A heart-wrenching photo showing a 17-month-old boy shovelling soil into his daddy’s grave has been released by his family to highlight tragedy of knife crime.
Little Carter Bagshaw held the end of a spade before scattering dirt over his father Lewis Bagshaw’s coffin as he was laid to rest.
The toddler shouted out “Daddy” as family and friends paid their respects during an emotional funeral last week.
His mum, Olivia Keeley said the image breaks her heart but hopes it “stops just one person from picking up a knife or a gun”.
Lewis, 21, was fatally stabbed in Southey near Sheffield, in July — the city’s tenth knife death victim in 16 months.
Jervaise Bennett, 20, from Sheffield, and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have been charged with Lewis’s murder.
Following his funeral, childhood pal Jordan Kissack, 25, posted the photo on Facebook — with the emotional message (sic): “Just a little advice for people that carry or use knives and guns. STOP!
“Today we laid to rest yet another one of my friends who should still be here, but some coward took his life with a knife.
“While at the funeral reception we played video clips of memories and pictures of my dear childhood friend, Lewis Bagshaw.
“While these were playing, his son Carter started shouting ‘daddy’ at the pictures. Let that feeling sink in.
“If it was you taken from your loving girlfriend and son and friends and family imagine the pain they are all going through because somebody took your life that shouldn’t have been taken.
“Think before using a knife or anything in fact to take somebody’s life.
“A moment in anger causes a lifetime of pain for others.”
Jordan has called for an end to deadly street violence, which he says is ripping families apart.
“Seeing Lewis’ son at his funeral was the final straw for me and made me speak out,” he added.
“Too many people are dying, too many lives are being destroyed and too many families are being ripped apart.
“I’ve been stabbed, I’ve experienced knife crime, I’ve seen guns being pulled. I know what it is like to be constantly looking over your shoulder.
“But there are other ways. There is another way of life and I want to do all I can to persuade the younger generation to put their knives down.
“I don’t think people actually realise how many people carry them.
“But those who do carry them need to realise what they dealing with and that striking out in one moment of anger is not only going to potentially end a life but ruin their own and all the families connected to them.
“To see a little boy burying his dad is surely enough to make people stop and think about what they are doing?”
Lewis’ heartbroken partner, Olivia Keeley said he was a ‘devoted family man’.
“From the moment Carter was born, Lewis was completed besotted and devoted to him. He was a devoted family man,” she added.
“He had just passed his driving theory the month before he died and his test was booked. He was making his life better for us and our son.”