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Daily Record
Daily Record
World
Record Reporter

Traumatised widow left living alone and in fear after husband stabbed 22 times in the heart

A widow was forced to leave her home city and is living a life plagued by fear after the death of her "gentle giant" husband.

An emotional Dawn Lewis, 51, held back the tears as she opened up about how her life has been destroyed after her partner was stabbed in the heart 22 times in 2016.

Dawn says despite moving away she is so scared she doesn't go anywhere without an escort - usually either her mum or sister - even to the local shop.

Jammal Chase was cleared of the murder of Dawn's husband Giovanni Lewis in 2018.

After his acquittal, Dawn said she had to move in order to try and rebuild her broken life, as Birmingham Live reports.

Dawn Lewis has been left plagued by fear after the death of Giovanni Lewis (Birmingham Live)

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She told how the loss of her husband, in the city's Kingshurst, has completely destroyed her life - leaving her with no friends, unable to return to work as a cleaning manager and constantly living in fear.

Dawn, who met her husband of seven-years on holiday in Jamaica, said: "I feel isolated, I don't go out. I can't even answer my front door," she said.

"So when I do leave my house, I have to call my family to let them know where I am, tell them I'll be 20 minutes. It's a horrible life to feel so isolated.

"You need to stop with the knives. It destroys lives, I'm trying to build my life. I don't go shopping on my own, I don't sleep at night, all I see is that violent attack that happened.

"I haven't returned to work yet, if I didn't have my family I wouldn't be here.

"I can't even go to the shop down the road. I've been having trauma counselling for two years, I want to eventually go back to work. It's my anxiety, it doesn't let me do things.

"I don't go anywhere on my own. I can't. I always have someone with me. I have ever since my husband died.

"We have a house in Jamaica, but I can't go back there without him, because that was our dream."

Giovanni Lewis was stabbed to death 22 times in 2016 (Birmingham Live)

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Though Giovanni never had any children of his own, he had a close bond with Dawn's grandchildren, especially one he had helped raise.

"I have to sit and tell my grandchildren he's not coming back. The seven year old, Giovanni used to get up to feed him in the night when he was a baby," Mrs Lewis explained.

"I have to tell him he's not coming back. He sleeps with a picture of his grandad next to him and he says goodnight every night to the stars in the sky."

On the fateful night of October 18, Dawn was paid a visit from police, who informed her her husband had been killed just minutes from where she was staying.

Just a day before they had arrived home from nine weeks on holiday in Jamaica, where Giovanni was born.

Dawn explained: "The police came here and told me my husband had been injured and they were sitting here talking to me. They told me he'd been stabbed.

"I can't remember what happened it was all a blur, I had to go down the police station, I had to have my fingerprints taken, I had to have my phone taken off me. They said they had to eliminate me.

Dawn Lewis has been left traumatised after her husband's death (Birmingham Live)

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"I never got to see my husband until three weeks after his death, and when I did, it was in a morgue and I couldn't touch him or anything.

"He had to have two post-mortems. So I couldn't bury him, my husband's ashes are still with me, I can't put him to rest. It's like I'm keeping him safe.

"How can I put him to rest when no one's paid for his death?"

Dawn will never know the real reason why her husband was stabbed to death.

As Birmingham remains gripped by spiralling knife crime, Dawn urges anyone carrying knives to "stop" and "put down your weapons".

Now too scared to return to Shard End, she said: "The area that I brought my children up in for 22 years, I've had to move out of that area because you can't walk the streets because you're scared.

"You can't let your children out, my grandchildren can't freely go to the park.

"It's out of control you need to stop."

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