‘Why I called 999 to tell police my teenage son had just murdered someone’

‘It absolutely broke my heart to make that call but I had no alternative,’ says Donna Delbono

A woman who made a harrowing 999 call to tell police that her teenage son had murdered someone has said that she did not “for a second” consider whether or not to report him.

Joshua Delbono, 19, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years in prison last week after fatally stabbing 16-year-old Charley Bates in an altercation at a car park in the Somerset town of Radstock last July.

Following his sentencing at Bristol Crown Court last Tuesday, police released audio of the emergency call in which his mother Donna Delbono told the call handler: “My son’s killed someone.”

Charley Bates’s family said after his death that he was ‘desperately missed by so many’ (Avon and Somerset Police handout)

In the clip, the 42-year-old former foster carer and mother-of-seven can be heard saying she felt “sick” at what had happened and was keeping her son at the address from which she made the call in Frome last July.

While she felt unable to attend her son’s trial due to feeling “so terrible for Charley’s mother”, Ms Delbono has now spoken publicly about his crime and her decision to report it, saying: “It absolutely broke my heart to make that call but I had no alternative.

“I made the right decision and I’d do it again in the same circumstances.”

Bristol Crown Court heard that two cars arrived in the car park at around 6:40pm on Sunday 31 July, one carrying Bates, who approached the other car, at which point an altercation began.

Witnessing this, Delbono is alleged to have got out of the car he was in and stabbed Bates in the arm and fatally in the chest with a knife he brought to the scene. Bates was pronounced dead at 7:15pm.

Joshua Delbono has been sentenced to life with at least 21 years in prison (Avon & Somerset Police)

In a statement, Delbono said he had seen his friend on the ground being punched and stamped on when he saw the “black handle of a knife in a waistband” and thought his friend was going to be stabbed, prompting him to “instinctively” grab his own knife and intervene.

“It was a chance encounter that escalated in a way I could never have imagined. I am truly devastated,” Delbono said.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, his mother said she was woken by her daughter at around 11pm who told her that she needed to speak to her son because “there’s something on Facebook about him and a boy passing away in Radstock”.

She added: “So I ran into Josh’s room and shouted, ‘Josh, Josh, you need to wake up now. Please tell me you didn’t have anything to do with this boy dying in Radstock. Did you do it?’ And he said, ‘Yes I did. But I didn’t know he’d passed away’.”

Ms Delbono continued: “I told him, “I’m sorry, Josh, but I need to make a phone call to the police, and he said, “I know mum. That’s fine.” And then I made the call. I didn’t for a second, consider not reporting Josh. It didn’t enter my head to try to protect him.

“But as I picked up the phone I felt sick. I was shaking, crying. I didn’t know how to say what I needed to say.

“You see things on TV. You read about them in the papers. But you never think one of your own children could do anything like that. I had so many thoughts running around in my head. I didn’t want to believe it. I still don’t.”

At 3am, police arrived at their home in Frome. “It was horrendous,” said Ms Delbono. “I didn’t realise they’d come in such numbers. The whole street was lit up in blue. There were two riot vans, dogs; officers in bullet-proof vests with guns and helmets. Joshua held his hands out and walked out of the front door.”

While this was the last time she saw her son outside of prison, Ms Delbono chose not to attend her son’s trial. She told the paper: “I couldn’t face his parents. I told Josh I wanted to support him but I couldn’t. I felt such pain for Josh but that was nothing compared with Charley’s mother’s pain.”

Describing her son, Delbono said: “He was funny, loving, caring. Yet he has taken a life and two families are broken.”

She added: “I remember shouting at him, ‘What in God’s name was going through your head?’ I had no idea he had a knife. I’ve never known him to carry one. That’s why it shocked me so much ... We parents should be more vigilant.”

Having been told to leave their home on the night of her son’s arrest while police investigated, Ms Delbono was told five days later that it “wasn’t safe” for them to return, forcing her and her children – including her autistic 13-year-old son, Sam, for whom she is a full-time carer – to move to a Travelodge, exhausting their savings.

Ms Delbono has since returned home but has experienced abuse on social media from those either blaming her for her son’s crime or vilifying her for reporting it, while her son Sam has been physically attacked in the street and daughter Jade has lost her job as a bricklayer.

She said that her son is on suicide watch in prison, and showed the Mail a card he has sent her, which reads: “You know how much I love you and I’m just sorry how it turned out and that was nothing to do with how you brought us up. You did an amazing job.”

Ms Delbono added: “I beg young people: please don’t carry knives. A knife has just put one set of parents through unimaginable devastation and brought heartbreak to our family.”