SERVICE Mum launches group to support murder victims' families and change court system

JOYCE Young is woken by visitors to her garden at all hours of the night. Some sing songs, others bring mementos but many just want to chat to Fred because he wasn't with them in the pub.

They are the friends of her murdered son, James Thompson, who regularly visit the bench that has become a shrine outside her home in the Provanmill area of Glasgow.

"If it's his birthday or his anniversary, they'll come and put candles and flowers on it," says midwife Joyce, 40.

"He was a popular young man and I probably didn't appreciate how much until his funeral. The whole community was disgusted by what happened."

James, who went by the nickname Fred, was 18 when he was killed in an unprovoked attack near his home in August 2007.

A man who accused James of stealing a lawn mower stabbed him five times, driving an eight-inch blade into his back and puncturing his aorta.

After a six-and-a-half-hour fight for life at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, James died of a cardiac arrest.

The bench is a celebration of a life cut short – and that's what Joyce wants to achieve in her campaign to unite Scottish families who have lost a loved one to murder.

She is launching an organisation, Families After Murder, with a service at Glasgow University Chapel on Friday.

She says around a dozen relatives of high-profile murder victims have so far been in touch to confirm their attendance.

Guests are invited to bring a photo of their lost loved one for a book of memories, and there will be a performance from the multi-award-winning choir of St Anne's Primary School in Parkhead.

"We want to remember the people before this happened to them," said Joyce. "They just become a victim and a statistic in society that very quickly gets forgotten about.

"Although they have died that way, that was somebody else's fault – they still had a life and have a right for us to remember them in that life."

Joyce organised the event to join up the efforts being made by individual families, such as the relatives of Moira Jones, Damian Muir and Reamonn Gormley.

Secondly, she wants to drive change in the criminal justice system, which she believes heaped misery on the loss of the elder son.

As she puts it, it's about "all the things that make the experience more traumatic than it needs to be".

Her son's body was kept in a mortuary for eight days before being released – the delay was due to the period allowed for the defence team to decide if it wanted its own post-mortem carried out.

"Somebody has taken the person you loved's life, but they are controlling when you get that person back for burial," said Joyce.

"When he came home, a peace came over the place.

"The house was never empty – people were coming with bags of messages and people who you don't know were making cups of tea in your kitchen. It was a community that came together. It was quite humbling."

The trial of John Chawner for her son's murder caused her the greatest heartache. She wants a moveable partition erected in courtrooms to shield victims' families from those who can take pleasure in seeing their pain.

SHE said: "If there's a separation, then while they are saying things that are hurtful, they don't need to be seeing your reaction to them. It's horrible."

"And she wants jurors to hear a family impact statement after a guilty verdict. "It won't make a difference to sentencing. It's a need," added Joyce, who also works with English charity Mothers Against Murder and Aggression.

"If you do that, you feel you've done everything that you possibly could. It's that final thing."

James almost escaped his attacker that lunchtime. After being confronted by Chawner, and suffering superficial stab wounds, he fled to his great-gran's house, but the gate had jammed. "That's what my family struggled with, because there was always somebody at my granny's door. Always. That day there wasn't," said Joyce.

His attacker went on to strike the blow that proved fatal. Joyce was quickly on the scene, just a few streets from her home.

As a nurse, she was allowed into the resuscitation room as doctors pumped 45 pints of blood into her son. "The white board that gives you vital signs showed he had blood pressure and a pulse," said Joyce.

I REMEMBER thinking at that point: you are kept in, no matter when you come out of this, I'm keeping you in – you're not getting back out for a while."

After surgery doctors and nurses started to transfer him to the intensive care unit. Everybody had this huge sigh of relief – I said to my mum and dad they are moving him, he's going to be fine," she said.

"I remember a lone nurse taking monitors off, then the next thing she came running out and he had had a cardiac arrest. They did CPR, then that was it."

Joyce and younger son, Jordan, 16, redecorated James' bedroom this month. They still call it his room.

James, whose moniker Fred is traced back to a Right Said Fred-like short haircut as a toddler, was a keen footballer and played for Celtic North. He had just completed a year-long trade skills course at Metropolitan College and a six-month work placement with a ventilation company.

Joyce took her son's ashes to court every day of the seven-day trial in 2008. Chawner was jailed for 15 years and four months.

Joyce separated from her husband, also James, shortly after their ordeal. She now combines running Families After Murder with a new job at the Southern General Hospital.

"The house is quiet sometimes," she admits. "It's hard going from a two-point-four family to just me and a teenage boy.

"I miss him more for Jordan – he should be here for him.

"It's not an easy adjustment."

l To find out about the vigil, email joyce.young@familiesaftermurder.co.uk or call 07768 423947.