After experiencing the nightmare scenario of losing their child, parents Alison and Paul Castledine have made a heartfelt plea to anyone – especially young people – thinking of carrying a knife to consider the devastation it could cause.
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00:00Did he know he was going to die? Was he suffering? How long did it take?
00:05All those things just torture you forever to know that you couldn't do anything to save your child.
00:12You spend your whole life protecting them, guiding them, being there for them the minute they needed you the most.
00:20You just couldn't do anything.
00:23Danny, when he was doing something he loved, he just wanted to make the most of absolutely everything
00:29and just lived his life to the full and just enjoyed himself.
00:35He was just very happy-go-lucky.
00:37You know, worked at McDonald's when he was home from university.
00:42University lad, loved life, loved going out with his friends on the weekend
00:47and he loved his music festivals, so this is why he was always trying to get abroad.
00:53And this was just another one that he was going to in Belgium.
00:57He was just the most laid-back person that you could ever meet.
01:01So the first thing we knew it was Wednesday evening.
01:04We'd just had dinner and the police arrived at the door and started asking lots of questions.
01:12They'd got Danny's student union card, asking us if that was Danny's card.
01:17Was he in Amsterdam? Was this a photograph of his tattoo?
01:21We said, yeah, and they just kept asking question after question
01:25and I can remember in the end just saying, is he dead?
01:28And they said, yeah, Danny's dead.
01:30We were told that Danny had been robbed and that's when he spoke to his murderer
01:37and he was sort of telling him, come this way, come this way.
01:40So we presumed he was taking him, well, telling him he was taking him back to his hotel.
01:44They were walking along, they were laughing, fist-pumping, getting along great.
01:49Danny tried to leave a few times and he kept beckoning him back and saying, come this way
01:55and then just walking along and then suddenly just pulled out a knife and started stabbing him.
02:01There were no crosswords, no fight, no arguments, nothing, just randomly pulled it out of his bag.
02:07I mean, standing where it happened, you can't even imagine that your feet are stood where his feet were,
02:14where he was being literally murdered, like you just cannot even fathom that.
02:19I mean, looking down the steps where his body was thrown by the murderer, just kicked down some steps,
02:26there was crisp packets, rubbish, cigarettes, just thinking that your brother was lying there dead for nearly an hour
02:34and nobody noticed, he was just there, covered in his own blood.
02:38Somebody that you've loved for your entire life and spent every day with,
02:44and that somebody just threw him away like he was completely nothing.
02:48As a family as well, you just always got that one person missing, it's never ever going to be the same,
02:54nothing's ever going to feel the same and the tiny little things that you would get to enjoy in life,
03:01that you should be able to enjoy, it's just a million times worse.
03:04We haven't just lost a brother, we've lost ourselves as well.
03:08I think what people don't realise is that your happiest times turn into your worst times
03:14because we've not celebrated Christmas since, we've not done presents on Christmas morning,
03:20we've sat in the house by ourselves on Christmas day.
03:23You dread birthdays, you dread Christmas, you avoid holidays because it's just too painful
03:30and I think the longer it goes on, it gets harder because people think you're going to be recovering
03:36and you're going to feel okay and you don't, you just feel worse because reality hits more.
03:43You realise you're never going to see him again and so I think the longer it goes on, the harder it gets
03:49and I think you don't want people to forget him, you don't want him to be a memory.
03:56So I think the harder it gets, the harder as time goes on, whereas people think it will get easier, it doesn't.