EXCLUSIVE By JULIA RAVENSCROFT
EIGHT years on it is still difficult for Colin and Wendy Parry, whose son Tim died after the devastating IRA Bridge Street bombing, to forgive his murderers.
But they have turned their personal tragedy into something positive with the first centre in England dedicated to peace and conflict resolution.
But although no-one has ever been caught for the terrible crime, Wendy and Colin have been able to move on with their lives and keep their family together. Colin said he would find it difficult to talk to the bomber if he was caught as he could never forgive him, but would probably meet with him.
He said: "I would want to see what they thought they could ever gain by killing innocent victims and I would like to know how their conscience is. That man has seen the faces of those boys and I would like to know how he can possibly live with what he has done. I suspect whoever it is, a part of his life is comparatively normal and he might have kids of his own."
Wendy says when Tim died she still imagined him out playing with his friends. She added: "When he was first killed I wanted them to catch him and I wanted him punished for what they did, but as time goes on you prefer the killer not to have a face. They will never catch him now.
"I hope they can't sleep at night because they know what they've done."
Talking as the face of the peace centre, Colin said: "I think publicity and having a high profile is a double-edged sword. It is very intrusive being stared at in the street and is a peculiar feeling. I don't court a high profile for my benefit, I have a high profile for the benefit it brings to the trust and if it keeps the trust in the public eye then that's the price I pay."
Speaking about the centre, Wendy said: "Tim would be proud of what we've done. He would have been the first one down there and he would have loved playing snooker and table tennis.
"It's nice to have the centre there to remind generations of people that that could have been their child. It just keeps it in their minds."
Colin said: "The centre has probably been slower getting to the point when it's fully operational than I thought but reality tends to be like that.
"There hasn't been a great impact in the town yet but it will become much bigger and groups of people will, I hope, be staying virtually all the time in the not too distant future of any race, nationality or religion."
Colin said he would like to get involved in more hands-on work in the future, running workshops with the youngsters.
Wendy said: "There are so many people who still don't really know what's going on in the centre.
"I think when we were first raising money people thought 'go away' but now we are doing things that are for Warrington children."
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