Simon Dawson was brutally murdered while walking home from a night out
00:01, 05 Jul 2025Updated 00:24, 05 Jul 2025
Nick Dawson pictured at home(Image: Philip Coburn/Daily Mirror)
Simon Dawson was brutally killed in a horrific attack that sent ripples across the community in Wirral. The computer programmer had been on a night out with friends in Bromborough when he was separated and became lost walking home in Brotherton Park, Spital.
He approached two young men as he tried to navigate his way to a friend’s house near to Spital train station but just hours later he was found floating in a pond. The not-long-turned 30-year-old had been badly beaten and then drowned.
Simon’s identical twin brother Nick was in Cumbria with his wife Jules when he received a phone call to say he needed to return to his mum and dad’s home near Chester. In the weeks that followed, Nick, now 56, was involved in various televised appeals and reconstructions to help find those responsible for the brutal murder of his beloved brother.
It was ten days before Nick received a phone call from Merseyside Police to tell him two men had been arrested on suspicion of murdering his brother.
Speaking to the ECHO ahead of the 27th anniversary of the harrowing death and release of his book, Nick said: “Simon was the life and soul of the party, he was all about going out and having fun.
Nick met one of his brother’s killers
“As twins, we’d started to do different things. We were still very close but I’d settled down, I’d just gotten married and I was probably the more serious one of the two. He went out with three friends that night, went to a nightclub and had planned to stay with a friend.
“You didn’t have mobile phones in those days so, we don’t know how but he lost contact with his friends and walked out this nightclub alone in the early hours of Saturday, August 29, 1998, and he was lost.”
Nick continued: “He asked those two young lads that he saw and it was a tragic meeting. He asked which way to Spital and he was tricked in essence. He was just tricked. They said ‘we’re going that way’ and Simon naively walked with them. He was subjected to this horrific attack.
“The two guys, Craig and Carl, were high and they just let loose on poor Simon. He was begging for them to stop, they stamped on him, knocked him unconscious, gave him the most horrific attack. They wanted the pin number to his cash card so they would keep bringing him round with water from the pond. I have thought about what happened that night so many times and I still do to this day.
“Once they got the pin number to his card and took his watch, they lifted him up while he was unconscious and threw him into the pond. He was found the next morning by a man walking his dog and that was the last of our beautiful Simon. He was eventually reported missing by his flatmate and we didn’t know anything until the Sunday.”
Simon (L) and Nick (R) Dawson celebrating their 30th birthday just three weeks before Simon’s death(Image: submitted picture)
Nick and Simon grew up with their older brother Richard in the small Cumbrian village of Branthwaite. The remote area meant they often only had each other to keep themselves company, meaning they’re bond was stronger than most siblings. It is the Cumbrian countryside where Simon’s grave sits.
The family moved to Cheshire when their dad, David, bought Lexicraft in the 1980s, employing Simon who had been earmarked to takeover the company from David. Instead David sold the company in 2014 before his death two years ago. Nick’s mum, Joan, remains in the family home on the outskirts of Chester.
“Cumbria is the place where Simon’s spirit is,” Nick told the ECHO. “Equally, I go back to Bromborough and I go back to the park where he was murdered.
“I know it sounds weird but I have this twin need to be close to the point where he died and in a way his spirit is always there. I always walk that park with my dog and I go see my mum. We go and sit by the pond, near the fishing platform, where I believe he was thrown in.
“I try and visualise, it’s funny how the brain works, I always take myself back there and have to bring it to life. I bring Simon’s last few moments to life. I don’t want the story to be forgotten.
Twins Simon and Nick
“One of the officers at the time told me Simon had been found without a shoe, it’s a horrible thought for me that he’s been dragged and his shoe has come off. The shoe has never been found so it’s a symbolism for me, I always go back to the park in this never ending search for his shoe.”
After pleading not guilty to the murder of Simon, Craig Roberts and Carl Harrison were convicted in July 1999 and received life sentences. Craig was 16 and Carl was 19 at the time of the murder.
