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MUM Kirsty is determined the twins enjoy their first Christmas but wants witnesses to Paul’s killing to come forward.
‘Finding Paul’s killers would be the best present’
Emma Fitzgerald22/12/2005
THIS time last year Kirsty McIntosh was celebrating her first Christmas with new boyfriend Paul Croft.
Now the 17-year-old is alone with the couple's twins after Paul was brutally beaten and killed by a gang of youths.
The teenager is hoping her appeal and the sight of her five-month-old sons Matthew Thomas and Paul Stephen will help break a wall of silence surrounding his death and bring the killers to justice.
Paul, 19, was beaten by a 14-strong mob in Pendlebury in March, just a month after the couple learned they were expecting twins.
He was found unconscious with severe head injuries in Sandy Path, near the Lord Nelson pub, and died in Hope Hospital a week later clutching a scan of the twins, and with Kirsty by his side.
Police have since arrested 11 people on suspicion of Paul's murder but they have all been released without charge.
Kirsty, who lives with her mother Linda and brothers Stephen and Thomas in Little Hulton, fears she may never have the answers to give her twins when they ask about their dad in the future.
She said: "At the moment I've got nothing to tell them because I don't know any reason why this has happened. If the people are caught then at least I can say 'your dad's killers aren't walking around', but at the moment all I can say is 'they're still out there' and unless these people come forward that'll always be the case.
"I just want to know who did it and why they did it. I didn't even think he had any enemies - he was one of the nicest people I've ever met and for someone to kill him for nothing, I don't see why they would do it."
Although Kirsty has the support of her mum and stepdad, she says she feels very much alone.
She said: "I just want people to think what they would feel like if they were me. I'm 17, I'm trying to look after my twins and I miss him so much, I miss him every moment. They say it should get easier but it doesn't. I'm finding it harder all the time. I don't know what I'd do without my twins but it's really tough."
Kirsty can't erase the memory of her last phone call to Paul as he walked home from the New Market pub, on Bolton Road, Swinton, at 8pm on March 24.
He told her it was 'kicking off' but she didn't find out what had happened until the next morning.
She said: "I remember screaming, falling down, thinking he can't die on me, not while I'm pregnant with his twins."
Police received two calls from two different women saying a man was being attacked.
Kirsty spends a lot of time at Paul's grave with the twins and she plans to take them there on what would have been his 20th birthday.
- ANYONE with information should call police on: 0161 856 8778 or Crimestoppers anonymously on: 0800 555111.
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12/01/2006 at 23:43
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