Parents' grief at savage murder

Nick and Lesley Cook said Joe had waved them off from his student home in Ebberston Avenue, Leeds, on August 26 last year, looking forward to a weekend with friends.

He had shown them round the area in which he lived and was excited and looking forward to his second year as a fine arts student at Leeds Metropolitan University.

"As always he was full of expectation about what was to come. For him being 20 was good, being 21 was going to be even better.

"Life for Joe was always about the people he knew and loved, and the people he was going to meet.

"At the end of the afternoon he stood smiling at his front door and waved us goodbye. We were so proud as we drove away. On our journey home we delighted in him growing up."

"We next saw Joe a week later, on Wednesday 2 September, laid out at Wakefield mortuary. Two days before we had the police visit that every parent dreads. Our daughter vomited in shock at the vile news."

The couple, from Fenham in Newcastle, were told that on August 31 police had found a body believed to be their son. They learned he had been stabbed and "died without us".

Burglar Gareth Brear robbed them of their precious son while looking for items to steal to fund his drink and drug addiction.

In an emotional statement read to Leeds Crown Court yesterday, the couple said: "It is just one nightmare that Joe's murderer was the last person to see him. We knew everything about our boy. He was an open, honest and kind young man. His murderer knew nothing about him - Joe was just somehow in his way.

"We had to wait two months for Joe's funeral. Our life has been about waiting ever since.

"Joe was 20 when he died. On October 14 we marked the day he should have been 21. Two weeks later we buried him.

"It is some indication of the love and support for Joe and for us that over 600 people attended his funeral."

They couple said they had faced the self doubt and anxiety familiar to any parent in such a terrible situation, asking themselves questions such as: "Did he know how much we loved him? "

They, like others, had used phrases such as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time but that was "poor shorthand" for the violation that night.

The impact on his family and friends was huge. They could barely appreciate the despair of his two grandmothers, one of whom had since died.

His sister Eve's final A-level year at school was in turmoil. "Her high ambitions only remain achievable because of her resilience and strength."

Mr and Mrs Cook said they could talk of "our defeated days".

" We have not been able to work since Joe's murder and are fearful of a return to jobs we loved. We could tell of our struggle to sleep, of the rising panic as we re-realise how Joe was taken. But we do not really have the words. We just know the unutterable pain."

They praised the hard work and dedication of the police in ensuring they did not have to face the ordeal of a trial.

After the case Detective Superintendent Bill Shackleton said the family was stunned by their loss. "Joe was universally like and loved and had his whole life ahead of him. His death has left a gap for his family and friends that will never be filled. A murder in these circumstances is extremely rare but the tragedy still remains."