A man whose partner used a broken dinner plate to kill him had "stayed silent" about the abuse he faced, according to his friends.
Paul Lavelle, 50, was attacked by his partner, Sarah Lewis, with a jagged shard of broken dinner plate during a drunken dispute at his Rock Ferry home in May 2017. Lewis, of Croxteth Avenue, Seaforth, left Mr Lavelle to slowly bleed to death and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in January 2018.
After he was killed, Paul's friends set up the Paul Lavelle Foundation, with the intention of encouraging more men to speak out about their experiences of domestic abuse. Co-founder of the foundation, Paul Gladwell, told the ECHO: “We lost our friend.
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"He was a brilliant person and we wanted to keep his memory alive but also, we asked the question as to why he didn’t tell us what was going on. We found out later on that it wasn’t an isolated incident, so we started wanting to raise awareness and getting men to speak out about being abused.
"Eventually we set up a service where we’re helping men come out and speak about their problems and supporting them through court cases. We’re helping men not to choose the silent option, which is what Paul chose."
The foundation became a registered charity in April 2018 and provides a number of vital services including Healthy Relationship Education workshops in schools as well as community sports and well-being groups.
In August 2019, members of the foundation cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, and their next challenge will see them ride from Oxton to The Battlefields of the Somme in France. Paul said: “Myself and a couple of others always wanted to go to the Somme and pay our respects and then obviously we lost Paul so we thought we should ride there to raise awareness and raise some money for the foundation.
“We’ve got 41 riders going, with four vans and six lads supporting us as well. We’re riding 110 miles each day so it’s going to be a tough slog. It’s going to be a massive event.”
The plan is to cycle the 440-mile route over four days, with the money raised being split between the foundation and Alder Hey children’s hospital. And Paul believes that his late friend would be delighted to know that so much good is being done on his behalf.
He told the ECHO: “Paul would be really made up. So much of what we do is doing wonders for so many people in Paul’s name. There could be no better tribute to him.
“One in three victims of domestic abuse are men and I don’t think many people know that. We didn’t ourselves until it was on our doorsteps.”
Paul and the team will set out on their ride on Wednesday, June 8. You can find out more about the Paul Lavelle foundation here.
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