A 17-year-old has been sentenced to life in detention, with a minimum term of 14 years, for murdering 16-year-old Joshua Ingram over a £20 drug debt.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stabbed Joshua with a 19cm-long blade at Seaford railway station in East Sussex on September 10 2025. The knife had been hidden in his tracksuit bottoms.
The teenager had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but was found guilty of murder by a jury following a trial at Hove Crown Court. He was also sentenced for possessing a knife.
According to the Press Association, the prosecution said the defendant had supplied Joshua, from Newhaven, with drugs during the summer of 2025 but had not been paid. Snapchat messages read in court included a message from the teenager threatening that Joshua would “perish” if he did not receive his money and saying he was prepared to spend 30 years in prison over £20.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Bourne KC said Joshua was “a popular young man with all his life before him”. He said the alleged £20 debt could not explain or provide “even the smallest excuse” for attacking someone with a large knife.
The defence said the teenager had been influenced online and adopted a “faux gangster persona”. Colin Aylott KC described the language and persona as disturbing and said they reflected the defendant’s immaturity. He also said the teenager had recognised the gravity of his actions and was trying to begin rehabilitation.
Joshua’s mother, Yvette Bullen, told the court that her son was kind, caring and loved, and that “his life mattered and ours will never be the same again”. She said Joshua had been training to be a bricklayer.
Calling for his death to help prevent knife crime, Ms Bullen said: “His life was worth so much more than £20.” She urged people who know someone is carrying a knife to report it rather than assist them.
Two other teenagers, aged 17 and 15, were sentenced to youth rehabilitation orders with one year of supervision after being convicted of assisting an offender. The judge said detention was a last resort for people of their age and that their actions were “far, far removed from the murder itself”.
Applications by the Press Association and other media organisations to lift the convicted teenager’s anonymity will be decided at a later date.
