Knife crime: 'I gave birth to him and I had to watch him die'

Three families united in grief after losing loved ones in knife attacks have been describing their never-ending pain.

Relatives of Daniel Gee-Jamieson,Jon-Jo Highton and Adam Ellison all spoke to BBC North West Tonight as part of the programme's in-depth look at knife crime across the region.

Sixteen-year-old Daniel Gee-Jamieson was attacked by Owen Cousins in a pre-arranged fight in the Gateacre area of Liverpool in July 2018.

Mandy Jamieson lost her 16-year-old son Daniel

During the confrontation the 17-year-old stabbed his victim in the thigh with a lock knife.

"When I got there it was chaos," his mother Mandy said. "He was cold; he was clammy.

"I had to watch the blood drain from my son's face, all his lips were white.

"He knew he was dying, you know, he really did, and it just broke my heart.

"I gave birth to him and I had to watch him die.

"I'll never see his kids, my grandkids, I'll never see what he looks like as a man.

"As soon as I close my eyes, I see Daniel.

"I don't sleep that well. It's like you're living in Groundhog Day because when you wake up in a morning Daniel dies all over again, so it's like you're repeating the same day all over again.

"Daniel was funny, you could have a laugh with him. He was a good kid.

"I'm not going to sit here and lie to people and say he was an angel because he wasn't, but he was my angel, he was my son."

Bryon Highton said his brother Jon-Jo was his "first best friend"

Eighteen-year-old Jon-Jo Highton was stabbed in the neck in a "mass attack" in Preston in August 2014.

Six men were jailed for life for his murder, with minimum terms ranging from 20 to 29 years.

His brother Byron said: "He was literally my first best friend.

"We were just like normal brothers growing up together, having baths together, Christmases together, birthdays, family holidays.

"He always stood up for people, he had friends all over the place, but he went down the wrong path.

"The first time he was stabbed he was 17, the second time was the fatal stabbing.

"It happened on the street in Deepdale where we grew up.

"When he got stabbed the second time and we had to go to the same street and I remember the police cordon wouldn't let me go any further.

"You could see the blood on the floor - you just knew.

"It's just agony and the way I view it, is when my brother died, his pain ended, but that's when the family's pain started.

"A tattoo on my back says 'a brother's love is one of a kind' because that's the opening speech that I did at his funeral, my arms are covered, my hands say 'Jonjo RIP'.

"You name it, my life is about Jonjo."

Joyce Ellison still suffers flashbacks to the night of her son Adam's death

Adam Ellison was stabbed in the neck after a row with motorbike riders in Prescot, Merseyside.

The 29-year-old had been on a night out with three cousins and a friend. Several people were arrested after the stabbing on 4 November 2017, but no-one has ever been charged.

"Adam was a lovely young man, he was a gentleman," said his mother Joyce. "I'm so proud of him, me and his dad and his sisters and family.

"People thought he'd been punched, but it was a knife.

"He was taken to hospital. A doctor came to us and he said there was nothing else he could do and all of us ran to the room.

"I saw Adam, there was a heart monitor right at the side of me. I kept looking at it and there was no sign of his heartbeat.

"I screamed 'please don't stop, he's a strong boy' but he'd died.

"I'll never forget that, it was horrific.

"I still go back to that dark place, especially with us not having justice.

"I keep getting flashbacks of that night and it's never going to go away. It will stay with you forever."

BBC North West Tonight's in-depth look at knife crime - and how it is being tackled - will be shown at 18:30 BST on Wednesday 6 October, or you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer afterwards.