Murder victim Simon Everitt’s childhood was overshadowed by the break-up of his family – something which would have a lasting effect. Rachel Wearmouth reports.

HE was fouryears- old when his parents drifted apart and he and his baby brother went to live with their grandmother.

Ruth Atkinson, now 74, recalls how, despite the difficult circumstances, Simon was initially a chirpy, cheerful, character.

“I could always hear him whistling or singing when he was coming home from school,” said Mrs Atkinson, who lived in the village of Escomb, near Bishop Auckland.

Simon’s father, Vince, had left the North-East for Great Yarmouth to pursue his dream career as a Buddy Holly impersonator, while his mother, Teresa Fisher, moved to Somerset.

Though Simon kept in touch with his parents and maintained a close bond with his father, he began to feel more and more that he had been abandoned.

“He was mixed up, poor little lad,” said Mrs Atkinson, who now lives in Shildon. “He was passed from pillar to post and I think everything was just too much for him.

“He was a loveable kid, but he had good points and bad points. He was very Jekylland- Hyde.”

Simon was described as erratic by former teachers at Escomb Primary School and Bishop Barrington School, in Bishop Auckland.

He often got into fights and was far from a model pupil, but remained popular with his peers, who he often helped out.

“Simon could take a bike to bits, even it didn’t go back together the right way,” said Mrs Atkinson.

“The kids used to come by and ask him to mend their puncture and he would use two spoons to take the tyre off.

“He would sit with something in the backyard all day with a sandwich in his lap. He wouldn’t let it beat him.”

But as Simon grew into a young man, he became increasingly withdrawn and angry and began lashing out at those closest to him.

In the end, he was asked to leave after the then 14-yearold hit his grandmother with a boot. The police were called after she was taken to hospital and Simon went to live in Great Yarmouth with his father.

“I don’t even know how it started. He just wasn’t himself. His behaviour changed to the point where we couldn’t manage,” said his aunt, Allison Sullivan, 35, of Witton Park.

Mrs Atkinson said: “We don’t know what was in his head. We tried, but we couldn’t find out.

“He was looking for help, but not what we were giving.

He couldn’t explain what he wanted really and he liked to be on his own quite a lot.

There was a barrier there.”

Former headteacher Keith Taylor, of Escomb Primary School, believes Simon’s vulnerable and trusting side may have led him to befriend the trio that would eventually murder him in the most brutal of circumstances.

Mr Taylor recalled how Simon had emailed him about a month before he died asking for help with a life history assignment he had been given by tutors at Yarmouth College.

“He seemed in good spirits and very optimistic about his future. What happened was very sad.

“He had a very caring and trusting side to his nature.

Obviously, that trust has taken him somewhere he shouldn’t have been.”

Mrs Sullivan said the family have been rocked to the core since Simon’s charred remains were found in a Norfolk swamp.

“When we were told what happened, I had nightmares and even now it is very hard for us,” she said.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we have been through, especially the circumstances in which he died.”

Mrs Atkinson has not yet come to terms with what happened to the boy she nurtured and is wracked with guilt that she was not there for him.

She said his brother, Daniel, now 15, who still lives with her in Shildon, is devastated.

She said: “Although Simon is not here, I still class him as here everywhere we go.

“He wanted to come back, but it could not be an option for us. He was so unpredictable.

“Now I wish I had never ever let him go down there.”