AN exhausted mother says she has “lost hope” justice will ever be served, after three teenagers were cleared of murdering her son.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Hitchcock was stabbed to death during a fight in June 2007.

A jury at the Old Bailey heard how the former Kelsey Park Sports College pupil was knifed in the back during the brawl in Southend Road, Beckenham, shortly after his Penge Block gang tried to gatecrash a party attended by rival Lewisham gang members.

Ben’s mum Lee Hitchcock, of Blean Grove, Penge, said: “I just get up in the morning and do what I have to do.

“Then I can’t wait to go to sleep again so I don’t have to think about what happened. I wake up crying every day.

“I have lost hope, I have lost faith in the system.”

Andre Lawrence-Bennett, aged 18, of Brownhill Road, Catford, and 19-year-old Mitchell Elliott, of Howerd Way, Woolwich, were acquitted at the Old Bailey on July 7.

Olatunji Olulu, aged 18, of Firhill Road, Catford was found not guilty of murder on June 23 due to lack of evidence.

Mrs Hitchcock says she is now left wondering if her son's killer will ever be found.

“There is still a murderer walking around and a mother with a murdered son,” she said.

News Shopper: Ben Hitchcock was 16 when he was stabbed to death during a fight in June 2007

“If it wasn’t these boys then someone else killed my son, somebody stabbed him in the back.

“I said at the beginning, the walls have got to come down and they haven’t.”

Another defendant Royston Thomas, aged 19, of Hazel Grove, Sydenham, was ruled unfit to continue with the trial after a sudden bereavement. He will now stand trial in November.

Speaking outside court after he was found not guilty, Mr Lawrence-Bennett exclusively told News Shopper: “For two years this has just held me back, hanging over my head, and I never knew what was going to happen.

“But at the end of the day I came out on top.”

News Shopper: Ben, a former Kelsey Park Sports College pupil was knifed in the back during the brawl in Southend Road, Beckenham

Mrs Hitchcock says she is “worn out” after spending every day of the six week trial at the Old Bailey and now feels unable to face Thomas’ trial.

The 48-year-old said: “The trial was difficult and to go through exactly what happened that night was very distressing.

“It was a hellish process to have to go through and to come out with that result just killed me.

“Ben was the kindest and happiest boy with the biggest heart. He had a great future ahead of him."

She added: “The only thing that was keeping me going was the belief I would get justice for my son.

“I don’t believe that will ever happen now.”