Royce Mallett: Parents of County Durham dad stabbed in Australia say death 'hasn't sunk in'

The parents of a dad from County Durham who died after being stabbed in Australia have said their son's death "hasn't sunk in".

Royce Mallett moved to New South Wales to earn money to support his partner and two young children when he was fatally wounded in the car park of a motel.

The 30-year-old, whose parents live in Haswell, travelled to Australia to lay asphalt last March after being unable to find work in the UK.

He was due to return home in five weeks for his son's second birthday.

At around 6pm on Monday 8 July, Mr Mallett was stabbed while in a car in a motel car park in Albury. A man was arrested and reportedly charged with murder by local police.

• Royce's mother Felicity is still coming to terms with her son's death.

His mother, Felicity Mallet told ITV Tyne Tees she was still reeling from the sudden loss of her son in the apparent "random attack".

"It seems like a dream to us at the moment. It’s like watching a film and finding the person died or got killed at the end of the film.

"It’s not sunk into our head that he’s actually physically gone because we haven’t seen him since March."

Now his parents are trying to raise funds to bring his body home.

They have set up a fundraising page online, but say they are still more than £10,000 short of being able to cover repatriation and funeral costs combined.

His mother added: "I can’t sell the house because he's already remortgaged, so [we'd be] making ourselves homeless and he would have never wanted that."

Ms Mallet said her son's two children are missing him - adding that his five-year-old daughter keeps asking why he is no longer sending messages home.

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