This is Brooklyn, he was a ‘kind, big-hearted boy’
MoS campaign concludes as mother says saying her son’s name is therapy
BROOKLYN COLBERT was a ‘bighearted, kind boy’ who loved animals and playing football. He was the light of his mother’s life and ‘had so much to offer the world’.
Until this week, the 11-year-old – who died in November 2019 in an attack his mother ‘will never understand’ – could not be named by this newspaper, or any media, as a result of Section 252 of the Children’s Act 2001.
Instead, the Irish Mail on Sunday has strived to remember beautiful Brooklyn with as much respect as possible within the confines of the absurd law.
His mother Sonia Aylmer this week told of her ‘huge relief’ at finally being able to speak freely about her ‘gorgeous boy’ and remember him in the way she has wanted for so long.
The ability now to name her son is ‘therapeutic’ for the grieving mother who struggles daily to understand why this happened to her boy.
Ms Aylmer’s world came crashing down around her when Brooklyn was killed by Patrick Dillon, her half-brother who she first met when she was 12.
‘I cannot believe it,’ she told the MoS this week. ‘It is something I will never understand.’
Dillon, 28, of Dalgaish Park, Moyross, Limerick, admitted stabbing Brooklyn 27 times and received the mandatory life sentence in February after pleading guilty to murder.
Two weeks before Dillon’s sentencing, Ms Aylmer learned Brooklyn could not be named and as a result his killer would ‘slip’ into prison unnoticed. Dillon enjoying relative anonymity has left her angry.
‘I had to leave court not being able to show my face, my face hidden like I committed a crime,’ admitted Ms Aylmer. ‘I had to do that because I lost my child and that was just a horrible experience.
‘But he [Dillon] was able to go to prison with nobody knowing what he had done. That has been very hard to take. My son’s case was the first case on the news without the child being mentioned and we were kind of all over the place wondering why; why was this happening?’
That’s when the fight to name her son began in earnest. At the time Ms Alymer told the MoS she wanted to ‘shout Brooklyn’s name from the rooftops’. She wanted to tell the world about her darling son who was killed in such a savage and senseless attack.
After Dillon was sentenced to life for Brooklyn’s murder, Ms Aylmer wrote to Justice Minister Helen McEntee telling her the impact not being able to talk about her son was having on her.
‘Please God we can talk about our children soon and no other parent will have to go through this,’ she said at the time.
This week Ms Aylmer’s wish was finally granted, but not without it taking its toll. She said: ‘I’m so tired. It has been so draining and I really feel like I should never have had to deal with this.’
The enactment of legislation last Friday, May 7, to allow Ms Aylmer, and other parents like her, to be able to name her child was a ‘relief’, but it wasn’t the end of the saga for her.
An additional order on identifying her son was placed by the judge, which had to be challenged over last weekend and was only lifted on Monday.
‘It has felt never-ending. It added more pressure after the trial and added more sadness too,’ she said. ‘It has been very challenging having this law; it has caused so much stress on top of everything else. Having it lifted gives me a voice to speak about Brooklyn, to be able to do that is therapeutic for me.’
On top of the strain of feeling gagged by the law, the October Appeal’s Court ruling and the additional court order by Justice Michael White also resulted in keeping the identity of the man who brutally ended Brooklyn’s life a secret.
Mr Justice Michael White described the murder as a ‘horrific breach of trust’ and an ‘unspeakably violent crime’ before sentencing the defendant to the mandatory term of life imprisonment last February.
Deputy State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster found two blunt force trauma wounds to the boy’s head that were consistent with a blow from a hammer. However, the cause of death was haemorrhage and shock due to multiple stab wounds. She identified 27 in total. Slash wounds to the forearms, she said, were likely defensive injuries.
This week Ms Aylmer expressed relief that her son’s killer – Patrick Dillon – can now be named.
She said: ‘I want his face shown and for everyone to know what he took from us. He’s an animal.
‘He was able to go into prison totally unknown; it’s like he slipped through. It is very unfair to us.’
Ms Aylmer is determined to dedicate her life to honouring the little boy who was the ‘light of her world’.
She added: ‘For me it [the law change] will mean I can speak about Brooklyn and keep his memory going and hopefully help other families too down the road.
‘Brooklyn was such a big character and such a lovely child; he had so much to offer to the world that I want to do that for him.
‘I am very spiritual and have really bad days, but I do believe he is here and telling me to get my act together.’
‘He had so much to offer the world’