Brooke Kinsella faces 15th anniversary of her brother's stabbing

2023-06-25

Ex-EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella faces ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ as 15th anniversary of her brother’s stabbing approaches – on the same day as her son’s first birthday

She lost her brother 15 years ago on Thursday, which is also her son’s birthday
Former EastEnders star named her son after her brother Ben who died in 2008

Ex-EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella is facing a ‘rollercoaster of conflicting emotions’ as the 15th anniversary of her brother’s stabbing approaches – on the same day as her son’s first birthday.

The 39-year-old lost her brother Ben 15 years ago on Thursday, which is also her son’s birthday, who she named after her sibling.

Ben was stabbed in June 2008 on a night out with friends when he was just 16 years old. Despite their nine-year age gap, Ben and Brooke were close friends and siblings.

Brooke has been campaigning against knife crime since Ben’s death, but fears she has failed after meeting other families who lost loved ones to stabbings.

She said she is worried about her own children’s future should the government fail to get knife crime numbers down.

Brooke Kinsella, 39, lost her brother Ben 15 years ago on Thursday, which is also her son’s birthday, who shares her sibling’s name

Since she stopped acting, Brooke has campaigned to tackle knife crime in honour of brother Ben, who was just 16 when he was killed (pictured)

On Thursday, June 29, she will mark Ben’s death with her family and celebrate her son Ben’s (pictured) first birthday, likely to be a ‘roller coaster of conflicting emotions’

She told the Mirror: ‘You’re in this club that no one wants to be in and no one will ever understand. You know exactly what that family is going through – every second of what they are feeling.’

Ben was out celebrating the end of his GCSEs in Islington, Central London, when he was stabbed 11 times in a brutal five-second attack by three men while walking home from the pub.

READ MORE: Brooke Kinsella gives birth! Actress welcomes ‘miracle’ baby boy and names him Ben in tribute to her late brother after going into labour on the 14th anniversary of his death

Juress Kika, 19, Jade Braithwaite, 18, and Michael Alleyne, 20, were charged with Ben’s murder and sentences to life with a minimum of 19 years.

Brooke – who played Kelly Taylor in EastEnders in the early 2000s – founded the Ben Kinsella Trust after his death, a foundation she created to raise awareness about tackling knife crime.

She said that her parents have ‘never slept properly again’ since her brother was murdered and that while they put on brave faces every day, ‘the light went out from their eyes the day he died’.

The night her brother died, her sister Jade, 37, called her at 2am screaming about Ben having been stabbed, after which Brooke alerted her parents, calling it the worst thing she ever had to do.

Ben’s parents, Brooke and her siblings Jade and Georgia, 29, saw Ben in hospital and the talent agent said she remembers him being ‘so cold’ she wanted to warm him up.

She opened up about the pain that ‘never goes away’ and said the killers destroyed their own lives as well as the lives of five people, Ben’s family, that night.

On Thursday, June 29, she will mark Ben’s death with her family and celebrate her son Ben’s first birthday, likely to be a ‘roller coaster of conflicting emotions’.

The mother-of-two said she will start the day by waking up early and counting down the clock ‘to the moment Ben passed away and be sad’, but will put on a brave face for her children Ben and Elsie, 2, to celebrate her son’s birthday – which will likely be in form of a picnic a few days after the anniversary of her brother’s death.

She said she also worries about losing her son, saying: ‘Ben is only one. I think, “They only had 15 more year with our Ben”. It’ the constant countdown.’

Brooke, who was made an MBE for her work against knife crime, criticised that it had been ’15 years of pain’ during which nothing has changed, but vowed to ‘never stop fighting’.

Despite their nine year age gap, Ben and Brooke were close friends as well as siblings and sweetly posed together holding hands in the childhood photos

Ben was stabbed to death in June 2008 on a night out with friends when he was just 16 years old (childhood pictures)

Between 2012 and 2022, knife crime incidents rose by 46 per cent. Last year alone nearly 50,000 offences were reported, according to the Office for National Statistics. She is calling for a cross-party commitment for the government to open youth clubs so teenagers have a safe place to go to at nighttime

Between 2012 and 2022, knife crime incidents rose by 46 per cent. Last year alone nearly 50,000 offences were reported, according to the Office for National Statistics.

She is calling for a cross-party commitment for the government to open youth clubs so teenagers have a safe place to go to at nighttime.

In October, Brooke and the Ben Kinsella Trust will host a fundraising gala on the day Ben would have turned 32.

She said she has hope that when her son turns 16, ‘we will be in a better place’.

She added that deterrents were needed, like jail sentences, which 45 per cent of second-time knife criminals have been avoiding last year for community service, a fine or a suspended term.

‘There has been a big movement that repeat offenders face harsh consequences – and if that is not happening, I feel desperately sad for all the victims,’ she said but cautioned that teenagers locked up for carrying a knife could be pushed to do it again once he is out of jail ‘in that environment’.

Brooke, who was made an MBE for her work against knife crime, criticised that it had been ’15 years of pain’ during which nothing has changed, but vowed to ‘never stop fighting’

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