Grieving father speaks of pain following death of son Shaun Woodburn

The father of Shaun Woodburn has spoken in his own words of the night that claimed the life of his son.

A picture of Shaun Woodburn tweeted by his father, Kevin, to mark his birthday on February 01

Writing in the Daily Record, he spoke of arriving at the hospital and learning that there was no more that could be done to save his son.

He told of how the police informed him that the death of his son was being treated as murder and the bedside vigil at his bedside when he was on life support to keep his organs maintained for donation.

Kevin Woodburn also wrote of the pain of having to identify his son in the morgue writing: “his face had a colour to it, a healthy glow, his hair was immaculate and he looked so peaceful, like he was lying there sleeping and I’d just sneaked in quietly to put his light off for him like when he was a wee boy. Strange the things you think”.

Despite Shaun being identified, Kevin also wrote of the anger and agony of his son having a second post mortem which delayed Shaun’s body being released to his family.

Under Scottish law the defence has the right to a second post mortem, a rule that was criticised by Mr Woodburn, which effectively meant Shaun couldn’t be released to the family until this was done.

He recalled saying: “What do you mean a second post mortem? Why? These people are going to cut my son open not once but twice! Why? Because the defence just can.

“No, that’s not right, they can’t even have a reason for it, the first one hasn’t even been done, so why can they just demand a second one, surely they need some medical reason”.

Dad-of-one Shaun, 30, from Edinburgh, died after being felled by a single punch from then 16-year-old schoolboy Ibnomer outside Gladstones Bar in Leith in the early hours of January 1, 2017.

At the time his killer could not be named due to legal reasons, however, after turning 18 he was named for the first time.