The family tried to move, tackling the void left in their lives after the horrific loss. Nick continued to live with Jules in Weybridge in Surrey while navigating the grief that had descended on him and his family. But in 2012, it came flooding back as the family were notified of Craig’s imminent parole hearing.
Nick said: “I had a diary during the murder trial and at the end of the trial I actually wrote the words ‘rot in hell you evil monsters’. I’m not the kind of person to say that kind of language but I did write it down. That was my feeling at the time, it was sheer hatred.”
Nick Dawson being consoled by wife Jules after a Crimewatch reconstruction(Image: Trinity Mirror Copyright)
He continued: “14 years on from the murder we got first contact from our victim liaison officer and asked if we would like to attend the parole hearings. The first one up was Carl and then it was Craig. It was a really powerful experience.
“I was bloody well hurt for what he did and we had no idea we could go into the prison to face these people while we read out a victim impact statement. When we were offered the chance, me, my mum and my dad were interested, my older brother wasn’t. So, we went to Carl’s hearing and it was incredibly emotional and powerful. It’s one of the most amazing things victims can do. It was a turning point for me because we went into the hearing, saw the offender, and they were both very emotional listening to our statements..
“I walked in to see Craig after he had heard my mum’s statement in HMP Grendon and Craig was crying, he was holding this tissue, and he really struggled to look at me. He was a grown man at this point, 14 years since it had happened. I saw someone different, I didn’t see the blasé kid from the murder trial, I saw a human being who I felt a strange connection with. The parole hearings are one way, they can’t say anything to you. It feels very unfinished.
“It was a very defining moment where I would consider meeting him. I had this deep curiosity about this person, he was clearly ashamed of what he had done and there could be dialogue. It felt incredibly lucky that we synchronised at that point.”
Two years later, in the summer of 2014, Craig reached out via his probation officer, to request the pair opened a line of communication. The convicted murderer wanted to begin the restorative justice process with Nick. The process focuses on repairing the harm caused by the crime the criminal has committed.
Simon’s family were uninterested in the prospect of building relations, except Nick. He was open to the prospect of speaking with Craig years later after seeing him in his parole hearing in 2012.
Flowers and a message left for Simon by his Nick (Image: Dave Kendall)
Over the course of the coming months, several meetings took place with officers about the meeting with Craig, with him setting out clearly that it was not a chance of forgiveness. Nick admitted to the ECHO he had friends who didn’t agree with him and were sceptical about the decision to meet with one of his brother’s killers.
Nick sat down with Craig in a prison chapel at HMP Woodhill with a circle of chairs filling the room. He said: “I wanted answers, I wanted to know about the night, I wanted to know about him, I wanted him to see the living version of the man he killed. I was going to tell him ‘I’m still here’. I’m living my own life sentence, I’m a lone twin trying to process that.
“Craig was incredibly honest with me. I saw a person who was a human being screaming to get out. A lot of prisoners are, I’ve seen it from the prison work I do myself now. Craig was deeply ashamed of what he did. He had done a lot of courses while in prison, he was very well educated. There’s no doubt he’s a very clever lad and he told me about how he had had the most horrific upbringing himself. He was a victim of a bad life. It had created an evil monster who was capable of this violence.
“It’s no excuse for what he did but he took me through the night. He told me things I would never repeat, he told me what Simon said before he died. He was very honest with me and I think he wanted to get it off his chest. He wanted to help me. My wife and I saw someone who was very genuine. It was a big, defining moment in accepting and understanding what happened.”
The meeting proved pivotal in the acceptance of what had happened to his brother, with Craig now released from prison and Nick sharing that he is living his life. There are no plans to meet with him again, although is yet to rule it out.
Carl, however, is yet to be released. A parole hearing has been set for later this month which Nick will attend.
Nick continues to regularly make his way up to Cumbria with his goldendoodle Indie between work he does in prisons as a speaker. Although at peace, hoping Craig has taken the second chance he has at life, nothing will bring back the twin he lost on that fateful night.
Face to Face: Finding Justice for my Murdered Twin Brother, By Nick Dawson, is out now and available from all major book retailers.