Remembering Jodie Chesney whose death shook Havering

On the fateful evening on March 1 in 2019, Jodie was sat on a bench with friends in Amy’s Park in Harold Hill when two people emerged from the dark and one stabbed her in the back fatally.

The 17-year-old Girl Scout from Dagenham was studying her A-Levels at Havering Sixth Form College and was a few weeks away from achieving her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award before she died.

Jodie Chesney was a well-liked girl scout who studied in Havering Sixth Form College (Image: Archant)Drug dealer Svenson Ong-a-Kwie, 19, of Hillfoot Road, Collier Row and his 17-year-old runner Aaron Isaacs, of Westrow Drive, Barking, were found to be involved in a "tit-for-tat vendetta" with rivals when they killed Jodie by mistake, the Old Bailey had heard.

They were jailed for 26 and 18 years respectively on November 18 that year.

The popular student was fondly remembered by her dad, Peter Chesney, as the “nicest person” who was very “kind and thoughtful”.

Jodie’s death tore her family apart after they struggled to cope with the loss. Mr Chesney said at the time: “We don’t know how to deal with it.

Jodie pictured with her dad Peter Chesney (Image: Archant)“Everyone is suffering because she was so good... everyone just can’t believe - why her? It is not one life deserves to be killed over another, but specifically her, she was so kind.”

Read More: ‘Quiet and gentle’ pensioner who was stabbed to death at station pictured

Her family described her as a “proud geek” with an infectious personality who wouldn’t hurt anybody and loved animals - particularly dogs.

Such was the shock of her death that it triggered a series of events across the borough with thousands of people gathering for a vigil in Amy’s Park two weeks after her death, with her favourite colour, purple, used in balloons, flowers and candles placed in her memory.

Hundreds of people gathered at Amy's Park in Harold Hill tonight at a vigil to remember teenager Jodie Chesney (Image: Mark Sepple)Speaking at the vigil, Mr Chesney said: “The challenge and our determination must now be to show we are the community of individuals but what it means to behave as a community, recognising we are all neighbours, because this has been a place of unimaginable pain and sorrow."Rev Martin Bailey, from the Church of St Paul’s in Harold Hill at the vigil in 2019 (Image: Mark Sepple)

During her funeral, Scouts led a guard of honour as the community said a final goodbye to Jodie in heart-wrenching scenes.

Family, friends and local Scout groups at the funeral of Jodie Chesney at the Ascension Church in 2019 (Image: Archant)A sponsored walk was also held in her memory from Harold Hill to Dagenham by Scouts on October 5 that year.

A year after her murder, Mr Chesney created a legacy for his daughter with a charity, the Jodie Chesney Foundation, to prevent fatal violence by knives and provide support to the victims.

Mr Chesney said in 2020: “If it could happen to Jodie, my girl, who has done absolutely nothing to deserve this, then it could happen to anybody.

Jodie's father Peter Chesney talked about his daughter's legacy a year after she was fatally stabbed in Harold Hill (Image: Ken Mears)“There's always going to be drug wars, but it's spilling out to innocent people like this.

"We want to try and prevent it, we're part of the solution."

Four years since, in 2023, Jodie’s step-mum, Joanne Chesney, told the Recorder that it was still hard to “put what happened in words”.

Joanne Chesney (right) said she continues to remember Jodie for her character and personality, and hopes her legacy will influence kids to be better people (Image: Joanne Chesney)She said: “Basically, after it happened, I started my life from scratch."

The Jodie Chesney Foundation has supported a range of projects since its inception - like equipping people with emergency aid training.

The knife crime issue, Joanne believed, had only got worse since Jodie’s death - not just in London but across the country.

As per stats from the Metropolitan Police, between January 2023 and January 2024, knife crime went up by 30% in Havering and around 16% in London overall.

Very recently, on February 20, a 23-year-old was taken to hospital after being stabbed in Romford’s Brewery Shopping Centre car park.

Tributes for Jodie Chesney left in Harold Hill after her death in 2019 (Image: Archant)Addressing those who carry knives or are thinking about it, Mr Chesney previously said: “I don’t know when this happened, when this was okay to carry knives and use them, it wasn’t like that when I was at school.

“The message is, just think about what you are going to do with your life. If you are going to carry a knife and if you’re going use a knife, you are going to ruin your life, and others - and why?”