
Jodie Chesney, 17, was brutally stabbed to death in a park in Romford last night

A 'happy' 17-year-old girl scout was found with a knife in her back in an east London park becoming the 18th murder victim this year in the blood soaked capital.

When emergency services arrived, Jodie Chesney still had the blade lodged in her back as horrified neighbours rushed to save her life.

Police were called to the playground near St Neot's Road in Harold Hill at 9.25pm last night and paramedics battled to save her life before she passed away an hour later.

Her grandmother Debbie has pleaded for the violence in London to end, saying: 'There are too many young people in London having their lives cut short.'

Mother-of-three Teresa Farenden, 49, and her friend Kelly Smith, 36, said they witnessed two men stab the teenage girl in front of her boyfriend before fleeing.

Mrs Farenden - whose house faces the park - ran over to help, still in her flip flops, after her son heard from his bedroom somebody screaming in the park for help.

Mrs Farenden said: 'I was trying to do my coat up in the drive and I shouted out "is everything okay?" as I was worried it could be kids drinking.

'Then a boy said "no I need help, my girlfriend has been stabbed" and I just flew over there in my flip flops.'

The mother said: 'The knife blade was still in her, but I didn't see it because it was dark.

'I didn't realise at the time, but then all I kept thinking once the police told me was "have I put the knife in further by giving her compressions?"'

She added: 'It was horrific, it was just the blood. There must've been two pints of blood. There was so much of it.

'The girl was moaning, but she was mostly silent. We checked her pulse and we could hear her breathing.'

Ms Chesney in her girl scouts uniform outside parliament, she was described as a 'bright and lovely' A-level student who was involved in the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme

When emergency services arrived, Jodie Chesney still had the blade lodged in her back as horrified neighbours rushed to save her life

Members of the public speak to a police officer near the scene at St Neot's Road in Harold Hill, east London following the fatal stabbing

A young man arrives to place a bouquet of flowers near the scene of the tragic fatal stabbing - she has been described by other teens from the area as 'the most happy person'

Flowers left by a tree with notes attached close to where Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death in front of her boyfriend

Mrs Farenden was in the kitchen when her son, who was playing X-Box, heard screaming and said 'mum, somebody is shouting "help" from the park.'

She said: 'I was in the kitchen and I thought I'd better check it out just in case.

'I never thought in a million years that I was coming out to a murder and that I would be walking out to a young lady who had been stabbed.'

Debbie Chesney, Jodie's grandmother, said: 'We don't want anyone else to go through what our family is suffering right now'

The mother found the victim lying on her back in the corner of the park with her boyfriend beside her, who was also white.

She said she put the girl in the recovery position and administered CPR.

'People are scared to help, but all I was thinking with my mother's instinct was "I need to help," she said.

'Her boyfriend did everything he could. When I came over she was on her back so I moved her onto her side.

'Then the boyfriend's friend came over with some kitchen roll. Then there was another girl and a man came over in a van to help and took his coat off to keep it on the wound and keep it compressed as much as they could.

'I think he was the dad of one of the boyfriend's friends. I was just trying to keep her legs in the recovery position because she was heavy, like a dead weight.

'Just as the ambulance crew turned up, she had gone. It was devastating.'

Paramedics battled to save the victim who died in the play park an hour later.

One of her friends told the Mirror: 'She was just the most happy person, she never stopped smiling.'

Mrs Farenden said it is the first time in the 16 years she has lived by the park that 'anything like this has happened'.

She said: 'It is so traumatic - she is not going to have any children, she is not going to get married - it has all been taken away.

'She was such an attractive girl and her boyfriend was a lovely looking lad.

'She was white and she had long blonde or light brown hair and glasses.

'It just seems so random; it must've been horrific for her boyfriend and those other young people there to experience.

'It is just unreal - I think "God, it could have been my daughter.''

Police were called to reports of a stabbing in children's park close to St Neot's Road in Harold Hill at 9.25pm on Friday, where they found the girl with slash wounds. Pictured: Forensic officers at the scene this morning

Paramedics battled for an hour to save the teenager but she died at the scene an hour later. A forensic officer inspects evidence at the park this morning

Sadiq Khan said he was 'filled with anger' and 'devastated' by the killing of the teenage girl - as murders in the capital soar

'I thought it was a boy who was hurt because you're used to seeing these things in the news but it was a girl: a girl, a young girl.'

The red brick terraced house faces onto the park where three forensics officers were photographing the area where the teen was knifed to death.

Forensic tents were put up just metres away from swings, slides and climbing frames in the play park.

Detectives from the force's homicide and major crime command are investigating and said there will be an increase of police patrols in the area.

'At this early stage, there have been no arrests and enquiries continue,' a Met Police spokesman said.

The park has been taped off today as forensics officers carried out their investigaitons

It's the 18th stab death in the space of three months - marking a harrowing reminder of London's knife crime epidemic

Acting Detective Chief Superintendent John Ross, of the Met's East Area Command Unit, said: 'Yesterday a 17-year-old girl lost her life, and I want to express my deepest sympathies to this girl's family and friends.

'Her death is a tragedy. I can reassure them and the whole community that we are doing everything possible to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible.'

Sadiq Khan said he was 'filled with anger' and 'devastated' by the killing of the teenager.

In a tweet this morning, the Mayor of London said: 'Devastated by the fatal stabbing of a 17 year-old girl in Havering.

'My thoughts are with her loved ones. It fills me with anger that violent criminals are targeting young Londoners with their whole lives before them. I encourage anyone with information to contact the police.'

It's the latest brutal killing in the capital after a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death outside Ilford train station in east London on Tuesday.

Che Morrison was knifed after a fight broke out just before 8.50pm. Witnesses said he was 'slashed in the face' during the attack.

Nineteen-year-old Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck was also fatally stabbed by a gang riding bikes in Wood Green, north London, last week.

Che Morrison, 20, was stabbed to death outside Ilford train station in east London on Tuesday

He was chased into a hair salon by men armed with a firearm, knives and a samurai sword on February 22 and slaughtered in front of children.

A day earlier, a 23-year-old man - Glendon Spence - was stabbed to death in Brixton, south London, at a youth club which had children as young as seven inside.

Due to the spate of violence, Met officers are out in force carrying out a series of stop and searches around the capital today.

Earlier this week, police in Birmingham were given temporary powers allowing them to stop and search anyone 'without reasonable grounds' after three fatal stabbings in a fortnight gripped the city.