The sister of a man who was beaten to death with a dumbbell 20 years ago has made a passionate plea for help as the brutal murder remains unsolved. Kevin Lavelle, 29, from Dingle, was attacked at the Cricketers pub in Banbury, Oxfordshire, following a row with a group of Welsh railway workers shortly after midnight on June 25, 2004. The crane operator had been staying at the pub while working on a
Job nearby, while the group of rail workers from the Rhondda area were regular guests, visiting every summer - Ceri Noble, of Pontygwaith, stood trial for murder at Oxford Crown Court in 2006 - but the case collapsed when members of the group would not reveal who had struck the fatal blows. DNA evidence found on the bar came from three men - but it could not be proved which one had used it to kill Kevin. In March 2009 an inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing. But Kevin's murder remains officially unsolved, causing misery for his family, who have accused potential witnesses of “covering up” the crime. They unsuccessfully launched a civil damages claim against Ceri Noble and fellow railway contract workers, Philip Lawless and Leslie Gibbs, but it was dismissed by a judge in 2010 and again at appeal in 2011. Tragically, Kevin’s mother Joan Lavelle died aged 76 in December 2021 from complications resulting from a heart attack she'd suffered on the 17th anniversary of Kevin’s death, having never seen justice done. Appealing for fresh leads two decades on, Kevin's sister Lesley, 53, told WalesOnline: “Mum died on December 14, 2021 and then dad had a massive stroke two weeks later. "Mum had been in hospital for three months after the heart attack on Kevin’s anniversary. Every day to mark Kevin we spend time together and have dinner in memory of him. I noticed she hadn’t eaten her dinner but she never said anything was wrong. Then she had a massive heart attack - a quadruple bypass. She came out of hospital and had a hospital bed fitted in the house in the October but she never got right and died not long afterwards. I say she died of a broken heart. She never got over it. None of us have. How could you? “All year round it’s in my head, but from March onwards I really feel it filling my mind again. It’s ruined my life. I’ve got grown up children of my own now but it’s really affected my relationship with them because I have pushed them away a little bit to protect myself I suppose. You find yourself doing things like that when you lose someone so close to you I think. “I’ve never felt anything like the pain when my brother was taken from me. I still remember it vividly. My aunt told me early the next morning after the
police had told my mum and dad. I can’t explain the devastation. It still feels like I’m grieving now, but also like we’ve never really grieved because we’ve been fighting for the truth for 20 years." Lesley, who still lives in Dingle, has vowed to visit the areas of all of the people she knew to be in the pub at the time and post flyers through people’s doors. She also plans to contact Thames Valley Police in the hope the force which oversaw the case will begin its own campaign to try to get the family justice. She said: “I’m hoping this time someone tells me something. People’s allegiances change in these tight-knit communities and maybe people aren’t so friendly anymore. I don’t believe anyone is taking that information to the grave. Plenty of people know what really happened to my brother down there and I’ve not given up. “Even now people here want to speak about Kevin and what happened. Sometimes I don’t want to speak about it but often people bring it up and I often find myself consoling them. That’s how much Kevin meant to people. He was a gentle giant. I’d never have thought in a million years we’d get a call he’d died like that. I still wake up and think: ‘Was it all a dream?’ Then you remember it wasn’t and you go through it every day again and again. It never ends. I have to keep going. Because my dad’s so ill I feel like I’m the only one who can fight for justice now. “I’ve always said I could probably find it in my heart to forgive them if they come forward and said they didn’t mean for it to go that far. But they’re just laughing at us. They’ve laughed at us for 20 years.”