Family pay tribute to 27-year-old Keagan Crimes following verdict

The family of Keagan Crimes have paid tribute to him following the verdict today (Wednesday 19th January).

Mum's tribute

On October 12th 2020 our lives were shattered.  Our gorgeous, fun loving boy was viscously and violently, taken away from us.  We never fully understood the word ‘devastated’ until that day this is not an exaggeration we are truly devastated.  

Keagan was a smashing lad, was liked by all of his friends, the life and soul of any gathering. He could be boisterous at times but also had a sensitive side and would help anyone out.  To us, he was our lad, our Keag, annoying at times but we knew he loved us immensely and we him.  He was our protector and we were his.

The thought of our lad, our Keagan, no longer being here, pains us every single day.  We continue with our lives but we feel a void, Keagan is missing.  He will always be missing. Trying to live without him is hard.  

The sense of grief can be over whelming, one minute making a brew, the next you feel the tears on your cheeks as you’re stirring the spoon.  It’s made so much worse knowing he was taken away from us so cruelly and needlessly as Keag was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Naturally in this world, children should bury their parents not the other way around I will never ever forget Keagan as he was a massive part of my life and I feel he touched so many lives in a positive way.  My girls have lost their brother and I have lost my son and this is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

We would like to pass on our thanks to the jury in the case for their due diligence.

Sister's tribute

Nothing we do will be able to change the events of that night. The life changing events for so many but most of all for my little brother. 

Keagan was only 27 years old, with his whole life ahead of him. He was due to start a new job on the Monday morning and was really looking forward to it, all taken away in a mere 15 seconds because someone decided they would take a knife out. A knife they used to kill him. 

The defendant knew what he did from day 1, the evidence backs that up, but he still decided to put us through a trial by pleading not guilty. Because of his vicious and violent actions we have to live without a large part of our family, our little brother, our children’s uncle, my mums youngest child and only son. 

Our memories are forever tarnished as it’s so painful to think about Keagan. Our future tarnished because we have to go on without him. 

We will never understand why the defendant did what he did that night and no amount of apologies will ever be enough, because I don’t believe he is sorry for what he did. I believe he is only sorry that he got caught. 

This isn’t a case of you live by the sword you die by the sword, as some people may think, going on what they read. The people who know Keagan know that this isn’t the case. Keagan knew a lot of people and a lot of people knew him. That weekend he was with friends of friends to party and have a good time, he never deserved this, and he never did anything to justify being killed. 

Pictured - Keagan Crimes