The wife and daughters of Paul Campton have made an emotional appeal to the hit and run driver who took the life of Mr Campton in Raftons Road Bangalow recently, via a video released by NSW police.
Mr Campton’s wife Janine Campton said, ‘Obviously the shock was just incredible. You go a bit numb. It’s hard to think… but it’s just something we never, ever expected. There were so many plans for the future, and just to think that we’re never going to see him again is heartbreaking.
‘How do you ever move forward from something like that? It’s just been horrible.’
Mr Campton’s daughter Brianna Campton said, ‘He was just someone that would have done anything for anyone, and he loved his family so much. He was so proud to be a dad and so proud to be a grandfather. He was so much fun, and everybody loved him.’
Daughter Marlie Campton said, ‘He was so hard-working… He was finally talking about getting to retire, and the things that he was going to do with his life… Unfortunately, that’s been taken away from him now, and he’ll never get the chance to see what life is like on the other side of employment.
‘He loved his footy,’ she remembered. ‘He loved the St George Dragons. He’s always been a die hard Dragons fan. So we’ll carry that on for him.’
Family man
‘He obviously loved his family,’ said Marlie Campton. ‘He would never let me go a day without telling me how proud he was of me and with my studies. And he was so excited to see me graduate with my nursing degree.’
A keen member of the local rugby club, Paul Campton’s family all remember the community of Bangalow being central to his existence. ‘It was like his family. Bangalow was his life, and he loved everyone here, and everyone here loves him, and he’s gonna leave a huge hole in the community.’
As Janine Campton remembers, ‘He had a finger in pretty much everything, I would say.’
Daughter Kristy Jamison remembered that her father loved music too. ‘Having a boogie, yeah.’
‘It’s never going to be the same,’ said Marlie Campton. ‘I’m never going to be able to see him again. Unfortunately, living in Sydney, I haven’t been able to see dad already for a couple of months, and I never got to say goodbye…
‘I don’t know what I’m going to do now.’
An emotional Kristy Jamison said, ‘My heart breaks because my sisters are so young, and he’s not going to be there now for weddings or their babies. That’s what I think about a lot…
‘My kids have lost a grandparent, and they’re so young that they won’t even remember him. That just leaves a very big hole for all of us.’
Please have a heart
Brianna Campton appealed directly to the hit and run driver, who has not yet been identified. ‘Please, just please… You’ve already taken our dad away from us and we’re never going to see him again. Please have a heart.’
Marlie Campton continued, ‘It will be better for us, if you could just come forward. Better for us and for you, if you could just come forward and own up to it. We would be grateful for this, if you could.’
Mr Campton’s wife Janine added, ‘It doesn’t bring him back, which is what we really want, but we have questions that are torturing us.
‘How you could just hit someone – and there’s no doubt that you would have known that – and to just drive on and leave someone for dead, not even call an ambulance, nothing, just literally leave him there for dead?
‘Please just show some humanity and come forward and do the right thing.’
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is managed on a confidential basis. The public is reminded not to report information via NSW Police social media pages.
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