Jamie Dack murder: "We had no chance to say goodbye" says family

They are the heartbroken words of the family of Jamie Dack who will forever struggle to come to terms with the murder of the 23-year-old – let alone the fact they never got to see him one last time after his death.

The ferocious bin blaze started by his killers Lee Nicholls, Ryan Woodmansey, Andrew Dwyer-Skeats and Donna Chalk, in a bid to hide the relentless and brutal attack they had subjected him to inside a one bed squat in Bevois Mews, Southampton, left his body in such a state that he was identified by his teeth.

It is one of the toughest things that Jamie’s father Eddie and his family have had to contend with since they were told he had died on Easter Monday last year.

Since then they have also endured 18 weeks of “pure hell”, sitting and listening, with unbelievable dignity, through not one but two trials concerning the murder of Jamie. They have learnt that his death was over simple greed. His killers just wanted to get their hands on his £100 laptop so they could go to a party and drink and take drugs.

They have watched as three of his murderers took to the stand without a single apology or shred of regret for what they had done – and Chalk remained silent, refusing to give evidence in the court.

They have been forced to see sickening images of Jamie, taken by his killers on his own mobile phone, as he lay badly beaten in a pool of blood. They have also repeatedly seen the last ever picture of Jamie as he knelt, bleeding from stab wounds, and begging for his life moments before the final blow was struck.

And they have heard the lies that each of the killerS told as they tried to shift the blame on to each other and save themselves from a life sentence for murder.

Today the family welcomed the unanimous guilty verdicts that finally bring some justice for former Co-op and Superdrug worker Jamie.

But they said it will never ease their heartache of losing the popular young man “who would never hurt a fly”.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Eddie said: “Jamie was a loving son, brother, nephew, cousin and friend who cared for everyone.

We loved him dearly. He was a gentle soul who would never have hurt anybody.

“While the heartless torture and murder of Jamie has shaken everyone who knew him to the core, our faith in humanity has at least been partially restored by the support of our friends and the kind words about Jamie by his friends and peers.

Jamie's dad, Eddie

“These people didn’t just kill him, they one of the reasons it all seemed so unreal.

Whenever a member of my family has died I’ve always gone to see them afterwards, to say goodbye and see them at peace. I couldn’t do that – you couldn’t recognise my Jamie, they had destroyed him.

“His death seems utterly pointless – it was all so they could get money by selling his laptop - and they have made our lives hell and destroyed us too.”

It was the weekend before Easter when former Testwood School pupil Jamie was last seen by his family as he popped around the family home in Totton and wasn’t quite his usual self.

He was quiet and a little withdrawn – far from the “fearless”

Jamie they knew who loved to try his hand at adrenaline sports like quad biking, paragliding, go-karting.

Only weeks earlier, as it emerged during the police investigation into his murder, he had been beaten unconscious by Nicholls in a supermarket car park in Southampton and robbed of his mobile phone.

Vulnerable In previous months he had also split from his girlfriend and, in his typically independent way, had decided to move out on his own and found a bed at Millbrook’s Patrick House hostel as an interim.

Eddie, who brought up Jamie after his mum died when he was 14, said: “I think that’s an unfortunate thing that these people killed him when he was at a particularly vulnerable point – and they just took advantage. The last we saw of him was the Sunday before he died and he wasn’t his usual self at all.”

It was later that week on Good Friday, following a telephone call from an acquaintance of Nicholls that police began to get concerned for Jamie’s whereabouts.

A missing person’s hunt was launched as he was deemed a “medium risk”, his family were told and they immediately began trying to trace him.

But they were not to know that at the very same time Jamie’s 24 hours of torture, being held against his will in a one bedroom squat in Southampton, was about to come to a fatal end.

Eddie said: “When he was just missing we were not that concerned – Jamie had a habit of just upping and going without telling anyone when he wanted to move on. We were busy trying to find out where he was, phoning people, putting things on Facebook.”

But on Sunday came the knock at the door that no parent can dare to imagine as police told Eddie that they believed Jamie had been killed but they were awaiting forensic tests to confirm their suspicions.

Recalling the moment like it was yesterday, Eddie said: “I was absolutely stunned – it was utter disbelief.

“We had this day of not being sure and you are just left hoping they are wrong, that it is someone else. It felt like the longest day on earth.

“The police came back on Easter Monday to tell us it was definitely Jamie. I still find it unbelievable – it doesn’t seem real.

“All sorts of things go through your mind, what if I’d done this or that. Regrets.

“I never expected that Sunday when he came around to be the last time I’d ever see my son.”

Eddie added: “It’s all-consuming grief and it drives you mad in a way. It’s only by thinking of the good times and looking at the pictures of the holidays we went on that he loved, which gets you through.

“We wanted justice for Jamie and today it has finally been done and now hope the sentences will reflect the inhuman treatment he suffered.”

n The Dack family expressed their thanks to Detective Sergeant Bryan Carter and the Hampshire major investigation team, including the family liaison officers who have given them relentless support since Jamie’s death. They also thanked the legal team who successfully prosecuted his killers and Victim Support for helping them through the trial.

PROFILES OF THE MURDERERS

LEE NICHOLLS

AGE: 29

LIVED: Southampton Street hostel ROLE: He admitted sustained violence on Jamie, kicking and punching him, attacking him with a baseball bat and stabbing him. He was spurred on by Chalk who told him spurious lies about Jamie, claiming he had made sexual moves on a girl he liked. On Good Friday he dealt the fatal blow, stabbing Jamie in the neck. He cracked while taking the stand in his own defence and changed his plea to guilty and the first trial was stopped.

RYAN WOODMANSEY

AGE: 32

LIVED: no fixed address but stayed in the squat in Bevois Mews ROLE: A well known Big Issue seller, he was a familiar face outside the Tesco Express store in Lodge Road where he would sell the paper with his dog called Eyes. He had also had a short relationship with Chalk’s mother. During the retrial he was first to take the stand and give evidence and admitted using a baseball bat to batter Jamie. He helped wheel his body, inside a wheelie bin, to Empress Road where he used petrol he had bought earlier that day to set it alight.

ANDREW DWYER-SKEATS

AGE: 27

LIVED: Bevois Mews ROLE: A father, he had not long split from a long term girlfriend and started a new relationship with Chalk. He was given the keys to Bevois Mews by a man who was sent to prison and it became a squat. Chalk moved in with him, sharing a couch as a bed.

He denied any involvement in the violence and tried to convince a jury he wasn’t even there.

DONNA CHALK

AGE: 22

LIVED: Bevois Mews ROLE: The girl who provoked the violence, Chalk wound up Nicholls by telling him Jamie was making sexual advances to his former girlfriend. She claimed to be reading text messages that helped fan the flames, prompting him to lash out at Jamie. She went to buy carpet cleaner to help clean up the blood soaked flat but denied any involvement in the violence. She refused to give evidence about what happened but her barrister claimed she had been sat on the couch cuddling Woodmansey’s dog throughout the killing.

Following the murder she washed her clothing and that of Dwyer-Skeats at a relatives’ home in Lodge Road.