Beautician Sue Rogers will spend the rest of her life mourning the death of her eldest child
A devastated mother says she hopes the thug whose deadly punch and kick killed her son when he attacked him at a Morrisons check-out ‘rots in jail’ after he was handed an 11-year sentence.
Beautician Sue Rogers will spend the rest of her life mourning the death of her eldest child, Nick Rogers, who was just 26 when Lee Monk, 20, killed him.
Speaking after Monk’s sentencing for manslaughter at Norwich Crown Court yesterday, heartbroken Miss Rogers, 45, of Wymondham, Norfolk, said: ‘I will never feel sorry for Lee or understand what happened that day, but I hope I hope he rots in jail and I can now get some closure and find some peace.
‘When the judge said he had got 11 years I looked at the sky, kissed the air and said ‘that’s for my baby’. I really felt I had done my boy proud, I’ve done the best I can for him.’
Before the fatal attack on July 17 last year, Mr Rogers had turned his life around, losing an incredible ten stone in weight and training to be a bouncer.
He was on the way to the gym to work out, when he nipped into his local Morrisons around 7pm, only to encounter Monk – who he had fallen out with before – near the checkouts, where they had a row that rapidly escalated into a fight.
Miss Rogers cradles her son in hospital, where he died, in a heartbreaking photograph
Nick Rogers (left) was 26 when Lee Monk (right), 20, killed him in a fatal attack in July last year
Shocking CCTV shows Mr Rogers being punched to the floor, before he was kicked in the back of the head by Monk.
Somehow managing to pull himself to his feet, Mr Rogers then staggered a short distance, before collapsing and losing consciousness – only to die in hospital the next day.
Initially, Monk, of Wymondham, and another man, were charged with his murder, as well as with affray, following an alleged attack on Mr Rogers’s friend, Leo Wardrop, 27.
But on December 20, after a two-and-a-half-week murder trial, the jury found Lee Monk guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and not guilty of assault – also acquitting the second man on both counts.
Speaking after Monk’s sentence of 11 years detention in a young offenders’ institution yesterday, at Norwich Crown Court, Miss Rogers said: ‘Lee got what he deserved. I feel joyous. I feel for the first time I have got some justice for my boy.
‘As his mum, I feel proud of the outcome. I thought he would get five years. People shouldn’t be able to do that to someone and get away with it, and the 11-year sentence shows you you will not.
‘Nick went to Morrisons to buy some water, but lost his life. I strongly believe this should have been a murder conviction, not manslaughter.
‘You always think, as a mum, that your children might be hurt in a car accident, or at a nightclub, but there was never a time when I thought I would have to look out for my children in the supermarket.
Mr Rogers staggered a short way after the attack, before collapsing and losing consciousness
CCTV footage shows Monk (top left) and Mr Rogers (top right) in the Morrisons supermarket moments before the attack
‘Nick had a life, he counted and he has just been wiped from the face of the planet for no reason – and that is heartbreaking.’
Just hours before her son’s attack, Miss Rogers remembers basking in the afternoon sun in her garden with her friend Rebecca Parker, chatting with Mr Rogers, Mr Wardrop and another friend, Richard.
At around 5.30pm the lads announced they were heading out to the get something to eat before going to the local Morrisons supermarket, and then on to the gym.
This was the last conversation Miss Rogers – who will never forget it – had with her son.
She recalled, tearfully: ‘Nick walked to the end of the garden and called back to me, ‘Can you wash my shirt while I’m out?’
‘I said, ‘How old are you? Wash your own bloody shirt,’ before saying, ‘Of course I’ll do it.’ He laughed and left.
‘That was the last conversation we had. My lasting memory is of his smiling face.’
Tragically, two hours later, Miss Rogers’s phone rang and everything changed.
She said: ‘I saw it was Leo and just knew something unimaginable had happened. He was screaming, saying, ‘Nick won’t wake up… it’s bad.’
Miss Rogers is pictured with her son Cameron (left), partner Andy Steadman, daughter Hope, and son Mr Rogers at the back, in 2013
The family are pictured in Malaysia after Mr Rogers’s death – (from left) Hope, Mrs Rogers, Cameron and Mr Steadman
‘My heart felt like it had fallen from my chest. That feeling has not gone away and will stay with me forever.’
Told they were at Morrisons, just a two-minute journey from the family home, her partner-of-25-years, engineer Andy Steadman, 47, drove Miss Rogers there, while Ms Parker stayed behind to look after the couple’s two children Hope, 16, and Cameron, 18.
