Stand Up for Southport Blog by Andrew Brown
It will be a grim day today as the sentencing today takes place for the murderer who killed three young girls in Southport on 29th July last year and pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of 10 other children and adults. Southport’s most horrific atrocity.
No sentence can ever bring back the beautiful young girls whose lives we have lost.
This is a tragedy from which the families and the survivors involved will never recover.
They deserve all our thoughts; our love; and as much support as we can give them in the weeks, the months and the years ahead.
Their wellbeing, their futures, how they are, must be paramount; it is all that really matters.
That this atrocity could have been prevented on several occasions, but those opportunities were never taken, is devastating.
As a community, Southport has shown its kindness and its compassion towards all those impacted by this tragedy, and we will continue to do so.
One act of unspeakable evil has been followed by thousands of acts of random kindness.
People have organised vigils; led and supported countless fundraising events such as 24 hour walking football, bubble blowing, PWR thons, Santa floats, bracelet making, family days and more; they have brought flowers, teddy bears and tributes to Hart Street and the Town Hall Gardens; volunteers have spent weeks looking after them.
People responded to the riot in Southport following the tragedy by repairing homes, rebuilding walls, fixing the Mosque, reopening looted shops.
Southport is one community. We all look after one another.
Teachers and school staff have been immense in providing pastoral care to young children and parents and will continue to do so.
Southport is the kindest town in Britain.
In April Southport will host the Grand Pride Of Sefton Awards to celebrate and thank some of those who have done so much for others.
We want people to remember a community that’s kind; a community that is welcoming to everyone; if there is one thing people can do to support our town it is to please visit, please come and see us. You will be guaranteed a warm welcome.
The one question they will never be able to answer after the tragedy is – why?
My youngest daughter, who was 8 years old at the time, asked me that question as she brought one of her favourite teddies to join the many tributes in the Town Hall Gardens. She thought it was a teddy that the girls who were killed would like as they played together in heaven.
None of us will ever be able to answer that horrific question ‘why’. Why the Hart Space? Why Southport? Why those girls? Why did the killer do it? Why was he not prevented?
We can only hope that the Southport tragedy really is ‘a line in the sand’. That the utter devastation and heartbreak felt by the Southport families is never suffered elsewhere.
There is a GoFundMe fundraising page being run by the Southport Hesketh Round Table and a Southport Strong Together fundraising appeal led by the Community Foundation for Merseyside.
All money raised will support the families and survivors of the tragedy:
Southport Strong Together Appeal – JustGiving
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
