A chance to FORGIVE

One couple share their remarkable story of strength after a family tragedy

- TRACY GAYTON

When Vi and Ray Donovan's son died after being beaten by a gang of teenagers, the couple never imagined that, one day, they would meet his killers. But that's what happened through the extraordinary process known as restorative justice - where those harmed by crime can meet the criminals responsible.

Just before meeting the first boy convicted of Chris' murder, I turned to Vi, asking, "Are we really going to sit down with somebody who killed our son?" Ray, now 71, recalls. His wife Vi, 68, remembers it vividly too. 'Meeting those boys was hard, but we had to do it if we were to lay down the burden of grief and anger that was poisoning our existence,' she says.

The couple from Sutton, Surrey, have three sons and a daughter, and an unusual marital history. They married in 1971, divorced in 1977, reunited in 1979, then married for the second time in 2001.

Tragically, on 26 May 2001, a month after they remarried, their middle son Chris, 19, was murdered. Along with his brother Philip, 18, he was set upon in the street by 14 youths, in an unprovoked attack. Philip was punched first, and knocked unconscious. When Chris tried to help, he was pulled to the ground and repeatedly kicked and stamped in the head. He was left unconscious on a four-lane A road, accidentally hit by a car, and dragged 40 feet.

'Chris and Philip were close. Chris was the youngest-ever deputy manager of a Domino's pizza shop, with intentions of joining the police. Philip worked at another pizza shop,' Vi says. 'The day it happened, we were awakened shortly after midnight by two policemen. They told us our boys had been involved in a fight, and Chris was badly injured.'

In hospital, Philip was relatively unhurt, except for a broken nose. But Chris was in theatre, with most bones in his body broken. He died, hours later.