LIVES RIPPED APART (From Warrington Guardian)

LIVES RIPPED APART

'I WISH the clocks could be turned back. Our lives have been ripped apart since Dale died'.

Those were the tearful words of Kaylee Dawson as she paid tribute to her friend, 18-year-old Dale Whitfield, who died after a town centre attack.

Devastated Kaylee from Preston Brook described Dale as "a genuinely ace lad. The life and soul of the party".

The teenager, of Winwick Road, died last Sunday at Warrington Hospital following an assault on Horsemarket Street 24 hours earlier.

Kaylee said: "I want to tell him that he'll always be in my heart and I'll never forget him.

"I'm shattered, he's had his future snatched from him at such a young age. I wish I could have seen him one more time to tell him how much we all loved him."

To celebrate Dale's life, friends gathered at Panama Jacks on Bridge Street last week to say their own goodbyes.

Dale was a familiar face in Winwick, having worked at the Swan pub on Golborne Road for two years.

According to friends, the avid sportsman who was entering his final year at Priestley College, hoped to become a PE teacher.

A 75-year-old neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she was shocked when she learned the heartbreaking news.

She added: "Dale was a lovely boy, I'm shocked he lost his life so tragically. I'll always remember him as a little gentleman.

"I was speaking to him only a few days before it happened, we had a little chat and laugh like we always did."

l Dean Talbot-Bennett, aged 19, of Dudley Street, Longford appeared at Warrington Crown Court on Monday charged with GBH.