Her brother was stabbed to death..so she killed herself, too

A DEVASTATED mother has told of her double heartache after her son was stabbed to death and her distraught daughter killed herself.

Now Rose White is planning a combined funeral for her son Steven Jones, 27, and daughter Leeanne, 25.

Speaking out in support of the News of the World's No To Knives campaign, she said: "Knives have killed both my children in a way.

"When Steven was murdered, Leeanne told me, ‘I just can't go on. They might as well have stabbed me as well.' "

Steven was savagely knifed several times in the chest in September.

Lethal

Distraught Leeanne was found dead of a suspected drugs overdose last month.

She had only managed to get through three weeks without her big brother.

Mum Rose broke her silence over the deaths just a week after we revealed that with knife crime soaring in Britain, youngsters as young as 15 can still buy lethal weapons with ease.

She sobbed at her home in Aldershot, Hants: "It was hard enough coming to terms with Steven's death, but trying to come to terms with losing Leeanne as well...I just don't think it's possible."

Labourer Steven died on the evening of September 23 after being stabbed with a sheath knife during an argument in the street. Rose said: "Leeanne blamed herself for his death. Most week nights she had picked him up from his friends and they would go back to her flat to chat.

"They were like two halves of a coin, always there for each other and always wanting to spend as much time as they could together.

"But the night Steven was killed Leeanne hadn't picked him up. She had got held up and thought he would make his own way there."

Care worker Rose, 45, who has three other children, said Leeanne became very depressed and was prescribed drugs to help her sleep.

On October 15, three weeks after Steven was killed, Leeanne was found dead at a friend's home in Farnham, Surrey.

Ashes

She left no suicide note but a post-mortem examination revealed high traces of drugs in her system.

Rose is now organising a double service at St Peter's Church in Ash, Surrey, for her son and daughter.

She is awaiting results from a second post-mortem on Steven's body before a date can be set.

Rose wants them to be cremated together and wants their ashes placed in the same urn.

"Knives have a lot to answer for," she said. "The law has to change to ensure other beautiful children like mine don't have to pay the price."

Duane Harris, 25, from Aldershot, has appeared at Winchester Crown Court charged with murder. He is in custody awaiting trial.