'Knifeman has killed my family'

A mother has lost her entire family after her youngest son was murdered on the whim of a teenager.

Simon Henderson, 21, was stabbed to death in a Maida Vale stairwell after daring to make eye contact with a group of four young thugs.

He had been about to check on his diabetic father William when 19-year-old Somir Akbar walked up to him from behind and stabbed him twice in the neck and twice in the head in 2002.

When Mr Henderson, 52, went to identify his son's body at the mortuary he suffered a heart attack and died a week later.

The desperate heartache of his wife Kay was completed eight weeks ago when she woke in the middle of the night to find her elder son Stephen, 24, had committed suicide using prescription drugs he had been taking to cope with depression.

A family picture lay next to a note begging his mother to forgive him for being a failure and explaining how he could not bear to live without his father and brother. Today Mrs Henderson, a 47-year-old travel agent who stills lives in Maida Vale, told how she was struggling to repress thoughts of taking her own life.

"My mind keeps turning to suicide, it is a real struggle," she said.

"I have no idea how I am keeping myself going. I think it might just be that what has happened is so horrible I haven't even allowed myself to believe it's true yet.

"I really do expect my boy to come through from the kitchen at any moment. When this finally sinks in I don't know what that will mean for me."

Akbar, who had been freed from a previous jail sentence for another stabbing days before he murdered Simon, was jailed for life in September 2002 for the killing. Three others who stood trial next to him walked free.

The court had heard that when one of Akbar's horrified friends had asked why he had committed murder he replied: "What's done is done. It was easy. If you tell anyone I will kill you." Mrs Henderson said Akbar has never admitted his crime or shown any remorse for the consequences of his actions.

"There is absolutely no doubt that man has killed my entire family," she said.

" I don't have words to describe how I think of him. He has taken from me everybody that was dearest to me. I have no one left any more, just my pictures, my tears and my box full of ashes.

"I just hope one day that man realises what he has done to my sons, my husband and me.

"What he did was one pointless, cruel and cold act. The result is three lives lost and one woman reduced to utter helplessness".

Mrs Henderson added that she could only now look forward to commemorating her son's life by adding his name at the memorial bench at the park near her home which already bears the names of her husband and youngest son.

"At the moment though I can't even go outside," she said. "I cannot face the world that has done this to me and my family."