Julie Taylor describes her grandson Liam as a "loveable and happy-go-lucky boy" who was "loved by everyone".

Liam, known as 'Fish' to his family, was just 19 years old when he was stabbed to death outside the Rose and Crown pub in Writtle on 31 January 2020.

His three killers were sentenced to life imprisonment at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday, 31 August.

But "no sentence will ever be enough" for his murder, says Julie, who is tackling knife crime and youth violence in Essex in Liam's name.

"Even if we save one life and take away two knives that could have potentially killed someone, I feel that someone has been saved because of him," she says.

Julie runs the café at St Peter's Hospital in the Maldon district, where she has recently installed an amnesty bin in which people can safely and privately deposit their knives.

"People can bring them here and we will pass them on so they're safely taken out of circulation," she says.

She also belongs to the Binning Knives Saves Lives (BKSL) group, which visits busy places in London with its amnesty bin to take as many knives off the streets as possible.

"When we go out on the streets of London, we can collect 100 knives in a couple of hours," Julie says.

"Kids who carry knives are getting younger and younger. We've got eight-year-olds going out with knives now."

Liam had gone for a drink with his friends at the Rose and Crown on the night of his death, when a black Subaru pulled into the pub's car park.

A group of men emerged from the vehicle wearing balaclavas and armed with weapons including knives, baseball bats and metal poles, before attacking Liam and his 19-year-old friend.

Liam managed to get himself inside to the bar area but sadly died at the scene from multiple stab wounds, while his friend was treated in hospital for a stab wound to the leg.

Ryan Filby, 22, from Chelmsford, and Daniel Daden, 20, from Witham, were each sentenced on Tuesday to a minimum of 21 years for murder and wounding with intent.

Louis Colgate, 19, from Chelmsford, who pleaded guilty to murder separately, was sentenced to a minimum of 16-and-a-half years.

The court had previously heard that the attack was in retaliation to an assault less than two hours previously on Filby - yet neither Liam nor his friend had been involved in the assault.

Following the sentencing, Julie is continuing her "hands on" approach to tackling knife crime, in her bid to stop more families going through the terrible grief she faces every day.

"I just want to do as much as possible," she says. "I just want to save at least one life - if we've saved one life then Liam's life wasn't taken in vain and we've stopped another family going through the heartache we're going through."

Just two weeks ago, Julie and members of Liam's family raised £782 through a fun day held in Liam's memory to raise money for the Liam Taylor Legacy Fund.

The fund aims to buy defibrillators for schools and community groups to help save people in need of urgent care.

With the money raised on the day, the family can buy their first defibrillator.

And they plan to begin getting as many bleed kits as possible into publicly accessible places in Essex in the coming year.

The kits can provide immediate intervention to stop people from bleeding to death before paramedics arrive on the scene of an incident.

Julie says: "We want to get them into pubs, schools, clubs, perhaps even probation places.

"Let's get them out there and into as many places as possible where the general public can be."

She wants Liam's legacy to be one of change and hope, which she works hard every day to achieve.

"I can't just be on a computer, emailing," she says. "I need to do something."

As part of her anti-knife crime campaign, she ventures out with a cardboard cutout of Liam and leaflets to different places in Essex.

"I take the stand to encourage people to come and speak to me and ask what it's about, because people don't think knife crime exists," she says. "It's about educating people."

She will next be taking her stand to Little Baddow on Saturday, 11 September.

"Liam never carried a knife, he never did anything wrong, and yet he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - it was as simple as that," she says.

"Hopefully, we can save some lives through him dying."

To view or donate to the Liam Taylor Legacy Fund, you can visit its GoFundMe page using the link here.

For more information about the work Julie does for the Maldon community at St Peter's café, you can visit its Facebook page using the link here.