Devastated family of Adam Ellison bravely recall the night he was murdered

Former St Helens College student Adam, 29, was stabbed in the neck with an unknown weapon as he walked home in Prescot on Saturday, November 4, 2017.

Two men on a green Kawasaki narrowly missed hitting Adam and his cousins, who had been walking home after leaving The Deanes House pub, at the junction of Market Place and Eccleston Street, Prescot.

The group shouted at the motorcycle which had driven about 50 yards down the road. Adam went over and spoke to the passenger. But the passenger lashed out and inflicted a fatal stab wound before fleeing with the rider.

Adam died that morning of his injuries.

Adam with friends and family the night he was killed

Today marks two years since that date, and in a courageous interview with the Star, his mum Joyce and sisters Nicola Moore and Joanne Evans recalled that night.

They have also shared the final pictures ever taken of Adam on that night with his friends.

Adam's mum Joyce, 68, said: "I spoke to him on the phone and he said 'mum I’m going out tonight, what I want to do mum if it’s alright with you is leave my bag of clothes because I’ll go to work from yours tomorrow'. I said ok fine.

"He always said I love you mum, so the last thing I heard him say was I love you mum."

Then hours later their world came apart with the phone call to say Adam had been stabbed.

Joyce said: "We’d gone to bed and we got this phone call to get up to Market Place as fast as we can because Adam’s been hurt.

“So we got up there and it was all cordoned off with blue and white tape because it was a crime scene.

"We could see was Adam on the floor with police and paramedics working on him.

"I can still see that blue paper they were using to stem the blood.

"They took him to hospital and we kept asking ‘How is Adam?’ and they kept saying they were working on him and I thought this is bad, this is bad.

"Then this doctor came through and said they couldn’t do anything and then we just shot there as fast as we could into the resus room."

What the family describe next is horrific, but they have chosen to share this in the hope that others may come forward with information.

Joyce said: "People were stood round, Adam had these tubes either sound of him and clamps and there was blood everywhere and he was wired to a monitor and they were looking for any spark of heartbeat.

"But there was nothing.

"They called it and I just said ‘please don’t call it, he’s a strong lad, please don’t’."

Nicola, 48 said: "It’s not like you see on the TV, it’s absolutely the worse thing you have ever seen in your life.

"As soon as Joanne walked in she touched his leg and said ‘He’s dead, he’s gone’.

"He had a little tear in his eye, and mum wiped it away and we were shouting at him 'don’t go, stay'.

"I even shouted, ‘I’ll swap, take me’ but his eyes had gone, they were piercing blue, but on that bed they were grey.

"Then they called it and mum collapsed.

"Dad had been outside the room and shouted 'don’t leave us son'.

“And it was a crime scene. So we couldn’t even hug him or touch him, all we could do was touch his head and were stroking his hair.

Joanne, 44, added: "We were talking to Adam who was a chatty person, but there was nobody there to talk back, it is the worst nightmare of your life

"I watched my brother on that bed, knowing someone did that to him and touched him and he was freezing cold.

"We’ve all got his fingerprints on necklaces and rings and that’s all we’ve got.

"My dad said ‘I’ve watched him be born and I’ve watched him die and it’s wrong'."

The family are hoping that anyone with information on Adam's murder will come forward.

Joanne added: "I don’t want to appeal to that man whose done this to come forward, because he doesn’t care.

"It’s two years. He obviously has no guilt, his parents are probably the same.

"But for people who might know a little bit of information who are frightened then I appeal to them to come forward and give little pieces of the jigsaw.

"This is happening that often that it’s like an epidemic this knife crime.

"If it was one of their family, they would call the police straight away, the one’s they won’t give information to, they’d call them and want justice and that’s what we want. Justice.”

A motorbike like this was used in the murder

Two 17-year-old males and a 22-year-old man, all from Huyton, were arrested in September 2019 in connection with Adam’s murder.

All have been released under investigation as enquiries continue.

Anyone with information can call police on 101 or leave information anonymously with Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org