Published at 10:38, Saturday, 31 March 2012
A DAUGHTER who saw her mother brutally killed in the street has broken a three-year silence to pay tribute to a woman who lived for her family.
Claire Marshall died after being stabbed to death by her former partner, Ben Cooper, on January 24 2009.
Cooper stabbed 35-year-old Miss Marshall 41 times leaving her for dead in her Newton Street home, in Millom, as two of her daughters looked on.
Cooper was imprisoned indefinitely in a secure hospital after he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Next Tuesday, April 3, marks the third anniversary of Miss Marshall’s funeral and now, her daughter Roann Jones, has spoken of the impact of the attack on the family.
She said: “She was not only my mum, she was my best friend.
“More than anything she loved her kids and she wanted to protect them, it was her goal to look after her children.
“I feel as if mum should be remembered not for the tragic way her life ended but how her family loved her and how she was as a person.
“She was popular – if you ask anyone in Millom they will say she was bubbly and always smiling.”
Roann is taking a part-time course in child psychology.
The teenager, who was praised for her strength of character by police following her mother’s death, hopes to become a child therapist.
She said: “I’m taking a child psychology course – I want to be a child therapist for people who have gone through what we have went through.
“I fought so hard for help after the killing – it took about 18 months to get proper counselling but it didn’t help.
“I want to help people to live their lives to the fullest.
“I’m inspired by my mum – she believed education was the most important thing.”
Roann now lives with her paternal grandparents on the outskirts of Swindon, in Wiltshire – a short distance from where her mother was buried.
Despite the brutal end to her mother’s short life Roann says her mum is never far from her thoughts.
She said: “We talk about mum all the time.
“I want her to be remembered for the positives – for how she lived her life not how she ended it.
“We’ve got so many pictures of her around and she’s never far from our thoughts.
“The only way I get through the day is thinking ‘do it for my mum’.
“If I can’t do it for myself I do it for her – I hope she’s proud of me wherever she is.”
Despite her positive outlook, which she described as the ‘best tribute to mum’, Roann said her family are still recovering from the aftermath of the events of January 24.
She said: “We were in the process of moving back down here.
“We’d found a house to rent – mum had the deposit and everything.
“He came in and was talking to her normally and all of a sudden he jumped her. There was nothing to set it off.”
Even if Cooper is reassessed by doctors and deemed sane he faces being sent straight to prison.
After three years Roann is still battling psychological scars from Cooper’s savage attack but she said she has worked hard to put the memories behind her.
She said: “I’m having anxiety attacks as a result of the killing – I struggle to go out.
“I could never forgive him – to me he’s dead.
“He destroyed our family, he destroyed our lives.
“He took mum away when she was in her prime – I had to tell my three-year-old sister, ‘mummy wasn’t coming home’.
“He took justice into his own hands. I never want anything to do with him ever again.”
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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