proof that binge drinking kills

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'My son's death is proof that drinking kills'

Tuesday 12 February 2008

This harrowing image of Dale Whitfield’s last few hours alive is forever etched on mum Sharon Orr’s memory.

Fitness fanatic Dale, 18, was on a life-support machine after a drink-fuelled attack left him with massive head injuries.

All heartbroken Sharon could do was tenderly cradle her only son in her arms as he died – another victim of Britain’s teen binge-drinking culture.

Booze and violence go hand in hand

Now Sharon, 44 – who still sleeps with Dale’s bloodstained T-shirt folded under her pillow more than two years after he died – is backing Closer’s campaign to stamp out teen binge boozing.

“My son died because he was drunk and his attacker was drunk. Too much booze and violence go hand in hand,” she weeps. “On another night, both Dale and the boy who killed him may have gone home and woken up with a hangover. Instead, both of their lives were ruined.”

Since Dale’s death in July 2005, Sharon has patrolled the centre of her hometown of Warrington – close to where drunken teen thugs kicked dad-of-three Garry Newlove, 47, to death outside his home last year – every Saturday night. She hands out shocking photos of her son fighting for life to young drinkers.

“If I can stop one person getting legless and inflicting on someone else what my son experienced, then Dale’s death has not been in vain,” says Sharon. “Dale was the centre of my world – handsome, bright, funny and kind.”

Disbelief

On the night of the attack, sports student Dale had popped into the restaurant where Sharon worked as a manager to buy her a glass of wine, telling her, “I love you,” before leaving for a night out. “Dale went out clubbing with a friend,” says Sharon.

Dale went on to have several drinks, but as the pair left Mr Smiths nightclub at around 3.30am, an argument broke out between his friend and another man, chef Dean Talbot-Bennett, over a girl.

Dale tried to reason with Talbot-Bennett, then 19, but Talbot-Bennett pushed him and Dale fell to his knees. As he tried to get back on his feet, Talbot-Bennett punched him in the face. The blow was severe enough to break Dale’s nose and – because he was so drunk – he lost his balance and was knocked backwards, cracking his head on the pavement. Paramedics rushed Dale to Warrington General Hospital, but he had suffered a catastrophic head injury.

“I got a call at 4am and was told Dale was in hospital. My husband Nigel drove me straight there,” says Sharon, who breaks down as she recalls the heartbreaking sight of Dale’s bloodied and swollen body. “He was hooked up to drips and a ventilator. I couldn’t believe this was my boy. I’d have done anything to swap places. The nurses told me he was desperately ill. I couldn’t believe it – just a few hours earlier, we’d been laughing and joking.”

In a desperate attempt to reassure Dale, she sang his favourite childhood lullaby. “I stroked his hair, listened to his heart beating and washed him until doctors finally told me there was nothing they could do to save him,” says Sharon.

Heartbroken

Two days after the attack, Sharon made the agonising decision to turn off her son’s life-support machine. “My heart broke as he slipped away,” she says. ‘You never imagine watching your child die. He was too young, too fit. I couldn’t believe his future had been snatched away for a stupid night out.”

To add to Sharon’s agony, his attacker was jailed for just 21 months in December 2005, after admitting manslaughter – but was released early, on licence, after serving half that time.

Sharon, who still works as a restaurant manager, is worried by the attitude today’s teens have to drinking. “I have a lot of staff aged around 16 and they are lovely kids. But they go out and get plastered, often tempted by cheap booze, and turn into different people when they’re drunk,” she says.

“They have no thought for what can happen to them when they’re in that state.” And she adds: “My only child is dead and my life’s been destroyed. Binge drinking is going on in pubs, bars and on the streets – I just pray it will stop soon.”

Words: Suzanne Finney

Click here to find out more about Closer's campaign against teenage binge drinking