15 years on Denise Williams still haunted by murder of her boys
A woman whose two sons were murdered by her husband has told of how their brutal killings still haunt her 15 years on.
Denise Williams last saw her boys, Bradley, aged seven, and Brett, eight, in February 2002 in the back of a 4x4.
But that day, after her violent and abusive husband Steven Wilson punched her and released her from the car, he drove off and stabbed the two youngsters to death at Hill Top golf course, near Sandwell Valley.
The killer, aged 44, from Linden Avenue, Great Barr, hung himself a year later on Mother's Day – five days into a life sentence after being found guilty of murder.
Speaking about the ordeal more than a decade on, Ms Williams recalled the moment she had to identify her two dead boys.
Click here to watch the interview on the Victoria Derbyshire show
She said: "I remember just seeing your children through glass like they are in a fish tank. I identified the bodies, it was horrible, absolutely horrible, really hard.
"And those are the things that I have to live through now. Even though it has been 14 years you still have the bad dreams and the things you have experienced."
Ms Williams, who now uses her maiden name, met Wilson when she was 16. She recalled how the relationship was great but within a matter a months it went down hill.
She said: "He treated me like a princess, put me on a pedestal. Six months in and he started to show his true colours.
"But he knew I had nowhere to go, no-one to run to. He called me all the different names under the sun. He would verbally abuse me, mentally abuse me, physically abuse me, punch me, kick me."
Amid the violence the couple had two young sons, Brett who was born in 1993 and Bradley, who was born the following year.
Ms Williams believes just having them in her life made things bearable.
She said: "Even though I was living a horrible life of abuse and putting up with drunken outbursts, just having the children seemed to make it all okay."
She had split with Wilson on several occasions due to his abuse and that tragic day in February 2002 had come days after she had walked away from him for the final time.
They were all due to meet up at a restaurant, when Wilson launched his last attack on his wife in the car.
She said: "As I turned to get out the car, he pulled me, pulled my hair and pulled it into his lap in the car.
"He started punching the left side of my face, so me panicking managed to find the horn on the car and kept my hand on the horn of the car and also found the handle on the car door, which I pushed open.
"He panicked when I was blowing the horn on the car and he loosed me and then he drove off. That was the last I saw of the boys."
Ms Williams then described the unforgettable phone call she had from Wilson.
She said: "He rang to tell me 'I have just killed the kids and I'm going to kill myself'.
"At that point, you think to listen for the boys, listen for the boys in the background can you hear them, can you hear them and I couldn't hear them."
Her hopes were initially lifted when police claimed they had found her boys, but what she did not realised, until a moment later, was that they were not alive.
She said: "I was so excited, in the corner of this room was a big box of toys, and I was going to go and fetch them so they can come and play with the toys.
"He just knelt on the floor and he said to me Denise they're dead."
Ms Williams had to relive the horror of the experience a year later when the details were read out at Wilson's trial. After the killer was convicted, she only felt 'relief'.
