I almost hear my murdered son’s laughter as I watch his three boys play

ICAN almost hear my son Craig’s laughter, every time I see his three lovely wee boys playing with their Lego. He was a beautiful dad, a lovely guy. He was a family man who doted on his children; he spent all his time with them – playing, building all this Lego stuff for hours and hours, taking them out and about.

They were aged six, three, and six months when he died. Any spare minute he had, he was with his lads. That’s just the way he was. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about Craig.

But in July last year, I lost my son. His children lost their dad. His life was taken by serial criminal Jamie Wright – who had been released early from jail from an earlier knife offence.

He simply destroyed his electronic tag then spent six months roaming the streets of Paisley unsupervised before murdering a stranger – our Craig – by stabbing him in the stomach.

It was late evening when he approached Craig on Tweed Avenue in Paisley and asked him for a light. Craig had put the kids to bed and was going to visit a friend to play computer games.

He would have had no interest in arguing with anyone. But that animal viciously stabbed my boy and left him for dead. Craig passed away in the Royal Alexandra Hospital that night.

We didn’t know anything about Jamie Wright before he murdered Craig. The life he led was completely different to the lives our family led.

We are just decent people, we get on with our lives, we work, we look after one other. We have always been like that. But he was a guy who had 16 other convictions. As far as we are concerned, they were all building up to this. With him there was always going to be a flashpoint.

It’s been more than year – the most horrific year you can imagine – and our lives are still shattered. I 100 per cent blame the justice system. It’s broken.

And I don’t think it’s just us – I think practically everyone in the country feels this way. But nobody seems to want to do anything about it. Nicola Sturgeon has said on a few occasions that prisons are bursting at the seams. Whose fault is that?

We all know that the justice system is terrible. Certain things are done to save money. That’s not the way it should be.

I also have a major issue with a private firm running the prison services. It’s absolutely shocking. Once you go down that line, it’s always going to be about money.

One of the things that really offends and annoys me is that Jamie Wright had been given a 21-month sentence in October 2016. But he was allowed out ten-and-a-half months later.

A crime is a crime and if a judge gives you 21 months, that is how long you should serve. If criminals served the actual sentences that the courts handed out, maybe they’d think twice before committing another crime.

When someone has got 16 previous offences, what is the possibility of them rehabilitating, without the right systems in place? That won’t happen unless there is proper sentencing.

Craig’s death has been horrendous for everyone. It’s taken more or less everything from his mum, my ex-wife Florence. She’s marching on for everyone else’s sake, but she is absolutely devastated that her baby is gone.

I’ve lost one of my sons. We were all good friends and we did a lot of things together.

We will never get over it. We will never get over the fact that Craig was murdered – and can never forgive the justice system that allowed it to happen.