Comment: A costly moment of madness

There will be few parents – or anyone else for that matter – who will not understand how John Williams is feeling today.

His son Joe Dymond-Williams was killed after being attacked by Thomas Swift and Jack Sanderson-Hunt in Bristol city centre.

Mr Williams does not mince his words when talking about both the killers and the effect this whole sorry business has had on his family.

Some people may be shocked at how strong his feelings are but the raw horror of what has happened to his son would surely affect most of us in a similar way.

Our thoughts are with Mr Williams – who had, ironically, been training to be a bereavement counsellor – and the hope is that he and his family can find the strength to move forward in their lives.

A young life was lost simply because of a petty argument in a bar which got out of control and ended in tragedy.

Across our city every weekend, large numbers of people put themselves in a position where they do not have full control of their actions due to excess alcohol.

Usually, this does not lead to anything more than a sore head the next day, but in a significant number of cases, people are punched, kicked and beaten, and in tragic cases like the one involving Joe, even killed.

Now we have three families devastated – in different ways – and for what?

The families of Sanderson-Hunt and Swift will be left picking up the pieces of this incident. Their lives will be changed forever due to their sons' violence.

The significant difference is that they still have their sons, whereas John Williams does not.