The family of a Fife dad who died after being stabbed have marked the third anniversary of his death with an emotional appeal for young people not to carry knives.
The McLean family from Burntisland, who have been campaigning for harsher penalties against knife crime, told The Courier how they are still struggling to come to terms with Barry McLean’s death at 27.
However, they hope some good can still come from their loss and Barry’s sister Lisa, 26, visited Burntisland Primary School, where she pleaded with P6/P7 pupils to avoid the “devastation” her family had felt and to “ditch the knives”.
Mr McLean, a former pupil of Burntisland Primary and Balwearie High School, left behind a baby son when he died on May 28, 2011.
His killer, Sean Kitchener, admitted “poking” Barry with a kitchen knife but made a plea of self-defence at the High Court in 2012 and was cleared of murder.
The family want the case reinvestigated and tougher penalties introduced, which they believe will reduce knife crime by “setting an example to those who carry out such horrific acts”.
Barry’s father Alan McLean told The Courier of the “emptiness and pain” in his heart.
He said: “This will be the third anniversary without our precious son who had so much love for his family and so much to live for.
“Since that terrible day Barry was killed, we struggle each day and always will as we still look for him walking through our front door but it will never happen.
“When those special times arrive birthdays, Christmas and other family events you can never celebrate them the same because your son is no longer there.
“The emptiness and pain is always in your heart. All we have is memories and photos and tend to our sons grave every week.
“That’s what we have been left with because someone decided to use a knife and take our son’s life.”
Lisa told the school’s pupils: “I feel passionate about expressing my feelings and thoughts from my own experience of losing my big brother to knife crime. I do not want another family to experience the devastation that we have experienced.”