Hundreds pay tribute to Gini Lound
AYOUNG woman who was found dead just months after her brother was murdered has been laid to rest beside him during a moving funeral service.
Virginia Lound, 28, was discovered at Five Bury Road, the corner shop she ran in Southport on June 19.
On Friday, Virginia’s family and friends came together to say their final farewells as she was buried alongside the brother she loved, William Lound.
She was carried by horse drawn hearse as she made her final journey through the streets of Birkdale from her family home on Worthing Close, passed her corner shop, to St James Church and then Duke Street Cemetery.
Virginia, known as Gini, had stood in the same church in March to deliver the eulogy at her brother’s funeral.
In a moving tribute to William, Gini said the world was a sadder place without his wit and charm.
Salford University student William died in February after suffering multiple stab wounds at his halls of residence in what Greater Manchester Police have called a homophobic hate crime.
On Friday, Virginia’s mother Maureen and faithful collie Alfie walked behind her coffin followed by scores of her family and friends.
Maureen, known as Mo, had asked mourners to wear brightly coloured clothes and the horses plumes were streaked with green, red, yellow and blue.
Dorothy Bridson, who was Gini’s confirmation teacher, gave the eulogy, written by Mo and her daughter’s friends, to a 300-strong congregation.
She said: “Gini was a friendly, happy and bubbly person known as the ‘sweetie lady’ to local children.
“Five Bury Road, under Gini’s direction had resumed its rightful place at the heart of the community, a place it has occupied for 150 years.
“Gini was happy and had gathered around her a wonderful team of helpers.
“Then along came Lee Arnold who by murdering her beloved brother blew her world apart.”
Dorothy told the congregation that Gini, a former Sunnymede School pupil, was a bright young woman who had achieved four A-levels at KGV College in Southport before going on to study at Liverpool University.
She had a love of ani- mals, said Mo, and at onen point had even br bred chickens in her b bedroom until they st started jumping out of th their box and she had to move them into the g garden.
Gini was also a keen horsewoman, who was devoted to her family’s th three ponies, and had s spent her gap year tr training at the Northe ern Racing College in D Doncaster.
She had worked as a lab technician and then later as a lecturer in forensics, biology and physics to adults and young people at Southport College before leaving to start her own business late last year.
The congregation heard that Gini had mortgaged her house to fund the enterprise, which had been going from strength to strength.
After the service Gini was taken to the cemetery where she was laid to rest alongside her brother and the ashes of her father John Lound, who died seven years ago.
Lee Arnold, 36, pleaded guilty to the murder of William at Manchester Crown Court earlier this month and will be sentenced on August 1.
No other details about William’s murder, which police described as of a ‘homophobic nature’ are yet to be revealed, until after sentencing.