Shrewsbury busker mother: I can't forgive my son's young killers

Patricia Nicholson, the mother of 43-year-old Ben Bebbington, said she was relieved to get justice for her son after 18-year-old Bradley Davies was convicted of his murder at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

Davies will be sentenced tomorrow with 22-year-old Stewart Doran, who admitted murder before this month's trial.

Mrs Nicholson said she could not forgive Doran or Davies.

"Those two young men will still be young when they come out – younger than Ben when he died. They will still have a life and their mothers will be able to visit them in prison," she said.

Speaking outside court after the verdict on Davies was delivered yesterday, Mrs Nicholson said it had been hard to listen to the evidence and see the images of her son's injuries during the court case.

"The worst part of it all has been he was screaming for help and nobody went for him twice, because there were two attacks. I will never forget that," she said.

"We have justice for Ben. It is closure definitely in a legal sense. But there will never be closure because he has gone and I have got to live with it. "

She said her 'gentle' son was a keen musician and a published poet whose life was going in the right direction.

"To me as his mother, I saw the real Ben. When I moved to the house I'm in now, he came and made a garden for me. He worked his socks off and was so helpful to me," she said.

"He was in the middle of writing more poetry. He had four different poems published in four different books.

"He was still writing and he loved it. He just loved nature and wildlife and he was such a gentle person."

Mrs Nicholson also spoke of her pain in not being able to say a proper goodbye to Ben when he died.

"The worst part was not being able to say goodbye because of the state of his body. I was advised not to go to the funeral parlour. That was awful for a mother.

"He died in hospital at 8.30am and I only found out at 10.30am. I never got a chance to say goodbye. When someone is dying, you want to be there for them. I never got the chance to do that."

Birmingham Crown Court heard over the course of the trial that Doran and Davies started their assault after the pair had seen him with a 12-year-old boy they claimed to be concerned about. Doran, of Bainbridge Green, Harlescott, kicked Mr Bebbington down a flight of steps before chasing him with a Lambrini bottle and hitting him over the head with it.

Once on the ground, he stamped on Mr Bebbington's head 'at least' twice before Davies did the same. The pair left the scene, but returned minutes later after Doran suggested checking on the busker's condition.

When they returned Mr Bebbington attempted to run away and said 'Oh no, not again' as the two men approached him.

The busker attempted to run away but Doran threw his bike at him and missed, before knocking the busker to the ground and repeatedly stamping on him again.

According to Davies, his bike was then used by Doran as a weapon with him hitting Mr Bebbington with its back wheel.

Davies said in a police interview that the following morning Doran had burnt clothes in an oil drum at the back of Davies's home in Ditherington.

The pair handed themselves in to the police later that day – but only after coming up with a cover story which claimed that Mr Bebbington had tried to attack them first and Doran had just pushed him once.

After police found the burned remains of clothing and trainers at Davies' home, one of his cousins took officers to a hedgerow in countryside south of Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, where they found a pillowcase stuffed in a plastic bag.

Inside the pillowcase were the burned remains of three trainers, including a Nike trainer with a zig-zag patterned sole.

The Nike trainer belonged to Bradley Davies and the pattern on the sole of trainers matched a footmark imprinted on Mr Bebbington's head.

Davies would later change his story about his encounter with Mr Bebbington on the canal path – but continued to lie about the burnt clothing and shoes to protect his family.

Prosecutor Christopher Hehir had told the court: "He had previously slept rough and had lived in a hostel but at the time of his death he had been living in a flat in Shrewsbury for some time.

"Ben Bebbington may have had no job but his life was by no means devoid of meaning or activity. He was a keen musician and his particular passion was busking at various places around Shrewsbury."

Davies told the jury he was afraid Doran would 'beat him up' if he did not join in.

But his story was not accepted by the jury, who found found Davies guilty of Mr Bebbington's murder.