THE heartbroken family of a Port Glasgow man killed in a brutal street attack have spoken on the anniversary of his death to insist they will continue to fight to find who took his life.

Dad-of-four Joe O’Neill, 59, died from multiple head injuries following an assault at a Belfast taxi rank.

But three years on from his tragic death, no one has faced prosecution — and his family back home in Port Glasgow say they are still waiting for answers from prosecutors.

Joe’s sister Helen and her husband Jim have spoken out about their daily nightmare and the pain of losing a ‘perfect gentlemen’.

His younger sister Helen, 63, of Moidart Road, said: “We can never rest until we get justice for Joe.

“It eats away at you. Our lives have stopped and we will never let this go. Joe did not deserve what happened to him and I want justice.

“I will keep going until the day I die. It has broken our whole family.

“How can we move on knowing that Joe died and those responsible are getting to live their lives’?” “I want answers about what happened that night. We can never move on until we get an explanation.” Helen and Jim have travelled to Northern Ireland to speak with senior police officers and the prosecution service about what happened.

They have even sat through CCTV footage from the night.

Helen said: “We want to know why no one has been brought to justice, especially after all this time.” Joe was a much loved man both back home in Port Glasgow and in his adopted city of Belfast, where he lived and worked as a barman.

Dozens of family and friends travelled to Northern Ireland for his funeral while there was standing room only at a memorial mass in his home town.

He was from a close-knit family with brother Pat and sisters Joan and Helen all left devastated by the killing.

Brother-in-law Jim, 64, said: “I have known Joe since he was 14. We were best friends and he was a real gentleman, one of the best. It is hard to understand why this has happened.” On the night he died Joe was looking after a group of females from Port Glasgow who were visiting Belfast.

Helen added: “That was the type of guy Joe was. He was friends with one of their dads and had said he would take them under his wing.” After finishing a shift in the bar where he worked, the group were on their way home when an incident took place at a taxi rank involving two men, and Joe sustained fatal head injuries.

He died the next day in hospital, leaving his wife Maura and the rest of his family devastated.

Initially a 34-year-old man was charged in connection with Joe’s death but the charges were later dropped.

The prosecution service then sent a letter to the family, setting out their reasons for not continuing with the case.

But Helen said: “We told them that this was not good enough. My brother is dead and someone is responsible.” Joe’s family are still waiting for a coroners inquest to take place, but it has also been postponed twice so far.

The coroner’s office in Belfast confirmed that the investigations were continuing and no further date has yet been set.