'Our son was killed for singing'

As Christopher Donovan walked along a quiet Surrey road in the early hours one Saturday morning, he had every reason to be in high spirits. It was just a week before his 19th birthday and he, his brother Phillip and friend Richard Keats had been enjoying a night out in Stoneleigh. They were on their way to a friend's house.

None of them suspected that, as they sang Oasis's song Champagne Supernova, it would lead to a senseless attack by a gang of thugs that would end in Christopher's death.

Stephen Andrews, 21, Ryan Seymour, 17, and a 16-year-old - who cannot be named or pictured for legal reasons - were among nine youths who attacked the three friends. The gang kicked and punched Christopher to the ground, where Andrews and Seymour took "penalty kicks" to his head and body before leaving him for dead in the road, where he was hit by a car.

The three are now beginning life sentences for his murder, laid down at the Old Bailey this week by Judge Peter Beaumont, who described Christopher's murder as " gratuitous, alcohol- provoked mob violence".

Christopher's parents, Ray and Vi Donovan, watched as the judge told the three: "You still have your lives after your sentence but Christopher's mother and father will never see their son again."

Today Mr Donovan told of his family's grief at the loss of the son with "a heart of gold" who had dreamed of being a policeman.

Speaking at their New Malden home, which is now adorned with pictures of their dead son, Mr Donovan said: "We never will understand. It is just mind-blowing.

"But the most important thing is that we forgive them. Four lives were ruined by this - their families were also torn apart.

"Chris was a Christian and we have learned that life is more than just about here and now. Through forgiveness we can move on but life will never be the same and Chris will never be replaced in our hearts.

"We have felt deep anger but are determined to forgive them for the grievous wrong they have done."

Mrs Donovan added: "It has been a very hard year for all the family. We have thought about it for a long time but then it was an easy decision to make and we forgive them."

Mr Donovan, 50, said he and his wife felt able to forgive the killers followingmonths of prayer, adding: "We felt that it is over. Justice has been done. It has been our faith which has got us through this.

"If it had not been for being Christian, we would not have kept going. It really has been the Lord being with us. I believe Christopher is up there in Heaven.

"There have been a lot of prayers said. Before the trial, some of the police even said to us that we should pray for a good jury."

And he said the family - which includes Christopher's brothers Louis and Phillip, who was injured in the attack, and his sister Amanda - were determined to remember the teenager they loved and not his violent death.

"He was so generous. His famous saying was 'Don't worry about today, there is always tomorrow'," said Mr Donovan, manager of an industrial cleaning company.

"Just three or four months before he died, he won an all expenses paid trip for two to Paris, with a five-star hotel and £200 spending money. He came home to us and said: 'Here you are mum and dad, you deserve a break.'

"He could have taken anyone, because he was a handsome lad, but he gave it to us."

Christopher had been working delivering pizzas before his death, after being turned down for the Army because he suffered from asthma.

"He had wanted to join the police and they said he didn't have the grades, so he should join the Army. When he went there, they said he had to run a mile in so many minutes," said Mr Donovan.

"He was out every night training because he was determined to do it, and then they said he had asthma, so he would have to wait another year. Even when he was delivering pizzas, he won an award for delivering the most pizzas in a day. When he saw a record, he had to smash it. He just wanted to make a life for himself."

Much of Christopher's time off work was spent with his eight-year-old niece, Rena, whom he "adored". "He just loved her. When he was waiting to go to work in the afternoons, he would play a computer racing car game with her," said Mr Donovan.

"He was always the red Ferrari, and, at his funeral, she went and bought a model red Ferrari and put it on his coffin.

"Explaining to her what had happened on the day he was killed was the hardest thing."

Mr Donovan said the day of his son's murder was still etched on his memory adding: "I can remember perfectly everything that happened between 26 May 2001 and today. The first we knew was at 1.30 in the morning when the police knocked on our door.

"They said, 'There has been a fight and your son has been hurt. He is in hospital.' As we drove there, we passed the scene, and they kept apologising.

"When we got there, the doctor came in and told us he was badly brain-damaged. An hour later, he came back and said he had died. It was all like a film."

Surrey police undertook a painstaking investigation and used tailors' dummies wearing the murderers' clothes to reconstruct the attack. A series of witnesses also came forward to identify Andrews, Seymour and the 16-year-old killer.

"Now that the trial is over, I have bought a pad of writing paper and I am going to sit down and write to each one of those witnesses to say thank-you to them," said Mr Donovan.

He added: "I want to thank the police, because they gave more than 100 per cent. There were so many who worked on Sundays and bank holidays, and never put in for overtime. They have just been superb."

The family is now trying to pick up the pieces of their lives with the support of friends and their faith - and are waiting for the arrival of their third grandchild.

" It will be new life," Mr Donovan said.

But he cannot forget the last time he saw his son as the two joked together on the night he died.

"He was trying to get me to wear his favourite aftershave," said Mr Donovan.

"He was just trying to get it on my face and I said, 'There's no way I'm wearing that stuff.' Then he went out and I never saw him again."