‘I wanted her to breathe but knew she couldn’t’
Charity worker Barbara Flanagan, 53, said the thought of Alan Daulby Jr coming close to getting away with his crime by hiding Avril’s body forever fills her with dread.
Speaking for the first time about her loss after Daulby was found guilty of Avril’s murder, she said: “He destroyed my life that day. “He took my only daughter, my baby. We were best friends.
“I never want to be in the same room as him again.
“But if I could say one more thing to him, it would be ‘Why?’ I can understand someone losing their temper and stabbing someone, but then panicking and going to get help.
“But I can’t believe that he had a shower and cleaned up while she lay covered in blood on his floor.
“That apartment was spotless and it must have been a bloody mess, because Avril was a mess.
“That’s the one image I have stuck in my mind, of her lying there dead and him showering and tidying up the apartment to try to cover up his awful crime.”
Daulby is facing a 20-year jail sentence after a jury on Thursday convicted him of stabbing Avril 47 times on May 29, 2009, after the 20-year-old bar worker ended their relationship.
Daulby had stalked Avril, and plagued her with phonecalls for a week and a half after the split.
Daulby attacked Avril at the flat they had shared in the Costa Blanca resort of Cabo Roig hours before she was due to fly back to Ireland with her mother for her 21st birthday party.
He used a mop and bleach to wipe up Avril’s blood, showered and changed his clothes, and tried to stuff Avril’s mutilated body into a suitcase before wrapping her in blankets and plastic sheeting.
He fled, abandoning plans to take Avril’s corpse with him, when his dad, Alan Daulby Sr and his sister Emeline — who is married to Avril’s brother Ger — disturbed him.
His washing machine, with bloodied sheets inside, was still on when they got into the apartment.
Mrs Flanagan said: “I’m sure that if I wasn’t going back to Ireland that day with Abbey [family pet name for Avril], we would never have found her.
“The way Daulby had wrapped my daughter up he was going to take her.
“Youngsters that age do their own thing, and I wouldn’t necessarily have been worrying after her. He would have got away with it and we would have been looking for her forever, just like the McCanns might be looking for their poor daughter.”
Recalling the moment she rushed into Daulby’s flat and saw her daughter lying dead by his sofa moments after his father had forced a back door, she added: “I thought to myself at first it couldn’t be Abbey because she doesn’t wear red.
“Then I realised it was blood covering her from head to toe and started to scream.
“I went to the window and shouted out: ‘Someone get an ambulance’ but Abbey’s nurse friend Marie, who was in the apartment by this stage, just held my hand, looked at me and said: ‘She’s gone.’
“He had taped her up like a mummy. I got hold of a pair of scissors and cut the tape and plastic from around Abbey’s neck and her hair, which should have been a beautiful blonde, but was black from all the blood.
“I wanted her to breathe even though I knew she couldn’t.
“Then I leant down beside her and said: ‘Abbey, I have you love, I have you.’ “She was face down and I was glad because it meant I didn’t see everything he had done to her.
Daulby is set to be sentenced in the next fortnight. Avril’s family say they hope he gets the maximum 20 years Spanish law permits.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
