EILIDH MACLEOD
Tragic 14-year-old Scot’s parents on their living hell
‘We still have to stop ourselves calling out her name for dinner. Anger, fear, resentment and heartbreak is something we all have to live with’
DEVASTATED PARENTS OF MANCHESTER BOMB VICTIM
THE parents of the Scottish schoolgirl killed in the Manchester Arena terror attack yesterday told how they are living with “anger, resentment and heartbreak”.
Roddy and Marion MacLeod said they have to stop themselves shouting for their daughter Eilidh to come for her dinner.
She was just 14 when she died along with 21 others in atrocity at the Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.
Eilidh had travelled all the way from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides to attend the gig with a friend who survived but was injured.
Roddy and Marion’s tribute to their daughter was read out on their behalf at the sentencing yesterday of jihadi Hashem Abedi at the Old Bailey, in London.
Abedi’s brother, Salman, blew himself up in the attack. The youngest of his victims was eight and the oldest 51.
He also injured hundreds more, with 92 concert-goers left with life-long injuries.
Coward Abedi, 23, refused to enter court to face victims’ relatives and listen to their family impact statements.
Eilidh’s parents said: “She loved her life and everything it in – and it wasn’t hard to love her right back.
“Every day it’s been a struggle for us to maintain our dignity – trying to put one foot in front of the other is the hardest thing in our lives.
“We still have to stop ourselves calling out her name for our dinner, that will never stop.
“Anger, fear, resentment and heartbreak is something we all have to live with.
“No parent who ever takes their parent to a concert should ever have to take them home to bury them.
“We still have some good days, then we have some really bad days – it comes from absolutely nowhere and hits you in the chest.”
They said their daughter was “wise, well beyond her years”.
Islamic State-inspired terrorist Abedi helped his older sibling carry out the atrocity.
Despite him being 2000 miles away in Libya at the time Salman detonated the homemade explosive packed with shrapnel in his backpack in the foyer of the arena, prosecutors said he was “jointly responsible” along with his brother, standing “shoulder to shoulder” in the plot and was “just as guilty of murder”.
He was extradited back to Britain to face trial before a jury at the Old Bailey took just five hours to find him guilty on March 17.
He cannot be handed a “whole life” sentence because he was under the age of 21 at the time of the offences, the court heard.
But he could be given multiple life sentences, with a minimum-term starting point of 30 years.
Three years on from the terror outrage, a charity set up in Eilidh’s name has brought joy to thousands of young people in a celebration of music.
The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust has raised thousands of pounds to bring the joy of music to young people. The sentencing, before Judge Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, will be completed today.
Other relatives took it in turns to describe the devastating impact of the senseless attack on their lives.
Caroline Curry held aloft a photo of her son Liam Curry, 19, who died with his girlfriend Chloe Rutherford.
She said: “You took from me something more precious than gold, a beautiful boy, inside and out.”
Figen Murray, mother of 29-year-old Martyn Hett, said she is unable to go to bed until after 10.31pm every night, the time the bomb went off. Meanwhile, relatives of Michelle Kiss, 45, said: “We believe there is more good in the world than bad.
“But, unfortunately, it only takes one bad person to devastate so many people, as we are experiencing.
“Hell has no fear for us as it cannot be any worse than it is now.”
The family of 14-year-old Nell Jones said: “The grief of losing a child is like no other – it is all-consuming.”
The family of Megan Hurley, 15, declined to give a victim impact statement “because it would have to be heard by the defendant”.
Instead, they showed a beautiful photo of their daughter.