Lichfield dad's killers condemned by devastated family
The family of a Lichfield father-of-five who died after he was attacked by a gang when he refused to hand over a bottle of wine have condemned his killers.
Factory worker Michael Eccles, 43, died in hospital on Monday the day after he was assaulted as he made his way home from shops in the Dimbles area of the city. He was knocked unconscious close to his front door in front of his teenage daughter Megan, who watched in horror. The bottle of wine was found smashed on the street nearby.
Magistrates granted police a further 28 hours to quiz two people aged 20 and 15 who were arrested over the attack on Mr Eccles. The pair can now be questioned until 2.30pm on Wednesday.
Mr Eccles’ family said that ‘Ecky’ was a “hard-working family man, who was kind, giving and loving”.
They said: “He was a loud and out-going character, who was great fun. He was able to find a joke and something positive in everything. Ecky lived for his family and protected them all the time.
“Yvonne and his five children will miss him more than words can say. He was the best dad and granddad anyone could have wished for and a great brother and loving son.
“It is an awful, awful tragedy that Ecky has been taken from us in this way. We find it really difficult to accept that he’s gone. The people responsible can simply have no idea what they have done to his family.
"Our final words have to be about Ecky himself. He was a larger-than-life character who has left a massive hole in all of our lives and we will miss him desperately.”
The statement was read out near the scene of the attack by the victim’s brother-in-law John Bayliss. Mr Eccles, a keen angler and Liverpool FC supporter, was production manager at Rom Ltd, a steel firm in Lichfield, where he had worked for more than 20 years.
Tributes piled up yesterday at the base of a tree only metres away from his semi-detached home in Weston Road. Some 30 bouquets were left, alongside a red Liverpool FC scarf and a framed picture of the team’s badge.
Meanwhile, the widow of father-of-three Garry Newlove, who was kicked to death after confronting a gang of vandals in 2007, called for tougher punishments for violent criminals following the death of Mr Eccles.
Helen Newlove, 46, said Mr Eccles’s death brought back memories of the day her husband was murdered in front of his family. Mr Newlove was set upon after remonstrating with a gang seen vandalising his wife’s car outside their home in Warrington, Cheshire. Three teenagers were jailed for life for the murder but yesterday his widow said many violent criminals were being let off with “a slap on the wrist”.
Ms Newlove said victims of violent street crimes must be given more rights to fight back. She said: “It does bring back memories and it does make me very angry that 18 months on we are still hearing of attacks every day. This Government says statistics are going down and violent crimes are going down. These statistics are not a PR stunt for us, they are actually our lives we are leading.”
