- 23 hours ago
Laura Whitmore On Britain's Killer Teens - Season 1 Episode 6 - House Party Killer
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00:00on the 10th of june 2023 avon and somerset police are called to a house party in bath
00:15after reports of stabbing no no no they're not breathing sorry they're just been stabbed
00:22at the house party please a fight had broken out between a group of teenagers which ended
00:27in 16 year old mikey ronan being stabbed in the neck with a zombie knife so you've got all these
00:34teenagers at this party who suddenly erupt in conflict with mikey and his friends and that's
00:40when mikey gets stabbed the police are now on the hunt for this group of boys and in particular
00:46school boy shane cunningham who was just 16 years old why would you go to a 16 year old's birthday
00:54party with a knife was he ever worried or scared about violence towards him yeah yeah he was yeah
01:00he used to say to me i'm going to get stabbed bristol and its surrounding areas are in the middle of a
01:06plague of knife crime over the last few years the number of teenagers convicted of murder has risen
01:14drastically it's unimaginable that a young person could conceive of such a brutal act
01:20i'm looking into the case of britain's killer teens and trying to answer the most difficult question
01:25why
01:2610th of june last summer and teenagers
01:56are heading to a birthday party in bath that's been advertised on snapchat this is mikey traveling
02:02from the edge of bristol with some friends he was about to come across this group of teenagers from
02:07wiltshire heading to the same party
02:12a fight erupted and mikey was stabbed in the neck he staggered through the house
02:17and collapsed on the road
02:19and collapsed on the road
02:21and he was murdered a young lad with so much to live for i want to know more about who he was
02:41so i'm on my way to speak with hayley his mom what were you last week star learner of the week
02:48yeah and what happened we got a call from mr rock call to the house from mr rock saying that he
02:55was a star learner for doing the best poem was it yeah the best dinosaur poem yeah and you got up in
03:04assembly didn't you and what have you got on on sunday
03:07uh what do you remember he was good as gold as a baby yeah um really good yeah slept really well
03:16we were really lucky
03:19as he was able to walk he was hyperactive never sat still kept you on your toes oh my god yeah like
03:26jumping off the back of the sofa like always climbing always wanted to be outdoors
03:30i think when he was three he asked me for his first scooter
03:41he was fearless yeah
03:46he could flip and everything wow flip whip i knew all the terms
03:54so how old is mikey here about 11 i think he was
04:00so tell me about mikey's passions what did he love he did love music from a very young age really
04:07then when he was like five he came home from school and he said it was saint stephen's got talent
04:12i said oh right yeah didn't expect anything he's like yeah i'm gonna sing and i tried to put him off
04:18because i was like wow i was like that's like quite a big thing and standing in front of the whole school
04:23even his dad was sobbing sat next to me my mum was there as well she was sobbing
04:30yeah like it's sorry
04:37my little mate
04:38when was the last time you spoke or saw mikey i spoke to him on the phone um at lunch time
04:58and i said my friend was going to stay because i was going to a ball with work i'd never left him at
05:04home on his own before and i know he was 16 but i was quite overprotective yeah first baby it's yeah
05:10yeah i said i've left you 20 quid on the side and there's some penguins for breakfast
05:15and um yeah the last thing he said to me was love you mom yeah
05:21that was like an award ceremony everything was fine
05:32i'd switch my phone off for the awards
05:38and then afterwards i put it back on it was about half past 11 i think and i had like over 30 missed
05:47calls on my phone from mikey's phone and mikey's friends i knew instantly like something was wrong
05:56and i went back out rang his phone and his one of his really close friends answered
06:01and told me what had happened what did they say he just said mike has been stabbed and he's gone hayley
06:06he's gone and i was thinking he can't be gone he can't i think i went mad at him i said don't say
06:11that why are you saying that why would you even do that and put the phone down
06:19the other teenagers at the party must have been so shocked and frightened
06:25i have here the 999 call that was made just moments after mikey was stabbed
06:30this is the ambulance server is the patient breathing no no no they're not breathing
06:39hurry up they're just in stabs at the house party please there's a lot of people here please come
06:45listen to me listen to what i'm saying okay is the attacker still nearby i don't know
06:51you can hear the panic from the caller and one thing emerging is that when asked if the attacker is
07:01still there she doesn't know she's no idea who has done this horrific deed
07:07the scene was really chaotic there were around about 70 children at a house party
07:28they were distressed they were traumatized there was a lot of screaming
07:32the initial response from the police is uniform response to try to find out what's happening
07:41to offer first aid to understand what they're dealing with
