Lee Rigby's sister: I wish I hadn't talked him out of going to Afghanistan

Lee Rigby's sister Sara could not explain to her daughter that her uncle was murdered. Credit: ITV News

Lee Rigby's sister Sara McClure has told ITV News presenter Mary Nightingale that she spoke to her soldier brother shortly before he was murdered and talked him out of going back to Afghanistan.

"Now I wish I hadn't," she said.

She described how she was unable to tell her daughter of the soldier's death for three months.

"I told her that he'd stopped working," she explained.

"Where does he live now?" Sara asked her daughter.

"In the sky," was her reply.

"She asked me the other day when she would stop working, because Lee did.

"I told her that normally people don't stop working until they're quite old but some people are really special and they have to go that little bit sooner."

A family photograph shows Lee and Sara Rigby together as young children.

"To everybody else he was the most selfless person. He would do anything for anybody. He was strong.

"But he wasn't really. He rang me not long ago. He was quite upset and he wanted to go back to Afghanistan.

"I talked him out of it. And now I wish I hadn't."

Lee Rigby's parents said he has become a figurehead for the country Credit: ITV News

Lee's mother Lyn and stepfather Ian said they were keeping strong "for the little ones" in the family.

"We thought he would be safe. You rest up easy when they're not in the warzone, when they're back home, doing the job that he loved doing."

Describing her loss, Lyn said: "I've never felt pain like I do now."

Family: Lee Rigby 'touched a lot of people's hearts'