Bullied lad taught to stand up for himself
said: “Here, you get a sentence and serve half of it, what is the point in that?
“It makes me so angry. It needs to be more like the US, where if you commit a serious crime you go out in a box, just like my brother was put in a box.
“It’s too late for Lee, but I just pray we toughen up on criminals who should be spending their lives behind bars.”
Lee’s violent death left Kim terrified to get on a train for months.
She said: “I was terrified at the thought of getting on a train afterwards. I physically couldn’t do it and the longer it went on the worse it got. The fear and the anxiety I felt was incomparable.
“Everyone is a suspect, especially men. It took a long time to work through those feelings.”
She also revealed that to get to the trial last July, Lee’s widow Svetlana had to use the same train service from Guildford to London that her husband was killed on.
Kim said: “She had to walk to that same station, and get on that same route that Lee did the day he died. It was an awful experience for her. There were days she said she couldn’t do it, but she did because she wanted to face that man in court and be there for Lee.
“She’s an incredible woman, sometimes I’m just amazed at her strength.
“I miss my brother so much, but it breaks my heart what she’s lost.
“She will never get over this loss, Lee was such an incredible husband and dad.”
“GENTLE giant” Lee was bullied at school so his dad taught him to box.
But Kim said her “smart, funny and lovable” brother would never hurt a fly.
She said: “He was a sensitive, shy kid and other boys were giving him a hard time.
“So my dad bought Lee a punching bag and taught him to box. No-one picked on him after that, but Lee wasn’t someone who would use his fists.
“He learned to stand up for himself, but he was always a gentle giant.”
Kim said she, Lee and sister Karen Blackaby were “very close” growing up in Essex.
She added: “He was always clowning around.
“At school he always watched out for me – he was like our protector.”
Kim said “every day” without Lee was a struggle. His widow Svetlana, originally from Russia, and their son spent Father’s Day by his graveside.
Kim added: “At Christmas they went back to Russia as they couldn’t bear the thought of it here without him.”