07:46the ambulance are on the phone please ask if they could speak to you yeah yeah yeah hello there
07:50a police officer we've currently got a two-minute eta out from you do you um we've got six units on
07:56the way this is something's done responding and unresponsive and i was excessive um of excessive
08:03internal bleeding he's um he needs a medical assistant yes i'm going to tell you how to do chest compassion
08:09i need you to pump the chest hard and fast at least twice a second i'm gone
08:17you can really hear the urgency in their voice and how desperate they are someone to come and help them
08:24and save mikey i thought he was still alive we pulled up and there was a forensic tent up they
08:34were in forensic suits there was yellow tape everywhere yeah and it was raining it was cold
08:40and i just i could remember the the policeman coming over and saying somebody's been stabbed
08:45and killed here tonight we believe is your son mikey
08:49did anyone tell you at the house where it happened like what had happened or nothing that was all
08:59i got told just to go home because he never went to the hospital that hurt that he was out in the
09:03cold i get why because of forensics but yeah that was tough yeah yeah it was cold
09:19what hayley went through that night is every mother's worst nightmare mikey was just having fun
09:24like any teenager would at a house party who could possibly want to hurt him
09:4916 year old mikey roynan has been stabbed and killed at a house party the police are still trying
09:59to get to the bottom of what exactly happened that night and why did a house party end in murder
10:11our very first port of call to obtain evidence is from eyewitnesses they were distressed they were
10:16traumatized they were scared about what they'd seen about what was happening and a lot of them tried
10:23to leave the address because they just wanted to get somewhere safe so it's trying to understand where
10:31they've gone who was there what they'd seen that took a long time to unpick at the outset we had heard
10:39the name shane from witnesses who were at the party to say that he was one of those responsible
10:46we didn't really clearly understand what had taken place at that party
10:53when was the next time you heard from the police i think it was about three o'clock the next
10:57afternoon's about 12 hours what do they tell you that they believed it was wrong place wrong time
11:03they said we can't we can't find anything you know which suggests that there was a fight or we don't know
11:11yeah um but he he said we will find some who because they hadn't caught them they hadn't arrested
11:18anyone at this now i remember saying to him at the end was please please find them
11:21please get the person to stunt this to him
11:33from what we can gather from witnesses shane and some of his friends immediately left the party
11:40before the police have arrived we suspected that they may have had some involvement
11:46initially we are looking to capture as much forensic evidence from the scene so that includes cctv
11:53from the cctv we're able to see clear visual descriptions of them
11:59two of the group were arrested the next day but we still didn't have a full set of information about
12:07what had taken place their roles while the avon on somerset police have arrested 16 year old shane
12:14cunningham and one of his friends it remains unclear exactly who is responsible for mikey's murder
12:21i have video footage here from a security camera from a house nearby on the night that mikey was killed
12:28and it's taken at 22 18 so just after the stabbing took place i'm going to press play
12:37i'm watching a group of young boys talking very openly about the incident saying things like and
12:47it just got stuck in his neck gee what we do know is that the police end up interviewing a lot of
12:54witnesses from the party and none of them seem clear on exactly which one of the boys is responsible
13:00but shane cunningham is definitely part of this group i'd like to find out more about him
13:08i'm on my way to speak with james alexander a criminologist with over 20 years experience
13:12working with youth offenders
13:18james tell me about jane shane wouldn't have been on anyone's radar because he's got no convictions
13:2415 years ago if someone's going to be stabbing someone they would have had prior convictions now
13:29they don't and so to be able to predict who is at risk is getting harder and again with mikey 10 15
13:36years ago if you've been a victim of violent crime we would kind of say that you've been involved in a
13:42gang or you know you've been involved in in some kind of criminal activity nowadays that isn't the
13:47case what we do know is shane has experienced trauma and we think it's been quite significant
13:52and so we would expect shane to become dysregulated more often because of the trauma he would have
14:00trust issues around kind of who he can trust to make sure that he's safe
14:07so cunningham's background doesn't hold any answers about why this happened although police have arrested
14:14him and one of his friends they still need to look into the larger group that were also there
14:18what do we know about where these boys were before they got to the party for them this seems like
14:26a typical evening they're chatting to one another on the bus they're going to mcdonald's getting
14:29something to eat and then they're going off to the party like it's just a normal day
