Man, 21, told mum he 'didn't want to go out' hours before he was stabbed to death in nightclub
22.10.2023 - 08:37
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A devastated mother has spoken of her heartbreaking final conversation with her son just hours before he was stabbed to death in a nightclub.
Sam Cook was celebrating his 21st birthday with a night out in Liverpool city centre when the tragic incident happened on October 21, 2017. Killer Carl Madigan was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in June 2018 after being found guilty of Sam's murder.
Seven years on from her son's death, Sam's mum Gill Radcliffe told the Liverpool Echo how the anniversaries of her son's death 'don't get any easier'. She said: "I feel worse this year. In the years after I was still in shock but the shock subsides and reality hits. The brain tries to trick you into thinking it was just a mistake to try and protect you from the trauma.
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"But now I just go over everything in my head, replaying every detail. The horrible weather at the moment was the same as it was on his birthday six years ago. I remember the wind howling. Sam said 'I don't really want to go out tonight mum,' and I said 'neither do I Sam, but it's your 21st so we're going out.
"I think to myself that if we stayed in this wouldn't have happened. Memories of Sam will always be strongest in October. I have to go to work and try and get on with my life when some days all I want to do is go and hibernate in a room. You just have to keep going, hoping to get through the day the best you can."
Gill described Sam, her only child, as a "lovely young man". He was very family-orientated and had two brothers on his dad's side. He was also