‘Trial left us devastated and having to live that loss every day as though it was yesterday...’
THE family of a man stabbed to death just yards from his home in Coventry have set up a foundation in his name.
It took just seconds and one flash of a blade for Daniel Kennell to be murdered by somebody he considered a friend last summer.
Daniel’s death in July 2018 “robbed” his family of a beloved son, brother and uncle, and they have now said that if they can “create a positive from this situation then we owe it to Dan to do that”.
They hope to concentrate all of their grief and experiences of the past eight months and inject it into the Daniel Kennell Foundation to help educate others on knife crime and take steps to make Coventry a safer place.
Among the hopes for the charity is to get more knife amnesty bins for the city, to work with young offenders and get involved in programs in schools.
Daniel, 27, died after being stabbed in St Austell Road, Wyklen, by Ryan Preston on July 8 last year.
The pair - who had known each other since primary school - had rowed in a nearby park before going their separate ways, only to come face-to-face again just yards from the Kennell family home.
It was then that Preston produced a knife and inflicted a single, yet fatal, blow on Daniel.
Preston, also 27, was found guilty of murder following a trial at Warwick Crown Court and jailed for 22 years.
Speaking to the Telegraph about her hopes for the foundation set up in her son’s name, Daniel’s mum Mandy said: “As a family we have struggled greatly being forced to accept our Dan is never going to be with us in the true way he should rightfully be. The trial left us devastated and having to live that loss every day as though it was yesterday. For three weeks we had to live and sit through the fabricated lies that his murderer portrayed my son to be. In this irreversible situation, regardless of the pain, heartache, sadness, misery and loss we have to suffer, the one most crucial and unprecedented fact is Daniel’s right has been taken away from him.