14:36you can see from the cctv on the bus they are laughing they are joking but there's a point where
14:42one of the boys bends over on the bus and you can see something bulging from his tracksuit these boys
14:49went to that birthday party armed with knives you can see from the footage on the bus this is not a
14:57normal knife it's a huge scaled knife like a rambo or zombie style knife the blade is so large that it
15:05goes down the whole of the leg from the hip to the knee at that point on cctv we've captured two of
15:12the group both visibly carrying knives these teenagers are just on the bus popping to mcdonald's out in
15:24the town but they're carrying large weapons why why do teenagers feel the need to carry knives
15:35when you're in that environment where you're hearing about kind of violence around you maybe
15:39your friends have been stabbed being murdered young people nowadays going to a party they're going to
15:44think other people at a party are going to carry a knife so they're going to carry one too it's just
15:49like putting on trainers before they're going out you know i i think about where my keys are they think
15:54about where their knife is it's a perception that you're going to be better protected they take it
16:05for their own protection a perceived kind of threat limitation but as soon as you bring a knife out and
16:12it's visible it ups the ante it escalates rather than de-escalates the problem
16:17so the boys arrive at the party armed but how does this escalate what makes one of them use their knife
16:29to take mikey's life the group were heading to a girl's 16th birthday party that was being held
16:37at this house and the party had been advertised quite widely it seems on snapchat so loads and loads of young
16:44people were heading there there's a photo that shows them in the back garden they're all in tracksuits
16:52balaclavas they're sat around outside the back of the house some of them drinking some of them doing
16:58balloons of nitrous oxide laughing gas some of the neighbors said they could hear this party they could
17:04hear such a big crowd and they felt like there was an atmosphere building that might lead to something
17:10that might go wrong mikey had released some music and at that time his music was really popular a lot
17:22of people at the party were playing his music you know what it is what i am about anything to get one
17:28i don't like them he went viral i think for the bristolian accent in the drill music he used to come in
17:36and be like guess what mom i've got 250 000 views or whatever that is a laugh well now it is a lot
17:43more um he would have been he would have said i'm gassed did you know what drill music was no no
17:48absolutely what did you think when he said or did he tell you or how did you find it from me so what
17:53type of things were it's terrible it's about like gangs and drugs and like really bad stuff
17:59if i see feds i'll put it in gear you already know i said that last year i used to speak to him about
18:04lyrics and he'd say mum is what everyone listens to it don't mean i'm going to go out and do that does
18:09it i've always felt like the worst thing you can do with a teenager that already feels like you know
18:16nothing about their world yeah is to say you've got to stop you just do it beyond my back you'd rather
18:22know yeah drill music is a divisive genre because of the violence within its lyrics now as mikey told
18:40his mom although he rapped about it he was never actually in a gang and he didn't have a criminal
18:44record he just loved music and was really excited when his song went viral and it was even played at
18:51that party but it wasn't just mikey and his mates at that party the invite was posted on snapchat and
18:58around 70 teenagers were there perhaps not all of them were happy that the spotlight was a mikey
19:06so these two groups of young men they're both in the back garden of this party but apparently they've
19:13never met each other before they have no history no existing feud or issue between these boys there's
19:19seemingly no reason why they should come into conflict mikey was known to some degree because
19:30of this song that he'd released the witnesses have described a really great atmosphere
19:38and then out of nowhere an argument erupts
19:41which immediately led to a high level of violence without warning and it took a lot of the people
19:51at the party by surprise this is the ambulance server is the patient breathing no no no they're not
20:00okay please hurry up they've just been stabbed it's a house party please
20:19mikey was only stabbed once but it was a severe wound to the neck the knife went right into the bone had to
20:27be twisted to come out it's unfortunate when young people carry these big zombie knives just one what
20:34might seem insignificant blow can cause significant damage i think with young people there's kind of a
20:42pressure now not to back down and so what would have happened there would have been kind of words would
20:47have been said and so that would lead to kind of a group getting around some of them will bring a
20:52weapon out which means everyone brings their weapons out
21:01do you think he could have been saved absolutely not no way because it's such a vicious yeah there's no way no
21:06hearing about the stab wound it was it was in detail um yeah it went right through his neck the back of his neck to the front