Miss Rogers, who split up with Mr Rogers’s father – who was no longer involved with him – when he was 15 months old, continued: ‘We turned into the car park and I knew, instantly, it was going to be awful. Blue lights were everywhere – ambulance, police cars and an air ambulance.
‘I felt completely numb, but must have been running on adrenaline
‘Without waiting for Andy to park, I hurtled out of the car and into the supermarket, desperate to be with my boy.
‘Straight away, I spotted him, lying on the floor by the customer service desk, receiving CPR.
‘All I remember is having to get to him, wanting to hold him and make him better, but it was too late.’
Running past three officers, Miss Rogers was screaming and begging the police to let her be with Mr Rogers.
More than 120 people came to pay their respects to Mr Rogers (left) and notes were left on his coffin (right)
Friends wrote tributes on his casket as they came to terms with the loss of the 26-year-old
She recalled: ‘He was lying still, his eyes wide open, with a massive cut on the side of his head.’
As police had declared the area a crime scene, Miss Rogers sat slumped next to the police tape and held her boy’s shoe.
She said: ‘His trainer was the closest I could get to him. I sat there, rubbing his foot, telling him I loved him and everything was going to be ok, he would be alright.’
Paramedics put Mr Rogers into a land ambulance and Miss Rogers and Mr Steadman went home to pick up their bags, before following him to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Transferred to intensive care, Miss Rogers sat by her boy’s bedside, unsure of his prognosis.
‘I just stayed there with him, talking to him and saying how proud I was,’ she said.
‘I wished it was me who was lying there, not him, with his whole life ahead of him.’
Then, at around lunchtime the next day, on July 18, doctors called the family into a quiet side room and said tests had showed Mr Rogers was brain dead.
As a child, Mr Rogers (pictures with his mother) suffered from low confidence because of his weight
Mr Rogers was chubby as a child (left), and as a teenager (right) his weight crept up to 24 stone
‘We all fell to pieces,’ Miss Rogers said. ‘I knew deep-down he was gone, but hearing it confirmed was completely devastating.
‘He looked so peaceful. He had 30 people come to see him while we spoke with the organ donation team and agreed to give all his internal organs away, just not his eyes because they were such a beautiful part of him.’
The family spent one last day with Mr Rogers, saying their goodbyes, before his body was taken on July 19.
On the same day, they were told Lee Monk, 20, and another man, had been charged with Mr Rogers’s murder and with affray, after an alleged attack on Leo.
It was another 10 weeks before Mr Rogers’s body was released and the family held his funeral at Colney Wood burial ground on the outskirts of Norwich, before he was cremated at Earlham Cemetery.
Around 120 people paid their respects to Mr Rogers. His beloved bulldog, Winston, led the funeral procession, before Charlie Puth’s, See You Again, played him into the service and friends paid their respects by writing on the casket.
Finally, on December 4 last year, Lee Monk and a second man stood trial for Mr Rogers’s murder at Norwich Crown Court.
According to police, a number of witness statements, taken from people in the store, described the attack as ‘frenzied,’ saying Mr Rogers ‘was making no attempt to defend himself.’
Mr Rogers is pictured as a three-year-old boy with his father Mr Steadman
Mrs Rogers, of Wymondham, Norfolk, says that part of her soul has been torn away
Three other people, a woman and two men, arrested in connection with the incident, were released without charge.
Miss Rogers (pictured) said her 26-year-old son ‘wasn’t posing a danger, or any threat’
Then, on December 20, the jury found Lee Monk guilty of manslaughter, but not guilty of the assault of Mr Rogers’s friend. The second man was acquitted of both counts.
After Monk, of Silfield Road, Wymondham, was sentenced to 11 years yesterday, Miss Rogers added: ‘You just can’t believe anyone would do that to someone in a supermarket. Nick wasn’t posing a danger, or any threat.
‘It still doesn’t feel real. I feel part of my soul has been torn away. There’s no normal anymore. Normal was being a mum to Nick and my other two children, Normal was arguing with him and sorting his gym kit out every day. Devastating doesn’t come close to how losing a child like this makes you feel.
‘Nick had just started on his life, had worked so hard to be the man he always wanted to be, and didn’t think he could be.
‘Then he lost his life when he went to buy a bottle of water. How will I ever be able to accept that?’
Addressing Monk in the dock yesterday, she added: ‘You have ruined my life and have taken something from me I can never get back. You also have to live with that.’