I support the News of the World in the war on the gang culture

THE devastated fiancée of murdered gun gang victim Peter Woodhams cradled their three-year-old son Sam and paid a moving tribute to his hero daddy.

Distraught Jane Bowden sobbed as she bravely relived Peter's terrifying last moments, bleeding and fighting for life on the street outside their East London home — after TWICE facing up to brutal young thugs terrorising his neighbourhood.

She also revealed that was battling the louts to the last — kicking his attacker AFTER taking the bullets.

"Peter wasn't a mug and he wasn't frightened," said 23-year-old Jane. "He stood up for himself and would have done anything to protect me and little Sam.

"We were the perfect little family. Peter should have been here today, playing in the park with his little boy like always. Instead he's in a morgue.

"And we don't even know when his body will be released so we can say our goodbyes. So even after everything Peter went through, he's still being made to suffer.

"And not only do we have to deal with the pain of losing Peter, there's also the worry of how we'll cope without him — emotionally and financially.

"Every family needs its dad — and ours has been tragically snatched away from us.

"I don't know how I'll face the rest of my life without Peter - but Sam and I will survive.

"I'm determined not to let the scum who did this totally tear us apart."

We can also reveal that hard-working satellite TV engineer Peter had been toiling every hour possible to fulfil a dream of moving his family out of the trouble-plagued inner city.

His grieving dad, also Peter, told us: "We had big plans for the future. We couldn't afford to buy a house by ourselves so we wanted to go into a partnership. The idea was to get out somewhere to a quiet, leafy suburb.

"Peter wanted the best for his family. He didn't want his son growing up in Canning Town. He was determioned to secure Sam a better start in life."

But all those hopes were cruelly dashed on Monday evening. And, choking on tears, Jane poured out her heart to the News of the World as she described how she found Peter covered in blood and dying in the street after hearing shots outside their home.

"I grabbed Sam , looked out the door and there was Peter in the road, and he was trying to kick someone," she told us shakily.

"I saw the bullet holes on Peter's chest and hand. He was just so frightened and kept saying to me ‘I can't breathe. Please help me!' I told him, ‘It's all right babe, I'm calling an ambulance.'"

Twenty minutes later after he was rushed to hospital, Jane was dealt the awful news that 22-year-old Peter, her darling lover and devoted father of her child, was dead — a bullet had ripped through his heart and lungs.

Unable to take in the dreadful enormity of it, Jane says she didn't weep for at least an hour.

"I was in so much shock, I just didn't believe it," she told us, the tears now flowing uncontrollably. "I just kept being sick — I couldn't cry. Even now I can't eat and still feel sick."

This weekend teacher's assistant Jane, supported by relatives, has retreated to the family caravan on the South Coast where she is struggling to come to terms with her loss.

But it's made even more unbearable because she knows Peter's death could have been prevented — if the police had only nailed thugs from the same street gang who stabbed him in January after he confronted them about trying to damage his new car.

"Peter didn't deserve to die like this," said Jane, her voice cracking with emotion. Sadly she remembered her last private moments with Peter at their council house.

"When he came home from work we had dinner and just sat on the sofa for 20 minutes," she said. "He was cuddling and holding me. That was our last kiss and cuddle forever. Then Peter went out to see his friend and came back a while later. "He just stormed in, slammed down his keys, and said something like ‘That so and so!' and ran back out again."

The name Peter mentioned was one Jane had heard before, a member of the gang who hang around the area, and part of the same pack that stabbed him.

Minutes earlier, CCTV at nearby shops had captured Peter remonstrating with some youths before driving home.

"As soon as Peter ran out I just panicked," she added. "Then I heard the shots and went out.

"When Peter turned round I saw blood all down his top. That's when I realised he'd been shot. Sam saw him, too — then Peter collapsed."

Despite medication to calm her shattered nerves Jane's emotions swing from crippling grief to bitter anger.

On Thursday the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced it is to investigate the failed earlier inquiries into Peter's stabbing. Speaking for the first time since that news, Jane blasted the Met for their "disgusting" handling of the case.

Special

While her father John called for Scotland Yard chief Sir Ian Blair to resign and sack the officers responsible, Jane tearfully snapped:"An investigation now is too late. "It's just sad that everyone wants to get involved now Peter's dead. I don't want their apologies."

Looking out at the caravan park, Jane revealed it holds a very special place in her heart. "This is where Peter and I first met when I was 18," she explained.

"We hit it off straight away and shared our first kiss the night we met. I thought he was amazing. "We carried on seeing one another and we made it official on his 18th birthday a year later. I was the happiest girl in the world."

Peter moved in with Jane and her parents in Canning Town after she became pregnant. "When Sam was born, that was the best moment in Peter's life," said Jane. "That completed us.

"Peter was a brilliant dad. He taught Sam so much. He made him into a polite little boy. He nearly always says please and thank you.

"Peter taught him how to talk, he read him books and even toilet-trained him. Sam idolised his daddy and was his spitting image with that beautiful blond hair."

The young family eventually moved into their own council house, around the corner. "We were perfect," said Jane. "Peter even proposed properly.

"On my 21st he took me to a hotel, got down on one knee in the middle of the restaurant and said ‘Will you marry me?'"

Jane's face darkened as reality then kicked in and she recalled how their lovely life was first blighted by local yobs on January 21.

The couple were heading home in their new Ford Focus when they heard something hit it as they passed local shops.

Slashed

"We saw a gang of youths," said Jane. "I was driving but Peter said there were about five of them aged 14 to 17. Some of them ran off."

Jane said she slowed the car and courageous Peter jumped out to give chase. She then did a U-turn further up the road and drove back to find Peter had been held down and stabbed in the neck, missing his jugular by millimetres, and slashed across the face. The couple expected the cops to treat the attack as attempted murder. "But all we got was a letter giving us a crime reference number and the phone number of a person to call," said Jane bitterly.

"It was over two weeks before they even took a statement from Peter. And they never took his bloodstained clothing for forensic tests until this week — seven months too late."

Movingly Jane backed our campaign to stand full square against the thugs.

"I support the News of the World in the war on the gang culture that's taking over our streets," she said.

But despite everything she insists she would not want Peter's killers to face a death penalty. "That would just make other families suffer," she said.

"I think they should be sent to prison where they'll get the s*** kicked out of them for the rest of their lives."