WHY WAS NICKY'S MURDERER FREED TO KILL AGAIN?

Melanie Huxley, 53, begged for her brother's killer to be kept inside

- RACHEL TOMPKINS

Seeing my little brother's face squashed up against the glass, I burst out laughing. It was October 2000 and I'd popped to see my mum, Gaynor, then 48, after dropping my eldest daughter, then four, at nursery. But I arrived to find Nicky, then 27, peering out of the living room window. 'Mum's gone into town and locked me in!' he said. Without realising, she'd locked the door behind her, leaving Nicky without a key to get out. 'I haven't got a key either,' I laughed, meaning he was stuck indoors. We had a good giggle as he leaned in to kiss me through the glass. 'Catch you later, sis,' he said. I walked home smiling to myself, blissfully unaware that after that moment, I'd never see my little brother again.

Mum had raised me and Nicky singlehandedly, along with our brother Ryan, then 25, and sister Gemma, 15. After marrying my husband Keith in 1995, I'd moved out and we'd started a family of our own, having three kids, but my siblings still lived at home and I only lived a five-minute walk away, so I often stopped by.

That day, I got on with my chores and figured I'd catch up with them later in the week. But at 4am I woke to the sound of my phone ringing. 'There's a fire,' Mum said, explaining the house four doors down was ablaze. It belonged to Nicky's friend, Glen, then 35. 'I think Nicky's in there,' Mum cried. Leaping out of bed, I woke Keith and the children and we raced to Mum's house. When we arrived the fire had been put out but there were fire engines and police cars everywhere.

'Where's Nicky?' I asked Mum. 'I don't know,' she sobbed, hysterical. 'He went to see Glen and didn't come home.'