My anguish after kind, innocent Dad was killed by vigilante mob

DAUGHTER’S CRY FOR JUSTICE

THE grieving daughter of a man wrongly branded a paedophile and killed by a vigilante mob has spoken of her heartbreak at losing her dad for “no reason”.

Zoe Kelly has been through eight months of hell since her dad Darren, 42, was entrapped in an internet sting and stabbed to death.

She has seen her loving lorry driver dad’s killer jailed for murder but also had to watch as the rest of the gang walked free from court.

The mob included a 16-year-old girl who, not for the first time, posed as a woman to ensnare a man – despite cops telling her stop. She is at liberty to do it again.

Now Zoe, 21, has started a petition calling for the gang to be prosecuted again. She has more than 4,000 signatures.

She said: “These last months have been the worst days of my life and have been lost to sadness, anger and heartbreak. I’m learning to cope with the stress and knowing I’ll never get to speak to Darren again.

“I will never know what happened that night. Because the only honest answer I’ll get is from the person that, for no good reason, is not here with us any more.” In October Darren had arranged to meet a woman he had struck up a friendship with on new Tinder- style smartphone app called Whisper, which lets people have anonymous chats with others nearby.

But the woman turned out to be a girl, then aged 15, who was with two teenage boys and a man.

Stabbed

The gang was on a mission to lure and attack “perverts” in their neighbourhood.

Darren was ambushed by the gang near his home in Pitsea, Essex, and viciously stabbed in the street. He later died in Basildon Hospital.

Last month, after a six-week trial at Chelmsford crown Court, Chris Carroll, 20, was jailed for life and must serve at least 21 years.

The remaining three teenagers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were cleared of murder and manslaughter.

The court heard there was no evidence that Darren was a paedophile and he thought he was meeting the girl’s mother.

The jury was told Carroll stabbed dad-of-one Darren six times.

The girl who lured Darren to his death had been warned by police after arranging to meet two other men she had found on the net in the hope they would be arrested, the court heard. When asked why she