Family of Mansfield student Danny Castledine say his stabbing in Amsterdam ruined countless lives

• Video report by Katie Oscroft

The distraught family of a 22-year-old student who was stabbed to death whilst travelling in Amsterdam say they want to tackle knife crime in his memory.

Danny Castledine, from Mansfield, was on his way to a music festival in Belgium in June 2022 when he was stabbed 44 times in a random attack and left dying in the street.

His attacker was later jailed for 14 years for manslaughter in a Dutch court.

His mother Alison, a headteacher, said the devastating news had put the lives of their family on hold.

She told ITV News: "It's not just Danny thats gone it feels like our whole lives have gone as well.

"The things we enjoyed the most, birthdays, Christmas, family events, we just tried to avoid them because they have turned into the worst times.

"Your life is just ruined and you just can't prepare for that. The longer it goes on the harder it gets because you miss him so much.

"Danny was the glue that held our family together, he was always doing things, planning things."

Danny's sister Chloe, 22, said she felt the same now as she did when her brother died two years ago.

"It is so incredibly lonely and strange without him, nothing can replace the relationship we had as siblings.

"Danny has always been there throughout my whole life and it still doesn't seem real," she said.

The family have set up the Danny C Foundation which aims to educate people about the devastating consequences of knife crime.

"If the person who killed Danny hadn't taken the knife out with him Danny would 100 per cent be here and how many people would have been better off - me, my mum, my dad, his friends, a whole community of people. It's never just one person," said Chloe.

Alison Castledine said the family did not want Danny to have died in vain and want to see children as young as ten given lessons about knife crime.

"This is the right age, it's when their ideas start to form and we need to encourage them to see that they can change their life by not picking a knife up," she said.

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