TEN years after a 20-year-old man was killed in a shooting in Trafford, his family is struggling to cope with the emotional impact of the murder.

Halton McCollin Jnr would have turned 30 yesterday but was shot in the back of the head inside a takeaway in Stretford on January 19, 2008.

It is believed the shooting was a case of mistaken identity and no one has ever been brought to justice.

His father, Halton McCollin Snr, who lives in Astley Bridge, has never given up hope that someone will be prosecuted.

The 63-year-old said: "It is a rollercoaster of emotions really. Some people say time heals, in my case and people around me and people who have gone through the loss, it is not actually the case.

"Time doesn’t always heal. I think the longer it has gone on sometimes you are fighting against resentment because it has taken that long before you can get the satisfaction of having justice done for Halton.

"It doesn’t bring him back but just having justice done for Halton it gives you that little bit more peace that he wasn’t just a forgotten body, that someone will actually have to face the consequence for their actions.

"Even though it doesn’t bring him back it does give you a bit of self-worth, a bit of peace."

Now Mr McCollin has thrown his support behind a firearms amnesty to stop other families going through the same heartbreak.

Today Greater Manchester Police has launched its Give up the Gun firearms surrender.

During the next two weeks people can hand in their firearms and ammunition at any police station enquiry counter anonymously with no questions asked.

The last firearms surrender in Greater Manchester was in April 2016 and 221 weapons were handed in.

Mr McCollin said: "Even if we can get one, 10 or another 200 guns off the street, it just offers a bit more safety to the community.

"It just offers a lot less pain for someone else whose going to have to suffer like we have.

"As a parent, as a father, it is hard to explain how you feel when you’ve had something as horrendous as that happen that involves a member of your family, your son and how that affects you and how that trickles down to friends, family and other loved ones.

"If by having those guns removed it saves someone else from having to go through that pain and disruption to your life, it is worth every single gun and every single bullet that has been handed in."

Mr McCollin's son was an aspiring semi-professional footballer and witnesses reported two masked men running towards the China Cottage takeaway from an alley just before the shooting, while a third man walked up the road. One of the killers' three bullets hit Halton in the head before the men drove away in a blue Vauxhall Vectra.

He said: “These are the people you are trying to keep the weapons away from. It is one of these things, if you are that ruthless to be able to take a gun with the intent of taking a life you don’t just do that and walk away without having the thought you will do that again and again. It actually must become part of who you are if you are able to do something like that.

Keeping guns from people that have got that mindset has got to benefit the rest of us in the community.

"The thing with guns is, it doesn’t have a name on it. What happened to our son, the effect it has had on his friends and other loved ones.

That bullet didn’t necessarily have Halton’s name on it. He just happened to be there. That could have been myself, that could have been anyone sat in this room. That could have been anyone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, friend. That is what guns do."