This shocking picture of fatally stabbed Oliver Kingonzila is the final memory friends and family have of the teen.

Lying in a coffin with knife wounds clearly visible on his face, this last image of the talented footballer shows the grim consequences of a growing knife culture in the borough.

His mother Caroline made the harrowing decision to leave her 19-year-old son’s funeral casket open so his young friends could bear witness to the terrible cost of carrying a weapon.

The Croydon Guardian took the decision to publish this disturbing image to send out the same strong message to those thinking of carrying a knife.

Oliver Kingonzila died on September 13 following a fight outside of the E Bar club, in North End, Croydon. An 18-year-old has been charged with his murder.

This final picture was last week shown on national television after a BBC film crew accompanied Mrs Kingonzila to Oliver’s funeral and memorial service in October last year.

In the programme a slow parade of people walk past the coffin, some crying, some looking bemused.

Caroline Kingonzila told the programme: “From the beginning we didn’t want to open the coffin.

"We didn't know how bad he was injured because I didn’t see the body. I didn’t see it since he died.

"I wanted to keep his memory that night when he was going out. Very happy, very handsome.

“In another way I wanted them to see. I was thinking that if they open it [the coffin] and they all see those injuries he had on his face they would see what their actions bring as consequences.

“I spoke to him on the Friday and he died on the Saturday.”

The programme Stabbed: The Truth About Knife Crime focused on the toll taken by families caught up in knife crime.

Sergeant Darin Birmingham and PC Ian Reeve from the Youth Engagement Team spoke about Croydon’s knife crime culture.

Sgt Birmingham, said: “There is an escalation in the use of weapons, crimes of violence have always occurred but the use of a knife and the use of a firearm have increased there are no two ways about it.”

“We recover 100 knives a month in Croydon borough. The kitchen knife is pivotal. It’s the most commonly found knife or implement on the streets. These are readily accessible, they are easy to purchase and are easy to pick up before you go out the front door.

“If you are worried about your son or daughter, engage them before they go out and check your kitchen to make sure nothing is missing.

“The whole gang thing is about getting rich and hurting people.”

Professor Ben Bowling, a criminologist at Kings College, London University, said: “In most deprived urban areas in London young people see that their prospects of gaining sufficient money through gainful employment, to buy a house, to purchase a car, to settle down and form a relationship and have children – they are prevented from achieving those indicators, those signs of material success.”