Olly Stephens: Fishing fundraiser for murdered teenager

A fishing fundraising event is taking place in memory of a boy murdered by two teenagers.

Olly Stephens was killed in Reading, Berkshire, last year. Two boys, aged 14, were found guilty of his murder.

His father Stuart said he hoped the event in Woodley, Berkshire, was the start a long-term project to get children fishing free of charge, "diverting them from knife crime".

"It's been quite humbling to be part of," he told the BBC.

Mr Stephens, a club member of Southlake Angling Society, said the get-together was about putting a "little back into the community".

"Olly would say 'Dad, you're embarrassing me'," he said, describing the Olly Stephens Memorial Charity Match, which was organised in five weeks.

He added: "I would take him fishing when he was little quite often. He'd come along, climb trees, we'd cook barbecue.

"He always seemed to catch fish so he had a great time, and in the September before he died I took him and a friend fishing and we went a few times, got them competing against each other, and he was getting back into it."

Mr Stephens had been planning more fishing trips with Olly before his death aged 13.

"On the morning he died I was running through all the things we had to look forward to since Covid had been very stressful on them," he said.

"Their whole world changed, I just wanted to give him something to look forward to."

Anglers will compete over the weekend but Saturday's open day will also have a raffle and angling tutorials for visitors and children.

Funds will be raised for charities that help vulnerable youngsters, including the Ben Kinsella Trust, No 5, and Parenting Special Children.

Olly's family have campaigned for stricter online laws to stop harmful content being shared after it transpired the attack on him was planned on social media.

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