21:25and that's not an accident not not in the neck like that's you don't stab someone in the neck you want
21:30to kill them if you want to kill them if you do that that was hard and to hear
21:36it went through an archery in the front archery in the back
21:45that was a serious deep wound about 10 centimeters deep so he was suffering very heavy
21:51blood loss very quickly and we know mikey staggered from the back garden into the house uh trying to
21:59get help some of his friends came to him they were trying to guide him through the house out to the
22:05front out to the road to see if he could get any help that's where he collapsed as neighbors and some
22:11of the people at the party tried to help save his life they were trying to do cpr trying to find the
22:18wound trying to stop the blood loss but it seems like that was such a serious deep wound and the
22:25blood loss was so heavy that mikey stood very little chance of surviving words can't describe what it
22:34must have felt like learning that just one action took mikey's life and because of all the chaos at the
22:40party the police initially didn't know who was responsible shane cunningham has been arrested and is
22:46is about to be questioned but can he tell them anything about what happened that night
23:00tell me about what led you to stand mikey rolling in the neck
23:20was it you that started in the neck was your intention to make him die
23:34avon and somerset police have arrested 16 year old shane cunningham together with one other
23:39teenager for the murder of mikey roynan so with these teenagers now in custody and questioned by the
23:47police will they finally get their answers as to what happened that night
23:56do we know what any of the guys say after they're arrested yeah we can have a look at the police
24:01videos okay so we've got this is shane yes it's a house party lots of people are there is there anything
24:10there's part of me that would think oh he's being smart and saying nothing but do you think there's a level of this where it's just almost an
24:19immaturity of like i'm not going to say anything he probably doesn't know what to say when he was asked about his intentions he probably doesn't know what his intentions are he probably didn't
24:29think it through in the first place so he doesn't know what to say now not knowing what to say in that situation very typical of one
24:38someone his age but also someone with his trauma background he's not processing what's happened at all
24:57at this party could you have acted in a different way could you just basically gone home run off
25:09jumping with a fence
25:17could you have done something different jen
25:18he never speaks at all he doesn't really show many emotions he's probably been asked these
25:27questions repeatedly probably fed up of the whole situation just wants it to end but unfortunately
25:33he's not going to end do you think we're looking at a young man in shock or do you think we're looking
25:37at a cold-blooded killer this is a young man in shock he's probably grown up thinking over the last
25:47couple of years that something like this might happen to him in the future and now it's happened
25:51to someone else and it's his fault deep down he might regret it but he doesn't know how to act anymore
26:03both shane cunningham and the other boy deny being responsible for the murder of mikey roynan
26:09have the police hit a dead end and do they even have the right teenagers
26:12the other boys in the group are also questioned about what happened that night
26:18as the police continue to search for much needed answers
26:23they didn't say anything to the police when they asked them questions about the party
26:28they were re-interviewed by police and in the second interview they didn't answer any questions but
26:33they did both provide a prepared statement to say that they acknowledged that they were at the party
26:38but that they weren't responsible for what had happened to mikey
26:48we know effectively that out of all the teenagers there there were two groups of boys who ended up
26:54in conflict using knives something in that back garden at the back of that house
26:59brought them into aggressive conflict and that's when mikey got stabbed
27:10it didn't seem like police were going to get an answer on a motive for this murder or suspect the
27:15witnesses were a dead end but police did have doorbell footage could that give them any leads
27:21doorbell footage is important because it gives you the time that those people are walking past it gives
27:30you a description of their clothing potentially if they've got anything with them so if they're
27:35carrying a visible weapon it will also indicate to you group sizes it will help with associations we
27:44identified from the footage a discarded item of clothing it was part of a tracksuit hoodie top and then
27:52on that there's a visible marking that looks like blood that was mikey's blood
28:01and our forensic experts had said for that amount of blood to be on that item of clothing and where it
28:08was would mean that that person wearing that item was in the immediate vicinity of mikey when he was murdered
28:20this tracksuit with mikey's blood on it has now been linked to a third teenager
28:25although mikey was stabbed once three teenagers have now been arrested but when questioned by the police
28:31this third teenager said that he had nothing to do with it the police don't actually know which one of
