A major inquiry into the murders of Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Bristol a year ago today (January 27) is currently underway, Bristol Live can reveal. The inquiry, formally called an independent child safeguarding practice review, has been commissioned by the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership, and a report into the murders is expected to be released later this year.
The Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership is a coalition of organisations including the city council, social services, police, NHS and education bosses, and part of its remit is to hold inquiries into serious incidents to see whether there have been any failings among the statutory bodies and whether any lessons can be learned to prevent such serious incidents in the future.
The inquiry is, in theory, a national one. The report will be conducted locally, but will be shared with the National Review Panel before it is published in Bristol. A spokesperson for Bristol City Council, which is one of the lead organisations involved in the partnership, confirmed: “An independent child safeguarding practice review, commissioned by the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership, is currently underway. Before any report can be published it will be shared with the National Review Panel.”
The council would not go into detail about the scale and scope of the inquiry, but it is understood to be focussing on what lessons can be learned from the authorities’ contacts and interactions with the four teenagers who committed the murders in Knowle West on January 27, 2024.
Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, were entirely innocent teenagers murdered in what appears to have been either a random attack or a case of mistaken identity – none of the four teenagers involved gave evidence during their trial to explain the attack, which took place a year ago today, on January 27, 2024. The focus of the inquiry is understood to be around the circumstances that led to four children committing such a violent and tragic act on two other children, and whether any lessons can be learned for the future.
Riley Tolliver, who was 17 at the time of the attack, and Kodi Wescott, who was 16 at the time, were found guilty of both murders, along with two other teenagers who were aged 14 and 15. All were found guilty of both murders under joint enterprise principles, along with Antony Snook, 45, who drove the vehicle they travelled to Knowle West in.
The inquiry will look at any and all dealings the four teenagers had with schools, social services, the probation service and other agencies.
In the trial and as part of the mitigation process during sentencing hearings, the barristers for the four teenagers gave snapshots of their backgrounds. Information shared in court included the fact that Riley Tolliver wrote a letter to the judge apologising for his actions in which he said he had only just learned to read and write after being full time in a young offenders institution.
A lawyer for another of the teenagers, who cannot be named, told the court he had led such a neglected life that it was only since he was incarcerated and fed properly that he had grown and gained two shoe sizes in a matter of months. It was repeated several times in court that Kodi Wescott’s home in Hartcliffe was somewhere where large knives and machetes were lying around. After the trial, Bristol Live revealed that the now 17-year-old Kodi and his older brother Bailey – who has since been jailed for his involvement in helping Kodi – were well-known locally as rap artists filming videos that threatened violence while surrounded by children as young as ten.
The independent child safeguarding practice review will look into what dealings social services, education, health and the criminal justice system had with the four teenagers in the months and years leading up to the double murder.
All four were jailed for life for the two murders. Riley Tolliver and Kodi Wescott were told they would serve minimum sentences of just over 23 years before they would be eligible to apply for parole. The two younger teenagers were given minimum tariffs of 15 and 18 years.
The Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership explained that new laws had replaced what used to be called ‘Serious Case Reviews’ done at a local level, and such inquiries were now at a national level.
“The Children and Social Work Act (2017) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) guidance introduced a new legal framework in respect of local safeguarding arrangements for children,” a spokesperson said. “Responsibility for how a system learns lessons from serious child safeguarding incidents now rests at a national level with the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and at a local level with the Safeguarding Partners (KBSP). This means that Serious Case Reviews have been replaced by Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) as learning reviews conducted in cases where abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and the child has died or been seriously harmed.
“The purpose of a Child Safeguarding Practice Review is to establish whether there are lessons to be learnt from the case about the way in which local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children; Identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result, and therefore, improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children,” they added.