WHO could not have been moved by the front page story in News Shopper about the outcome of the trial arising from the death of Ben Hitchcock in 2007?

No-one expects to suffer the death of a child, especially in violent circumstances, and my heart goes out to Lee Hitchcock as she grieves so deeply for her lost son, whose murderer is still free.

I could not help reflecting on the people involved. Mrs Hitchcock has lost a son she loved so much.

One day I hope that she will look back with thankfulness for the 16 years shared with Ben; she loved him and he loved her.

She tells us Ben was the kindest and happiest boy with the biggest heart. She brought him up well.

No doubt she could have told us so much more of her life with the son she will never forget..

And there is another mother out there. What will the future hold for her? She will spend the rest of her life regretting how her child turned out.

She will spend however long it takes fearing the day when the police will knock on his door, for justice demands that day will come.

She will look back tearing her life apart wondering where she went wrong; where he went wrong.

There is every likelihood she won’t have the sort of loving memories Mrs Hitchcock will have.

Indeed, she might have lost her son already.

He, too, may be dreading the day when the police will knock on his door. In the meantime, the person who murdered Ben will have to live with himself in the knowledge he is a murderer.

He may be a good actor. He may be full of bravado to those around him. He may even be wracked with guilt.

Yet we all have a conscience. Deep inside us we usually know what the right thing to do is.

He, and anyone who knows his involvement in such a serious crime, might reflect on what I heard a few months ago; it was on the soap Coronation Street when one of the characters was intent on committing perjury to save her boyfriend: “When you snuff out all the nagging voices in your head the one remaining will be yours’.


Alan Skinner
Alpine Copse
Bickley