Good Friday - we remember the stabbed, the murdered, the executed + all crime victims, especially those struggling to recover

On Good Friday, it is sobering to have been contacted by the mum of another innocent victim killed in a knife attack. As ever, I feel great sadness at it all.

Westley Odger was just 27 when he was stabbed. He was a son, a brother (to a sister and another brother). In eternity + now - he still is. In his own words, from his blog, this is what happened:

"At around 3pm on the 12th September, 2005, I went to the Nationwide cash machine at the Hunwicke Shops on the Greenstead Estate, Colchester, Essex, and during the time that I was attempting to withdraw cash, was fatally assaulted. My life swiftly taken by 'one stab wound' in the neck."

You can read more here - Westley's blog - and here, Westley and his family's leading 'Knife crime website'. These are resources for those seeking to join the knife crime campaign - it is filled with comfort, help, advice, tributes to victims - in fact, the list is endless. Those who died deserve nothing less - those left behind need this and will find it helpful, I'm sure.

Google has many links to information about Westley and his knife crime campaigning - just click here.

His mum, Ann, just wrote to me. She said: "I'm so glad that you've survived this incident [McDonalds attack in 2005]. It is appalling the number of incidents that are happening around the country on a daily basis.

"I campaign for tougher sentencing following Westley's unprovoked knife attack which took his life on the 12th September, 2005."

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Christianity has some faults and flaws - and talk of religion sometimes doesn't help those affected. But, if nothing else, on Good Friday and this Easter season, just start to consider the following about Christianity and knife attacks:

2000 years ago an innocent man had a spear thrust into his side by a soldier... to make sure he was dead. His death - the man we call Jesus - seemed pointless. It decimated and devastated his friends for days, weeks, months, even years. Many Christians still get sad now.

But, in fact, after three days the point started to become very clear - he rose from the dead, and Christianity was never the same. Make no mistake, even now he is working with those suffering this knife curse afflicting our land - even though, sometimes, it doesn't feel like it.

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Please remember Jacky Marshall + her family at this time. She died from a stabbing in McDonalds in Chichester on April 16, 2005. May eternal light shine upon her, and may her family continue to be helped + comforted. I started this blog to help - hopefully it continues to do so. God bless...