A 16-year-old boy who stabbed a 17-year-old to death outside Brighton Station last autumn can be named as Armin Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani.
The trial judge Sir Adam Constable, known as Mr Justice Constable, lifted reported restrictions this afternoon (Thursday 2 May) on the application of Brighton and Hove News and other media.
Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani, of Watling Court, Butts Road, Southwick, is at Lewes Crown Court where he is due to be sentenced for the murder of 17-year-old Mustafa Momand.
The judge said that the reporting restrictions would automatically be lifted when Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani turns 18 in August next year.
He said that the public interest in contemporaneous reporting outweighed any potential harm to the defendant who faced a long sentence.
The judge is required to order that Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani is detained at His Majesty’s pleasure – equivalent to a life sentence.
The starting point is 17 years for a single count of murder. Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani also faces sentence for threatening a neighbour Stephen Slark with a machete.
Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani, wearing a grey sweatshirt in the dock, did not visibly react as the judge gave his ruling. His mother looked on and appeared to rock in distress.
The teen was found guilty by a jury at Brighton Crown Court of the murder of Mustafa Momand whose parents were also present in court.
Baz Bhatia, defending, said that Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani faced a sentence that was longer than the boy had so far been alive.
The trial was told that the stabbing happened in Queen’s Road, Brighton, as hundreds of people made their way to Brighton station at about 5pm on Thursday 5 October last year.
Mustafa was also making his way to the station when Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani stabbed him and then chased him up the road until his dying victim dropped to the ground.
Despite the efforts of bystanders and later paramedics and doctors, he bled to death.
The jury was told that the stabbing was linked to a £20,000 drug debt owed to a local dealer, 22-year-old Zak Deghayes.
