The mother, partner, and sisters of a man killed in a stabbing have told a court of their grief and sense of loss.
Father-of-two Mason Jones, 30, died in hospital three hours after being stabbed by John Robinson on March 1 this year.
The pair had never previously met and collided fatally following an argument between Mr Jones and Robinson’s on/off girlfriend Annabel Ramsay.
Matters came to a head in a narrow alleyway on Iron Row, off Main Street in Burley-in-Wharfedale.
Below her flat Mr Jones and Miss Ramsay were shouting at one another.
Mr Jones grabbed Miss Ramsay by the throat.
Robinson, who was clutching a knife, claimed he went to protect her.
Seconds later Mr Jones collapsed in the street with a severe wound to his abdomen.
Robinson had stabbed him to a depth of 16cm with a chef’s knife.
Robinson is now beginning a 17-year prison sentence after being convicted of manslaughter.
In an emotional and deeply moving statement read to Bradford Crown Court, Mr Jones’s mother Ginny Witham asked why her “cheeky” son’s life was “stopped suddenly and horrendously”.
She said: “I’m empty. Broken. Lost.”
She described his death as “a pain I cannot put into words” and added: “I find myself thinking, ‘Why could someone not simply walk away from a fight?’
“We all have disagreements. Why did it have to become something so horrific? Why did it have to end with my son losing his life?
“Those questions go around in my head constantly, but my boy is gone, taken from me, while another is alive to live his life.
“Whatever disagreement or argument may have happened, Mason should have been able to walk away and come home. Instead, I am having to learn how to live without him.
“The reality of losing Mason still does not feel real to me. It still feels like a movie I am looking in on.”
Mr Jones’s partner Annie said she was “grieving and struggling” and described his loss as “a painful void”.
She said she and others would have to carry his loss for the rest of their lives.
Sisters Laura and Crystal said their brother “was loved by his family and will continue to be loved.”
They said he was not defined by the circumstances of his death.
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