Helping children deal with a murder in their family L

ITTLE Leah is drawing a picture of her mummy and daddy, carefully colouring in her mum’s blonde hair. But daddy is holding a knife and the four-year-old searches through the crayons and says: “I need red for the blood”.

Meanwhile another youngster asks “How do you spell killed? Is it a curly ‘c’ or a kicking ‘k’?”

They are on the UK’s only residential weekend to help children bereaved by murder or manslaughter, run by the charity Winston’s Wish.

Every day a child in England and Wales loses a family member in this horrific way, and this powerful and moving film follows this group as they try to come to terms with their grief.

Among the children are sisters Chloe, Chelsea and Lottie, who were in bed asleep when their father burst into the house with a knife and murdered their mother. He stabbed her repeatedly before turning the knife on himself.

It’s utterly heartbreaking to watch as each child explains why they are there. “I’ve come here to remember my mummy,” says one, while four-year-old Leah is unable to say the words.

For Chloe, 13, Chelsea, 10, and Lottie, nine, they lost both parents, and are asked to write down what happened.

“One day my mum and dad split up and my dad was jealous so he came up with a plan,” reads Chelsea. “He stabbed her several times. She tried to run up the stairs but it was too late.”

Later on, a police officer takes questions, such as “What does justice mean?” and “Why did my dad kill my mum?”

“The worst has already happened,” says support worker Gemma Allen.

“Talking about it won’t make it worse. It will only help rebuild that child’s life.”