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'Laughing yobs kicked my dad to death'

When Carly Curry heard her dad Mark Witherall had been beaten up in a burglary, nothing could have prepared her for what she would face at his hospital bedside.

Mark, who’d been repeatedly kicked and stamped on by yobs high on drink and drugs, looked nothing like her loving father. In fact, the 47 year old barely looked human after being set upon outside his home in Whitstable on 27 January 2007.

On 18 April this year, Curtis Delima, 19, Mark Elliott, 21, and 16-year-old Gerry Cusden were found guilty of Mark’s murder and jailed for a total of 59 years. Now, in an exclusive interview with Closer, Carly, 31, reveals the full horror of her nightmare, which began when her aunt, Lorraine Rigden, called to say her
dad was in hospital.

'I knew he wouldn't pull through'

Looking pale, Carly, from Herne Bay, Kent, recalls: “When I first saw him, I was so horrified I ran back out of the room. If I hadn’t been told he was my dad I wouldn’t have recognised him. I knew he’d never wake up. One side of his head was twice its normal size, and his face was distorted where his jaw was dislocated.”

After six weeks on life support, Mark – who had suffered massive internal bleeding – died.

“It was heartbreaking, but by then I’d accepted he would never pull through,” says Carly.

Grieving Carly was offered some comfort when, less than a week later, she heard arrests had been made in connection with his murder. But she was shocked when it emerged the suspected ringleader in the attack was Curtis Delima, the son of her father’s best friend, Perry.

She says: “Dad had known Curtis since he was four years old. I’d heard he’d been in trouble before, but I had no idea he was capable of something like this.”

The extent of Mark’s suffering was revealed when a CCTV audio recording of the murder was played during his killers’ nine-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court earlier this year. The gang smirked in the dock and Carly was left sobbing as she listened to the vicious attack.

“I heard my dad’s rasping breath as his lungs filled with blood,” recalls Carly. “Hearing the last moments of his life is something I’ll live with forever. His attackers were like a pack of wild animals, jeering as they kicked and punched him.”

The savagery stopped only after Mark had lost five pints of blood and the gang was convinced he was dead. A passer-by later discovered Mark on the pavement and called for help, while his attackers strolled to a takeaway to buy kebabs with the cash they’d stolen from their victim’s wallet.

Carly says: “My dad was a kind man who’d do anything for anyone, yet they killed him without a second thought.”

They laughed while the recording was played in court

Mark had spent that evening in his local pub before going home and falling asleep on the sofa beside his landlady Sally George’s dog. Sally, 47, had spent the night at a party at a friend’s house, which was also attended by Delima, Cusden and Elliott.

The killers – who had been drinking vodka and alcopops all day, as well as smoking cannabis – stole Sally’s keys and walked to her home, intent on burgling it.

When they saw Mark, they conspired to lure him outside by breaking in and taking the dog. They could be heard discussing killing the dog on the CCTV recording.

Carly says: “Dad woke after hearing the dog yelp, so he went to find him.”

When Mark stepped outside just before midnight, the gang pounced. They beat him with a spirit level and stamped on him before robbing the house. The court heard that another passer-by had stumbled across Mark’s battered body and offered to get an ambulance, but Delima told them Mark was drunk. He then continued ransacking the house, stealing a DVD player and a games console.


Delima and Elliott – who both had a string of previous convictions for violence and theft – sickened the jury by laughing while the CCTV recording was played.

Carly says Delima’s father, Perry, looked “dreadful” when he turned up in court and heard the evidence against his son. She says: “How must it feel for your own son to murder your best friend in cold blood?

Carly was joined at the sentencing by Helen Newlove, whose husband Garry was kicked to death by yobs outside his family home in Warrington, Cheshire, last August. Carly is now backing Helen’s challenge to MPs to name and shame troublemakers and help rid streets of the growing yob culture. She says: “Helen’s determined to take a stand and get these people off our streets – I’m with her all the way.”

And Carly is determined her children will never forget their granddad. She says: “I told them he was asleep now. After all, how do you explain to your kids their granddad was beaten to death for a DVD player?” 
By Emma Shankland