Forgiveness

"I've forgiven the gang who took my Zac's life"

A Christian mum has told how she forgives the gang who killed her 15-year-old son as he walked to school.

Aspiring actor Zac Olumegbon, 15, from Brixton, South London, was stabbed to death in front of Park Campus School in West Norwood in July 2010. Helder Demorais, 18, Ricardo Giddings, 17, Jamal Moore, 17, and Kyle Kinghorn, 18, were found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey the following year.

Zac’s mum Shakira, a regular churchgoer and committed believer, told New Life: “For me, I’ve said to people I’ve forgiven them and I’m not going to hold on to unforgiveness.

“The Lord has forgiven me many times. He sent his only Son to die for my sins. I have to forgive them.

“I wouldn’t be able to do this [forgive the perpetrators] by my own strength. In court, I couldn’t get angry with these people.

“I don’t know why, I just felt sorry for them; thinking of what it was doing to their families. How could they do that?”

Shakira described her son as ‘caring’ and ‘funny’ and said he had applied to several acting schools.

She added: “He was a caring boy, very kind; especially to me and his siblings. He’s a boy who doesn’t like to hold grudges. It’s been so terrible. He’s the youngest, but he was the loudest, the funniest, the light of this house.”

Zac was stabbed in the heart, neck and buttock and left to die. Three of the killers had already been in trouble with the police for carrying knives, and Shakira issued an appeal to others carrying such weapons.

She added: “Think of the ripple effect of what will happen. If you don’t have a knife on you, you don’t use it. You don’t only kill that person, it affects the whole family. You are ruining many people’s lives.

“Young people need to know the effects of their actions.”

 Read this full story and much more like it in New Life Newspaper March 2014.