The mother of an aspiring Manchester rapper and X Factor contestant who was beaten to death during a street fight wept as she urged the killers to hand themselves in today.
Lynn Meecham, 52, spoke out after singer Dale Gordon, 20 – who supported dubstep chart sensation Katy B under his stage name ‘Deezy’ – was set upon and left for dead by two men in Gorton, Manchester.
The young rap and soul artist suffered fatal head injuries and died a few hours later in the city’s Royal Infirmary.
Gordon had passed three audition stages of the ITV1 talent show last year but fell just short of making a coveted TV appearance.
He also bagged a prized support slot with Katy B at London’s Somerset House in 2012 after impressing talent scouts during nationwide open auditions – opening for the star whose debut album On a Mission reached number 2 in the UK albums chart.
Miss Meecham said: “He would have been up there in lights. He was a born star. We have not been coping at all. I feel empty. It doesn’t feel real. It’s untrue. I’m beside myself with grief.
“He used to ring me every day. We were unbelievably close. Sometimes at 7am he would be up and ready with his music on and singing.
“He was about six or seven when he started singing. He was always humming. He hummed from when he was a baby until he was old enough to start singing.
”Now life is so empty it’s just unreal. The people involved have got to come forward. We are so lost without Dale. He is all around the house, wherever I go. His clothes are there – all his mad style. It’s just horrendous. The kids are all crying and even the priest, it’s just not real. He should be here.”
Gordon, who studied fashion design at Stockport College, had previously been involved in petty crime but used music to make the most of his life and had just helped raise £4,000 to build a music recording studio to help other youngsters.
He penned a song titled ‘Crime Don’t Pay’ which he performed in a church with his younger brother Alex to raise money for the studio.
He had been planning to record further songs in the studio in the hope of securing a record deal after garnering some label interest. He last spoke to his mother an hour before the fight but gave no indication he was facing any sort of threat.
Police were called to Nethurbury Close in Gorton just after 10.15pm on Saturday November 15 to reports of men fighting. They found Dale on the floor with serious head injuries.
He was pronounced dead in the early hours of Sunday morning. Inquiries have found he had travelled to the street on a moped he had recently bought which he wanted to ‘show off’ – but it is not known if or why he had arranged to meet the two men.
A 31-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of murder has been bailed until January.
Gordon’s brother Alex, 17, said:“I know he knows the person who did it. He wouldn’t have taken his helmet off if he didn’t know them. He wouldn’t sit there and take his helmet off and get off his moped. He obviously felt comfortable. He was comfortable enough to be chatting for five minutes.
“Somebody is holding back and somebody knows something. Whether the people who have done it and they might be saying, ‘we have just punched this guy’, not knowing what they have done, but somebody knows.
“They need to come forward and help us. As soon as that happens we will be at ease and we will be able to bury our brother and son happier than knowing that person is still out there.
“Everyone who met Dale knew music was what he would do for the rest of his life. He wasn’t taught any instruments but he could pick it up.
“He would play keyboards, piano, guitar – he would try anything and after half an hour he would have it mastered. It all came naturally to him. It was all about fashion and music to him.
“He helped raise £4,000 to open a community project where they built a studio and it’s just been put up. I used to sing with him when I was younger. I stopped because I was never as good as him.”
His 21-year-old sister Rebekah added: “His life was just music. That’s all he ever wanted to do. Everything he did, every move he made was all to do with music. He used to sing everywhere he went.
“It means a lot to see so many messages of support from those within music. I didn’t realise so many people knew of him.”
Superintendent Marcus Nolan of Greater Manchester Police said: “No-one deserves what happened to Dale. His family have lost a loved one and it is heart-breaking to see the grief they are currently under.
“Dale was subjected to a sustained and brutal attack and died from severe head injuries. As a result it is inevitable a lot of noise and screaming and shouting will have been heard.
“That’s why I know there are people who have more information to give. It was a brutal attack and it is heart-breaking and so sad for the family to know what their child had to sustain prior to losing his life.”
Story via Cavendish Press.
Main image courtesy of Google Maps and Facebook, with thanks.
