JULIE Bywater sounded like a young girl who really deserved to have a long and happy life.

She was friendly, outgoing, genuinely liked and appreciated by her friends, loved by her mum and devoted to her work and the children at the special school where she worked.

But she had the misfortune to meet and go out with what my mum would have called “a wrong ‘un”.

Alan Pickersgill may have seemed fairly normal to Julie, but quite clearly, he fitted into that category.

When Julie finished with him, this obsessive creep – a man who had CCTV installed at his home that had nothing to do with his security – wouldn’t let the relationship, or her, go.

That the pair remained friends says everything about Julie’s trusting nature, but more about her eventual killer’s ability to pull the wool over her eyes.

As parents, it is hard not to feel the pain Julie’s mother must feel at the loss of her soulmate and our sympathies go out to her.

Many of us have come across ‘wrong ‘uns’ in our time and watched as our children, family or friends continue blithely unaware – or unwilling or too scared to admit – that they are dating someone who could do them harm, emotionally or physically.

Control freaks like Pickersgill exist in all walks of life, often in the most unexpected.

But no jail sentence could ease the pain and frustration of a loving mother.