Due to the Covid outbreak shortly after Gareth’s death, the family was unable to grieve together and Gareth’s father died alone in hospital 14 months after his son ‘with a broken heart and no answers or justice’.

She said the family is living a life sentence with each day bringing pain and sorrow and reminders of what they have lost. In her statement, Ms Kelly said: ‘Was he scared, was he frightened? My son lay dying on that pathway between two cars, struggling for his last breath. She said she watched the CCTV footage, shown during the trial, of her son’s last moments, adding: ‘He smiled at a passerby, not remotely aware of what lay ahead for him, just going to work.’ She said she is left forever with the memory of the expression on his face after Anderson stabbed him the first time. He had two jobs and worked hard to ‘give the kids the life they wanted’. Gareth ‘lived and breathed’ for his family and would do anything for anybody, she said. In a statement read out by prosecution barrister Pat McGrath SC, Mr Kelly’s mother Noeleen Kelly said there are ‘no words to explain the loss and heartache I feel right now.’ The judge will hear pleas in mitigation by Anderson’s lawyers on May 22, before passing sentence. Ms Justice Karen O’Connor on Monday heard the first of two sentencing hearings, during which members of Mr Kelly’s family made statements detailing the impact his killing has had on them and their community. At a sentencing hearing on Monday, Mr Kelly’s partner Maria Murphy described the deceased as a loving dad with a ‘cheeky smile’ who was adored by his children.

Speak anderson