The 17-year-old's mother, brother and father spoke outside Leeds Crown Court.
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00:00 on behalf of my mother.
00:02 No parent should have to lose a child,
00:06 but to lose a child suddenly, unexpectedly,
00:09 and finding out that your son has been murdered
00:12 is indescribable.
00:13 I should be able to watch TJ fall in love,
00:17 fall out of love, go to university,
00:21 get his first job, become accomplished,
00:24 get married, buy his first home,
00:27 have his own children, grow old,
00:30 but I am robbed of all these opportunities,
00:34 all those milestones you should have been able
00:36 to watch your child achieve.
00:38 Those responsible for his death have robbed me
00:42 of those opportunities due to their motivation
00:45 to seek revenge, to murder.
00:47 TJ's murder has impacted every single member of our family.
00:52 There are no words to describe the utter devastation
00:56 his death has caused to our family.
00:58 At the time of his death, TJ was a student
01:02 at Notre Dame College in Leeds.
01:04 He was studying economics, business.
01:07 He was a good student and extremely popular in school.
01:10 TJ had a dream to be an entrepreneur.
01:13 He was very business-minded,
01:16 and I know whatever TJ did with his life,
01:18 he was destined for success.
01:20 And no other parent must lose a son or daughter
01:23 due to knife crime.
01:24 Individuals need to stop arming themselves with weapons
01:28 which can inflict such damage and devastation.
01:31 I ask anyone who carries a knife
01:34 or thinks of carrying a knife
01:36 to stop and think about TJ.
01:39 As you can see, the number of people
01:41 that are here to support,
01:43 he was loved best by everybody.
01:45 So I'm just gonna quickly read what I have here.
01:47 Trust Junior Jordan Gangata.
01:52 He was known as TJ.
01:54 And I know most of the people were mistaken
01:56 when they heard Trust Gangata,
01:58 they were thinking it was me,
01:59 but that was my son.
02:01 He was Trust Junior Jordan.
02:03 So I'm reading for TJ.
02:05 As he was known, was my son,
02:09 and only 17 years of age.
02:11 At the time he was murdered, stabbed to death,
02:15 while attending a party.
02:16 He was innocent in every way.
02:20 He was simply with friends,
02:22 happily enjoying himself on that key night.
02:25 Those convicted of his murder
02:29 went to a party to hunt or to kill another boy.
02:34 However, they killed the wrong person.
02:38 - One thing that really pains us
02:40 is that he was only 17 years old.
02:43 The way we view it,
02:45 because we come from a Christian background,
02:47 a Christian household,
02:47 that 17 years have been wasted,
02:51 but he was not able to fulfill destiny.
02:54 We believe everyone has a destiny,
02:56 but he didn't have the chance to live out his.
02:59 Put down the knife, it's not worth it.
03:01 It's never worth it.
03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]