28:36these three teenagers stabbed mikey out of all the teenagers who were there up to 70 young people
28:47very few have been able to give an account of those precise moments exactly what went on now maybe they
28:52are traumatized maybe they didn't exactly see it it must have been a confusing difficult picture for all
28:59those young people involved but it's so strange that no one's given a proper account of exactly what it was
29:05what happened why and why did mikey get stabbed
29:13without a confession the police have to go back to evidence but where's the murder weapon i have a
29:19document here which details the extensive search and during their investigation the police found a knife
29:25from a nearby drain
29:28and after dna analysis they discover that this was the knife used to kill mikey
29:33but not only that they can prove that this knife belonged to shane cunningham so the police finally
29:42can prove that shane is the one who stabbed mikey
29:47however the other two boys were armed with knives so under the legal doctrine of joint enterprise
29:53they are also charged with murder if you arrive together and you either explicitly have made an
30:02agreement or there's an implied agreement that you you're going to act together you're going to
30:08cover each other you're going to have each other's backs you have come as a joint enterprise you might
30:13not be the person who has dealt the blow that has led to a fatality but you are just as culpable
30:22as your friends stood next to you because you are there backing them up
30:28the prosecution says you were there you were armed with a knife you intended the same harm to mikey as
30:34shane did now whether it was shane who put the knife in doesn't really matter you all intended him at least
30:40serious harm so you're all equally guilty the boys defense against the charge of murder was that they'd
30:50acted in self-defense the jury had to decide whether they believed these boys had acted in self-defense
30:58or whether they had committed murder against mikey roiner
31:10they've all pled not guilty but will a jury believe them or will all three boys be found guilty of
31:40murder
31:45lots of questions for the jury to get their heads around and for them to consider and work out
31:51in whether to find these boys guilty of murder or manslaughter
32:00and then as court comes closer it's horrible
32:02you know that you're going to find everything out about what happened yeah and your tongue is turning
32:09and you you know you've got to face them like the first day of facing them in person
32:14could you look at those three boys yeah did you did they look at you yeah constant name name remorse
32:26all i thought about in my head was i'm going to go every single day and i will sit through it for
32:31him for mikey because he went through far worse than what i'm going to sit through right now so i'm going to face them
32:37they pleaded not guilty shane had to accept that he had a weapon with him because we had friends that linked him to one
32:50and the trial went ahead with all of that information having to be discussed at court in
32:57front of mikey's family and friends because they didn't accept responsibility for what they'd done
33:02one suggestion from one witness in court was that mikey himself had a knife and had been waving it around
33:10and that these boys then reacted in self-defense the police never found a knife that mikey could
33:18have had so this was a controversial point in court they never explained what the threat was
33:24that put them on the back foot really hope he didn't have a knife on him
33:32because it was something i was really strong about all the time i always say to him please
33:37don't do that because you put yourself at risk
33:43in the trial did you ever get a sense of why mikey was targeted was there ever any explanation no they
33:48didn't even stand out of no all three refused to take the stand so i still don't know they tried
33:53to say it was self-defense how did you feel about that how in the back of the neck how can that be
34:00self-defense like mikey wouldn't have seen them coming so if it was in the front it would be
34:05different but in the back how can that be they're trying to put the blame on mikey yeah absolutely and
34:12and there was nothing there was nothing that they could put on him
34:19shane who had admitted stabbing mikey the jury found him guilty of murder
34:29so shane your sentence will be one of detention for life
34:33at his majesty's pleasure with a minimum term of 16 years custody
34:37minus the 323 days you've already spent in custody on remand
34:45he got life obviously i would have liked longer because i just think 16 when he went inside he's
34:50still going to be young 32 yeah like mikey can't have kids i'm never going to have grandchildren
34:56like he he can come out and start a new life and i know he'll always have to you know report to parole
35:03but he can still have a life
35:10i felt happy that the jury had reached a verdict but mikey's been brutally murdered and his life
35:19completely wasted so at the end of it there's no triumph there's no feeling of elation it's just
35:27desperately sad the other two boys were initially convicted of manslaughter but their convictions
35:34were overturned by an appeals court judge it can only now be reported that the court of appeal
35:41quashed those convictions as unsafe the crown prosecution service did consider a retrial for
