THE family of murder victim Barry Smith have told how they are still struggling to come to terms with his brutal death after three people were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing him. His ex-wife Dawn Smith spoke to crime reporter Martin Naylor.
THE last photograph Barry Smith's family have of him was taken just weeks before his death – holding his youngest granddaughter Selina-Louise.
Clutching the picture his ex-wife Dawn Smith says the family struggle on a daily basis to come to terms with their loss, especially when they think how he will not be able to hold his children or grandchildren again.
Mrs Smith said: "When he died, a massive part of this family did too.
"And his children and grandchildren will have to live the rest of their lives knowing what happened to him.
"That is one of the things that hurts the most."
Every Sunday at 9.45am Mrs Smith said she still feels a cold shiver down her spine.
"That was when I got the phone call," she said.
"I was at work and my mother phoned me.
"She said 'they've found a body on some waste ground outside a club.
"'They think it's Barry, he's not been home all night'."
Mrs Smith said she refused to believe what she was being told.
She tried her ex-husband's phone but kept getting cut off.
Despite being divorced, she lived in Doncaster and he had settled in Mayfield Avenue, Kilburn, they spoke regularly and remained good friends.
After all she was the mother of his four children and they had spent 17 years together as a married couple.
She said: "After I heard the terrible news I spoke to my brother and said to him 'how am I going to tell the children?'
"When I tried to explain Billy-Jo, our daughter was screaming down the phone to me. She was saying 'tell me it's not dad?'
"I just kept thinking: 'It's not Barry, it can't be Barry'.
"He hated arguing, he would walk away from one as soon as start one.
"He didn't even like to be around when the kids started shouting at each other when they were younger.
"He would say to me 'you sort them out'."
Mrs Smith said even when they arrived in Kilburn and went to the murder scene later that same fateful morning on October 6, she still thought her former husband would walk around the corner.
She said: "I thought he would just come round the corner and wonder why all of his family had come down from Doncaster on a Sunday morning.
"That morning was just horrible."
The remains of Barry Smith, 48, were discovered burnt outside Kilburn Welfare Social Club at 8.30am.
He had been beaten to death with a fence post and a pool cue before his body was dragged to a pile of rubbish and set alight.
Three people – Vincent Aitken, 43, of Chapel Street, Kilburn, his daughter, Emma Aitken, 18, and Miss Aitken's partner, Nathan Doherty, 27, both of Derby, were last week found guilty of his murder at Leicester Crown Court.
Aitken was ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years, his daughter Emma must serve a minimum of 12 years while her boyfriend, Doherty, must serve 18 years before being eligible for release.
Aitken's wife, Pamela Aitken, 40, denied assisting an offender in relation to Mr Smith's death and was found not guilty.
The jury was told the killing stemmed from an argument a week earlier in which Mr Smith alleged Pamela Aitken had called him "a pikey" which led to her resigning her post as stewardess of the Kilburn Welfare Social Club.
Mrs Smith, 39, said her family believed the killing was racially motivated because Mr Smith was a proud gypsy who worked on travelling fairs.
The couple had a daughter Billy-Jo, 22 and sons Barrie-John, 20, Luke, 19 and Nathan, 16. He also had three grandchildren - Josephine-Star, two, Selina-Louise, one and eight-month-old Arlie-John.
Mrs Smith added: "I think they should throw away the key. They should never be allowed to walk the streets and be able to live a normal life again.
"They just took a man's life from him. But they didn't just take Barry's life, they took away a father and grandfather.
"These people didn't just kill him though, they beat him, they tortured him, they tried to burn him to get rid of the evidence. What sort of a human being does that to another man?
"We were told that Barry died sometime between 4.30am and 6.30am and he was not a man who stayed out late, he liked going home.
"What were they doing to him all that time before they killed him? They were torturing him, that's what they were doing.
"People wouldn't do that to a dog what those people did to Barry.
"It scares me to think what they did for all those hours. And I guess the only people who know the truth are now behind bars. I hope they stay there."
Mrs Smith, 39, said when she and her family drove to Kilburn on the morning they heard he had been killed she was talking to a neighbour of her ex-husband's.
She said: "The woman said 'are you Barry's family?' and it turns out that he used to stand talking to her over the wall smoking a cigarette.
"He didn't know her and she didn't know him but they just shared a few minutes.
"That was what Barry was like, a sociable person who loved being around people.
"Anyone who knew Barry knows what he was like.
"You only have to look at his picture – that's not the face of someone who caused trouble, he did the opposite, he walked away from it."
Meanwhile, Mr Smith's partner Rowena Pearson has told how she rushed to the scene of his death - and was comforted by one of his murderers.
She said just hours before he died Mr Smith told her he loved then gave her a kiss before he shut the door of their home and set off for Kilburn Welfare Social Club.
Hours later she was woken by frantic knocking on the door of their home in Mayfield Avenue, Kilburn, by a friend who came to tell her the chilling news that a body had been found.
That body, discovered half-burnt outside the very club where he had been drinking, belonged to Barry Smith.
Mrs Pearson said: "I looked out the window and saw a friend and said 'what is it?' and she replied 'they've found a body outside the club, they think it's Barry."
Moments later Miss Pearson arrived at the scene where one of the first people she saw was Vincent Atkins, the man who was last week found guilty of Mr Smith's murder.
She said: "He was hot, sweating, I could see he was agitated.
"I said to him: 'Is it Barry?'.
"He came up and put his arm around me and said 'yes it's Barry and I am so sorry for your loss'.
"I find it quite sickening now that he did that because of course he knew it was Barry.
"He knew it was Barry because he killed him."
Miss Pearson, 49, added: "They are just pure evil and I hope they rot in hell."
![Last photo of murdered Barry Smith is of him holding grandchild he won’t see grow up]( "Last photo of murdered Barry Smith is of him holding grandchild he won’t see grow up")
