February 20 should be a day of celebration for Becky White and her family: it's the day her eldest son, Dean Skillin, should be turning 22. Instead it's a day that Becky is dreading because it marks yet another year without Dean after he was killed by a single punch on a night out in Bangor.
"I just feel like that when somebody dies, part of you dies," said the 43-year-old mum as she waited to pick up her youngest son, aged six, from school. "And you go into autopilot mode where you're just somehow functioning but I don’t know how. And I just take each day as it comes and just do what I need to do. I work, sort the kids out, get them to school, it’s just day by day basically."
Dean was was just 20 when he was killed by Brandon Sillence, a boxing fan, who was described in court as "aggressive and confrontational" and ready to punch his "own shadow". Dean and his cousin were making the most of the lifting of lockdown restrictions and had been out for some drinks before they were attacked by Sillence outside The Waverley Hotel in Bangor on September 19, 2020.
