Faces of boys, 16, stabbed to death

These are the two teenagers knifed to death in a ‘targeted attack’ at the weekend.

Relatives of Frankie Gater and Charlie Preston said they were ‘trying to process’ the news yesterday.

Police believe the 16-year-olds were victims of a ‘targeted attack’ in Brentwood, essex, at 1.30am on

sunday. eight men aged between 19 and 49 remained in custody on suspicion of murder last night.

Frankie’s parents, Carlene Ricketts, 39, and Dean Gater, 41, who live apart, were too upset to talk at their homes in Romford, east London.

his aunt, Antoinette Gater, said she was ‘finding it hard to process it all’. And Frankie’s cousin Laura York, 30, wrote online: ‘All the pain that has been left behind [because] of these evil, selfish people who think it’s big to carry a knife.’

Charlie was named by friends last night. A close friend, also from Romford, wrote online: ‘Words can’t explain how I feel about losing my brother CP and you too Frankie.’

The victims are understood to have travelled from Romford to Brentwood and police are investigating an earlier ‘incident’. It is believed they knew their attackers.

A third teenager was also attacked on the night but survived with nonlife-changing injuries.

Officers have so far refused to confirm that the boys, who were initially reported to have been aged 13, were stabbed. Post-mortem examinations are being carried out.

Five of the men arrested – two 19year-olds, two 20-year-olds and a 49-year-old – are from Grays. Two others, a 20-year-old and a 21-yearold, are from south Ockendon and another, 40, is from Brentwood.