“It was a numb feeling. You don’t believe something like that could happen to one of your mates,” Barton Town defender Jack Bulless says.
Bulless, who also played with James at Bridlington Town, should have been part of the group on the day trip to York but pulled out due to illness.
Andy Norfolk, a long-time friend and team-mate, did join James and their friends.
“I remember the Manchester derby being on television in the bars we visited,” says Norfolk.
“It was an annual Christmas get-together, a day trip, nothing too heavy. We arrived back at the station to go home early.
“I ended up getting a taxi back to Hull as the train was not for another hour. I remember Hitchy saying he was going to get some food.”
It was the last time Norfolk saw his friend.
Leeds Crown Court heard James suffered a fracture to his skull and brain damage when he fell to the floor after being punched on the right side of the back of his head.
Recalling that day, April says: “I’d just put Freddie to bed when I got a call to say James had been hit, that he was unconscious, and was on his way to hospital.
“At that point I thought he had concussion and I needed to pack a bag because he was only going to be in for a day or two.
“When I got to the hospital they explained that he needed to be transferred to the intensive care unit at Hull Royal Infirmary. He was on a life support machine until he lost the battle.”
Mckenzie Dicicco, who was then 22, was jailed for six years and eight months in July 2025 after pleading guilty to manslaughter for what judge Guy Kearl said was a “cowardly, deliberate and vicious attack on a man who had no chance to defend or brace himself”.
Speaking after the verdict, April described being “lost and alone as the love of my life was so selfishly taken from me”.
James’ father, Chris, who used to take his son to Elland Road to watch David O’Leary’s Leeds team in the late 90s, says his life has changed forever because of “one senseless act”.
“I don’t live any more – I exist,” he says.
“I try and be happy, I try and do things and I put a brave face on. But it’ll never be the same again for me.”