Two teenage boys have been sentenced following the murder of a father who was fatally stabbed in the heart during an unprovoked racist attack.
Marcus Staniforth, 17, and a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, approached Kamran Aman, 38, after he had delivered groceries to his mother’s home in Barry, south Wales.
The pair, from Llantwit Major, subjected Mr Aman to a brutal assault, punching and kicking him.
During and after the attack, the younger boy was heard shouting racist abuse.
Staniforth then retrieved a kitchen knife from a nearby property, where the teenagers had been consuming alcohol, and used it to inflict the fatal wound to Mr Aman’s heart.
Emergency services were called to the scene, but Mr Aman, a married man with a young child, was pronounced dead at 1.07am on 1 July last year.
Mr Justice Griffiths told Cardiff Crown Court that he had lifted reporting restrictions relating to Staniforth, meaning he can now be identified, but added that those relating to the 16-year-old boy would remain in place.
The judge sentenced both defendants to detention during His Majesty’s Pleasure, with Staniforth to serve a minimum of 17 years in custody and the 16-year-old boy to serve a minimum of 15 years.
He said: “On the night between June 30 and July 1 2025, you both murdered a man you didn’t know.
“Kamran Aman was a dutiful family man.
“He had just delivered some shopping to his mother’s house.
“He was in his car, ready to go back to his partner and four-year-old child when you picked on him and killed him in the street.
“As well as ending his life, you ruined the lives of the family he left behind.”
Mr Justice Griffiths described how earlier that day, the 16-year-old had painted “where they n****** at” on the wall of a house where he had been.
The boy, who had taken cocaine, later spotted Mr Aman through a window as he sat in his car.
“He noticed he was not white,” the judge said.
“Mr Aman caught his eye because he was black.”
The 16-year-old boy then tried to open Mr Aman’s car door, with Mr Aman getting out of the vehicle before being punched.
“He wanted to hurt him really badly because he was not white – that was his only reason,” the judge said.
“He was shouting racist abuse at him, calling him n-word and p-word, over and over again.”
The judge added that Staniforth was “not racist but he was violent” and wanted to back the 16-year-old in the attack.
Sentencing the 16-year-old, the judge told him: “You instigated a deliberate, unprovoked, sustained, violent, racist attack.
“You were old enough and mature enough to know that trying to cause a complete stranger really serious injury because of his race was wrong, and you knew exactly what you were doing.”
Prosecuting, Owen Edwards KC told the court that Mr Aman was stabbed while outside his mother’s house in an “entirely unprovoked attack”.
He said the defendants had been drinking alcohol on June 30, with the 16-year-old behaving in a “volatile and aggressive manner” throughout the evening.
Mr Aman had been working then saw his wife and young child before taking shopping to his mother, Shenaz Aman, on the night of June 30.
The 16-year-old boy noticed Mr Aman sitting in his car and “lost his temper”, with Staniforth telling him he would “back him up”, Mr Edwards said.
“Both young men entered the street and the 16-year-old launched a sustained assault against Kamran, consisting of repeated punches,” he told the court.
“Marcus joined in a limited extent, with punches and one hard kick.”
Mr Edwards said Staniforth then returned to a nearby property before emerging with a large kitchen knife, which he used to stab Mr Aman.
The 16-year-old boy used racist slurs against Mr Aman, calling him the p-word and n-word repeatedly during and after the attack, Mr Edwards added.
Both were arrested and later admitted manslaughter.
They were convicted of murder following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
During the hearing on Friday, the court was told that both defendants had troubled childhoods and had been diagnosed with ADHD.
In a victim personal statement, Mr Aman’s mother told how she had been left “upset and lonely” by her son’s murder.
His wife, Khaleela, described her husband as “kind to everyone and someone you could rely on in times of need” and devoted to his family.
“Life for us will never be the same without Kamran,” she told the court.
“There’s a hole in our hearts that can never be filled.
“The day he died, part of us died with him.
“There’s no sentence that will ever be enough for these two boys.”
Detective Inspector Kath Barry, from South Wales Police, paid tribute to Mr Aman’s family, saying: “Kamran did nothing whatsoever to warrant this.
“The violence could never have been foreseen and was made even more shocking by the abhorrent racist abuse used before, during and after, all captured on video footage.
“Within a matter of minutes, the lives of Kamran’s family changed forever, and they are still trying to comprehend how this could possibly have happened, particularly outside the house they have called home for almost 20 years.
“They have behaved with dignity and remarkable composure during the proceedings, despite having to listen to the unbearable details of his death.”
