounds’ for believing that Peniston was a ‘victim of criminal exploitation’, but, referring to the matter in his sentencing remarks, the judge said that no finding appeared to have been made.
It was too late for Kennie, who was murdered on Saturday, January 22, 2022. That Saturday should have been just a regular day for him.
A pal of his had been in touch, asking if he wanted to head to the Trafford Centre that afternoon. They agreed on a time to meet, but in the end they never did. Within a few hours, Kennie was dead.
Latif Ferguson(Image: GMP)
The day before, some of Kennie’s friends were said to have been involved in an ‘altercation’ with others linked with Peniston and his associates, when a weapon was produced.
Then, on January 22, Peniston and a large group of other young men travelled to Stretford. A resident at a block of flats saw a large group, estimated to be of about 15 people, arrive after 5pm.
Three bikes were stolen from the communal entrance of the flats, with a shout of ‘this is revenge’ being heard by a witness. The bikes were later abandoned.
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Kennie became ‘the focus of the revenge’ after he was spotted walking down the street. He had been on the phone to his older brother moments before he was stabbed. Sonnie Carter could hear someone in the background of the call say: “You’re the one who had backed that pole innit.”
Joan Dixon, Kennie Carter’s mum(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“Nah nah it weren’t me bro,” Kennie was heard to reply. The line ‘went quiet for a moment or two’ before Kennie was then heard to say: “Oh they’ve stabbed me in my heart bro.”
He was found lying in the street shortly afterwards, as members of the public desperately tried to save him. Peniston was seen on CCTV minutes after ‘re-enacting’ the killing, demonstrating how he’d stabbed him.
Three teenagers were found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the same trial. Latif Ferguson, then 18, was sentenced to five years detention. Boy G and Boy H were sentenced to four years detention. Six others were cleared of murder and manslaughter.
A collage of images of Kennie Carter(Image: GMP)
Referring to the murder, judge Mr Justice Goose told Peniston: “Part of what may have caused you to commit this offence may be your need to appear strong and loyal to your associates who had been disrespected. The author of the report suggests that you will need therapeutic interventions to allow you to learn coping strategies.”
Peniston will be in his 30s before he can be considered for release. But Kennie’s family will live with their tragic loss forever.
“Our family won’t ever be able to move forward,” his mum Joan Dixon said last year. “We love our children that much, we can’t move forward.
“We’ve got to live with this every day. I know these people are going to serve a sentence, but we’re serving the biggest sentence ever. It’s going to go on and on and on for us.”