Bristol killer's parents speak of their own grief and regret
There is a copy of the singer Dido's Life For Rent near the CD player in Yvonne and Kevin Swift's immaculately tidy sitting room.
They have never listened to it.
"I can't play it, I'd be destroyed," says Yvonne, aged 58, as tears stream down her face.
The CD was given to her by her son Tom, 18, on the day he went to Bristol Crown Court to hear whether he would be found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Joe Dymond-Williams following an argument outside a city centre bar.
Yvonne said: "Even when he knew he was going to prison, he was thinking about other people. That's the sort of person Tom was. I want people to realise my son wasn't a bad person. It was a split second of madness.
"We're going to write a letter to Joe's family now the case is over. They'll probably tear it to bits and I wouldn't blame them.
"But what I'd like to say from one mother to another is that I've seen from looking at Joe's mum in court the total devastation and heartbreak that she and her husband have suffered.
"I'm a mother, I know that if I lost my son like that I'd be absolutely destroyed. I don't want people to think we're evil, and that we don't care. I cry for them, and I cry for us. This is no act, I've been through hell.
"I've lost my boy too, the lad who was always so loving and kind, and who had never hurt no one until now.
"He was so immature. He had never even had a proper girlfriend.
"They're saying he shows no remorse. You can't imagine how upset he's been. He hasn't been sleeping. He used to eat really well, but he's lost about a stone and a half because hasn't been eating, which is a lot for a lad who was slim anyway.
"When Joe died I had to take Tom to the doctor because he was in such a state, and he's been on a lot of medication ever since.
"I can't sleep, and I know Joe's mum can't sleep either because she's sleeping in the afternoon.
"Oh God, how I keep thinking about putting back the clock. I keep thinking, 'if only...'."
Yvonne's words tumble out in a torrent of raw emotion, and tears stream down her face as she talks about the trial at Bristol Crown Court, which ended this week in court with her son Tom being found guilty of murder, which he had denied. His friend Jack Sanderson-Hunt, 18, had earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Her husband Kevin, 57, a retired self-employed window fitter, is more measured as he speaks, but anguish is etched on his face as he tries to respond to criticisms from Joe's father John Williams about the lack of remorse on the part of his son's killers.
He said: "We've got nothing against Joe's family. We can understand that they are grieving, and they have every right to be angry.
"We know their grief is far worse than ours.
"We can at least talk to Tom, and they'll never be able to talk to Joe again. But our lives will never be the same either. We're not denying what Tom did, and we're not defending it.
"It was one second of drunken madness, and it has cost poor Joe his life, and it has wrecked Tom's life."
Tom, who had been working as a waiter, is presently in Bristol Prison, Horfield, awaiting sentence. He will receive a mandatory life term, with a minimum term of imprisonment to be decided by a judge.
His parents have been clearing out his room in their terraced house in Highridge, as they come to terms with the fact that their youngest son will not be coming home for some time.
"We've just packed his stuff away, and I've taken the bed out. We're going to redecorate for something to take our minds off it," says Kevin.
Yvonne breaks down in tears again.
She said: "I can smell him there, I can smell him on his T-shirts."
While both Kevin and Yvonne repeatedly emphasise that the loss that Joe Dymond-Williams' parents have suffered is far worse than what they have had to face, it is clear their lives have been devastated by the events that occurred in Queen Charlotte Street in the early hours of Sunday, June 22 last year.
That was when a row involving a girl ended with Joe being felled by a single punch from Jack Sanderson-Hunt. Then, as he lay unconscious with a fractured skull, witnesses saw Tom kicking him in the head, causing a second fracture.
How could Tom have kicked someone lying helpless on the ground? It is a question that his parents are unable to answer, and something Tom himself has been unable to explain.
Kevin says: "We've talked it over with him. He can't remember what happened. He has only managed to piece things together from the witness statements.
"He'd never drunk that much before. That night he drank six or seven pints of Blackthorn cider, which was stronger than what he usually drank."
Yvonne interjects: "It happens all the time downtown. Lads have fights and they kick each other. But they get up.
"It was an act of silliness. Tom didn't go in with several kicks. The moment he did it, witnesses saw him putting his hands to his head.
"One of the witnesses said he was like a deer caught in headlights, and then he took off – he was in a state of total panic."
Both Kevin and Yvonne are angry at the fact that their son's plea of guilty to manslaughter was not accepted, and he was charged with murder, while his friend's admission of manslaughter was accepted.
According to forensic evidence presented in court, it was probable that the fatal injury to Joe resulted from the fall caused by the punch, and the subsequent kick was a contributory factor.
Yvonne says: "I feel my son has been made a scapegoat. If it wasn't for Jack Sanderson-Hunt, this wouldn't have happened.
"If Joe hadn't been on the floor, my son wouldn't have been in a position to kick him. Tom pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but he was refused manslaughter.
"The sentence is bad, but it's also the labelling of my son as a murderer, which is something he'll always have to live with."
Kevin adds: "Fair comment that my son has got to go away and pay the penalty for what he did.
"But I'd like to see fair play in the British justice system. I don't think what happened to Tom is fair play."
Kevin and Yvonne had been away in Wales on the weekend of the incident which left Joe in a coma with brain injuries. He died two weeks later, on July 8.
Yvonne says: "Tom was in the house with his older brother. He was meant to be going out with Tom that night, but changed his mind because he didn't have any money.
"I realised something was wrong when Tom didn't call me. He rang me every day, but on Sunday there was no phone call. I tried ringing him but there was no answer.
"My older son said he hadn't come home that night, and I started to panic."
Kevin and Yvonne discovered that Tom had been arrested, and returned to Bristol.
Yvonne says: "We didn't know what he'd been arrested for.
"We kept ringing and ringing the police station, and finally found out at about 2am on Monday morning that he was in custody for GBH. I was in disbelief."
Kevin says: "We've always said to Tom if ever a fight kicks off just walk away, you may be a coward but just walk away from it."
There is an array of flowers and cards in the sitting room, all of which have been sent by friends of the Swift family following the verdict.
Yvonne says: "So many people have been ringing up. My friend Penny has been taking the calls. We can't talk, we feel as if we've lost something.
"They all know Tom, and they can't believe it. My son is the nicest person you could ever wish to meet. He never got into trouble at school, he'd never been in a fight in his life until that night."
She adds: "His friends will all vouch for the fact that he is a very, very placid boy, even to the point of people really teasing him about it.
"He didn't intend to kill Joe, he didn't go out to do a murder that night."
Kevin recalls the day Tom went to court to hear whether he would be found guilty of murder, knowing that whatever happened, he would be imprisoned having already admitted manslaughter.
He says: "I gave him some money. He knew he wasn't going to come back. He left the keys to his car and his bank cards for me.
"He said to us that he would do his time. He said 'I want to do my time, I want to do it'."
Yvonne adds: "He said 'I've left you a little gift in the kitchen'. It was a CD by Dido. He'd ordered a CD for his dad called The Mod Songs, because he used to be a mod, but it hasn't arrived yet."
She recalls the moment in court when the guilty verdict was read out: "His head hung right down to his chest and he broke down ..."
Yvonne then breaks down herself at the memory of that moment, her body wracked with sobs.
She reveals that Tom wrote a letter expressing his apologies to Joe's parents, but wasn't allowed to send it because the court case was pending.
She says: "Our solicitor still has it on file. We do think about Joe and his parents all the time.
"Joe's birthday is on the same day as mine, March 14, On that day we lit a candle for him, and I kept it going all day.
"I'd like to ask them to forgive Tom but I don't think they ever will. They're too hurt. Maybe they'd feel differently if they knew our Tom, but they don't."