35:47the manslaughter convictions but said due to changes in the evidence available and after careful review
35:54it was decided there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction
36:00it was only at sentencing that we were able to apply to the judge to lift the normal reporting
36:07restrictions so that we could actually tell you shane cunningham had a knife and for whatever reason
36:13he pulled it out and felt like he had to use it against mikey roynan it was part of a pattern of
36:19teenage stabbings across bristol and the surrounding area which had become a major issue of public concern
36:27and we thought it was important that the public understands and sees who is involved in this
36:33that in a way meant more to me that his name got released justice because
36:47mikey's name was everywhere and to get this full name out there
36:52i felt relieved at that i felt like good because it makes them people then doesn't it
36:57rather than just a story
37:05this case is it's so tragic in so many ways you've got the life of a young bright 16 year old that's
37:13been taken in such a violent way and apparently for no real reason they were just 16 15 year old
37:20children who were armed and dangerous with enormous frightening weapons what are these young men doing
37:26this is a problem that goes beyond this case beyond this city
37:33do you think mikey's death could have been prevented
37:39there's so many risk factors that we need to get better at addressing so you know how do we support
37:43a young person with trauma how do we support a young person that might be neurodivergent what
37:50systems and process are in place what support is there for young people when there's family breakdown
37:56when you know relationships are not good at home and and young people have to be removed where's the
38:01support to make sure that they're emotionally balanced and their well-being those types of things prevent
38:07young people getting into these situations one of the things that we need to do is show young people
38:12that we care when they know that we care about them they make better decisions because they make
38:17decisions based on what would the caregivers in our lives want us to do
38:27as shane cunningham now serves his sentence for murder hayley and her family are keeping mikey's memory
38:33alive by starting a charity in mikey's name tell me about mikey's world the reason we um started up mikey's
38:45world was i suppose to keep his name alive um and just yeah i just felt like i wanted to do something in
38:53his name um so i could always talk about him mikey's world which initially was just fundraising for
39:00catastrophic bleed kits we started off with the bleed kit training because we thought it can save lives
39:06but then also the more i thought about it if we can educate kids actually if you carry a weapon you
39:16need to be prepared to be using a bleed kit on yourself so we want to be quite graphic with it
39:21to say a little wound can actually be a catastrophic bleed so we're trying to educate
39:29and then we want to look more into helping these kids belong somewhere you don't just turn one
39:36day into somebody that carries a knife there is things behind it so yeah we really want to get into into
39:43that there's a real stigma with these kids hanging around with black tracksuits hoodies like they're
39:50all bad and they're they're not he had so much ahead of him it's so much potential he would have been
40:11good at whatever he did i want people to think it's not okay to choose to take someone's life away for
40:19that and for for what for what oh dear i can't laugh you should bite in your name do you still feel mikey in your home oh go on you sell it
40:36hello everyone hello everyone yeah all the time you could almost hear him in the house hello bobby dad
40:44yeah sometimes it's really hard actually sometimes it's really hard to come home and he's not there
40:49like when you do normal like day-to-day things knowing that he's not going to be there when i get
40:55him that's tough but then when you go in i i can feel him because everything's the same issues are still
41:00by the front door his work boots are still in the porch um yeah his sliders are still by the back door
41:08bedroom's the same everything's the same but i've gone the opposite way at the moment i i can't it
41:14hurts it's a lot yes it smells yeah still smells like him yeah it's hard and like it's washing still in
41:22the washing basket i can't do it because i can't do the last load so that's really tough i don't want to
41:29hang it on the line so yeah i can't i can't move it not in the moment
41:34the grief that hayley carries with her every day is unimaginable to lose your only son in such a
41:50brutal way heartbreaking this all began at a 16 year old's birthday party but ended in an unnecessary
41:58tragedy shane didn't even know mikey maybe he brought a knife to the party for so-called protection
42:06he might not have intended to use it but one thoughtless action took mikey's life he's now left
42:12to face the consequences of his actions in prison but for hayley she'll never get her son back
42:20back in her own words a kind talented loving 16 year old boy with his whole life ahead of him
42:31bye love you bye love you too bye bye bye bye bye don't forget to write
42:50bye bye bye
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