When Vi and Ray Donovan’s son died after being beaten by a gang of teenagers, the couple never imagined that, one day, they would meet his killers. But that’s what happened through the extraordinary process known as restorative justice – where those harmed by crime can meet the criminals responsible.
‘Just before meeting the first boy convicted of Chris’ murder, I turned to Vi, asking, “Are we really going to sit down with somebody who killed our son?”’ Ray, now 71, recalls. His wife Vi, 68, remembers it vividly too. ‘Meeting those boys was hard, but we had to do it if we were to lay down the burden of grief and anger that was poisoning our existence,’ she says.
The couple from Sutton, Surrey, have three sons and a…
