A heartbroken mum said her teenage son always dreamed of celebrating his 18th birthday but never got to do so because he was killed by a criminal on release from prison.
Thomas Edwards was 16-years-old when he was struck by hit-and-run driver Patrick Smeda .
The hardened robber ploughed into the teenager, on Mossley Hill Drive, near Sefton Park, causing him fatal head and chest injuries.
Today, on what would have been Thomas' 18th birthday, mum Sharon Edwards said: "He always used to say 'when I am 18, when I am 18'. He couldn't wait to grow up and be 18, so he could go out and do what he wanted."
"Today we should have been planning his birthday party but instead we planning ways to remember him"
She added: "It is just so sad. We are absolutely broken."
Sharon, 52, who has three daughters, said when Thomas was born their "world was complete".
However on November 13, 2017 their "whole world crumbled" when they were told their son had been killed.
Reliving the events which led up to Thomas' death, Sharon, from Wavertree , said: "I was at home with Thomas, just us two and my husband Mark was at work.
"He was asking what we were having for tea and wanted a chippy.
"He asked me could he go out and I was saying 'stay in here, it is freezing out there' but I said if he wanted to go out he could, but make sure you are home for tea."
Just hours later, at 7.40pm Thomas was hit by the speeding car driven by Smeda.
Sharon said she first heard there had been an accident through her niece who had been contacted by Thomas' friends.
She said: "They were texting her to say there had been an accident in Sefton Park and she told me.
"I just said 'what has that got to do with Thomas? He doesn't go down there.
"Friends were telling us that one minute they were texting Thomas and the next they couldn't get hold of him.
"Mark was home from work at this point and I didn't know but he had been looking up on this accident and he said 'it is a teenage boy and we can't get hold of our teenage boy'.
"I wasn't having it, I remember saying 'no don't be stupid, that won't be him, he is just running a bit late Mark'."
Sharon said she and other members of the family continued to try and get hold of Thomas and his dad went out to look for him.
And when he returned in the car soon after, she was confident she would see her son get out.
However minutes later police were at the family's door, at which point Sharon said she "fell to the hallway floor".
She said: "I just started screaming. I fell to the floor in the hallway
"I was screaming 'is he okay, is he okay?'
"And that is when Mark looked at me and said 'no Sharon he is already gone'."
The mum-of-three said she "crossed her fingers the entire way" to the hospital, praying police had got it wrong.
She added: "I was just saying 'please don't let it be him'.
"And when we got there he was just lying there - our baby - lying there.
"He didn't look any different he just looked like our baby."
Sharon said Thomas was "always a good kid" and had just started to come out of his shell.
She said: "He was very quiet and shy in himself, until he went to sixth form and then he really came out of his shell.
"He had started to be the person he wanted to be.
"He was always bouncing everywhere, he was always full of fun."
At the time of his death Thomas was due to be an uncle - yet sadly never got to meet his niece Heidi, who was born in January.
His sisters said they would do anything to have their brother back with them "to hear your voice, to see your face, to wind you up again."
They added: "It still doesn't feel real that you aren't here. We keep hoping we will wake up and it was all just a bad dream."
Meanwhile devastated Sharon said the family, who today let off balloons in their son's memory, will "never get over" the death of their son.
Sharon said: "We still feel it now like the day it happened.
"He was our only son.
"When he was born we were complete - he was our world.
"We were a happy family of six - now we are a broken family of five."
"When he was taken from us our whole world crumbled.
"At the time of his death his sister Rebecca was pregnant, so he never got to meet his niece Heidi.
"When she was born, she was just Thomas all over.
"It is like Thomas sent her to us.
"Even though she is only 17-months-old she looks up at his picture and she kisses his urn.
"I think it is her that has kept us going."
Thomas' killer Smeda fled the scene on foot after crashed into the innocent teenager. He handed himself in to police three days later.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how hardened criminal Smeda was out on licence from prison after being jailed for 14 years in 2010 for a spree of armed robberies.
The dad-of-three pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, and failing to stop after an accident, and appeared by videolink from HMP Liverpool for sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court.
And he was sentenced to eight years in prison, of which he must serve half.
However, because the sentence would run at the same time as his licence period in jail for armed robbery - which he would complete in 2022 - it effectively meant he would not serve any extra time for killing Thomas.
This fact haunts his family and they have launched a petition for death by dangerous drivers to receive life in prison.
However, in the meantime, they can only continue to remember Thomas, especially today on what should have been a special ocassion.
Sharon said: "We think all the time about what Thomas would be like now.
"I think about him every minute of every day."
"We think about him when we wake up in the morning and he is the last thing we think about when we go to sleep.
"We are always talking about him. I wouldn't wish what has happened on my worst enemy.
"We haven't grieved properly because we still don't have justice.
"He took our son's life and he won't serve a single day for it. He didn't even face us in court - he is a coward.
"We are just trying anything and everything to get more signatures on that petition so this doesn't happen to another family."
To sign the petition please click here .
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