'Meeting my twin's killer helped me see him as human'

A man whose twin brother was murdered nearly 20 years ago says meeting one of the men responsible helped him to see him as a human rather than a monster.

Nick Dawson said he was still "living his own life sentence" after his brother Simon was killed in Bromborough near Birkenhead shortly after his 30th birthday in 1998.

But after meeting one of the killers in 2014, he said he realised he was visiting a "very different" person to the teenager who murdered his brother.

Nick, now 56, from Weybridge, told BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex: "At his parole hearing I saw him crying as he heard my mother's victim statement – we looked each other in the eyes and it felt unfinished."

He added: "In that moment it felt like a cloak was taken away and he was a human to me.

"The anger was still there but it was a different type of anger. The meeting helped both sides – I got the answers I wanted and he wanted to say sorry."

Nick and Simon grew up in Whitehaven in Cumbria, with the pair spending lots of time in the countryside and sharing a love of football and Carlisle United.

In August 1998 Simon had been on a night out with friends in Birkenhead when he left a nightclub alone and approached two teenagers for help.

After walking to a nearby park in Bromborough, Simon was robbed, beaten and thrown into a nearby pond, where he drowned.

Nick, having driven back to Cumbria from Surrey after being told of his brother's murder, was later asked by police officers to help catch the killers.

During the investigation, he wore his brother's clothing to create a reconstruction of the walk from the nightclub for Crimewatch – something he says he sometimes feels he has trauma from years on.

Following a trial, both of Simon's attackers were convicted of murder.

About 16 years after Simon's death, Nick and his family were invited to the probation hearing of one of the killers, Craig, who was 16 at the time of the attack.

After this hearing, Nick was invited to take part in a restorative justice meeting with Craig – described by the Restorative Justice Council as "enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward".

Nick said: "It was really hard for him to look at me. He was looking at a living version of the person he had taken away."

Nick has since written a book, called Face to Face: Finding Justice for My Murdered Twin Brother, which he described as a "tribute" to his sibling.

He said: "We had such fond memories supporting Carlisle, and he put a smile on people's faces."

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