HE WAS 25, ENGAGED AND ABOUT TO BECOME A FATHER — THEN ONE NIGHT CHANGED EVERYTHING
HE WAS 25, ENGAGED AND ABOUT TO BECOME A FATHER — THEN ONE NIGHT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Jordan Sinnott was only 25 years old.
He was engaged to the woman he loved, building a career in football and looking ahead to a future he had every reason to believe would be filled with marriage, family and more time on the pitch.
Just days before his death, he had celebrated one of the biggest moments of his football career.
Then, one night out changed everything.
Jordan had gone out with two friends in Retford, Nottinghamshire, in the early hours of January 25, 2020.
Inside a pub on Churchgate, he encountered another group of men, including Kai Denovan, Cameron Matthews and Sean Nicholson.
A disagreement broke out.
During the confrontation, Denovan punched Jordan twice.
The two groups then went their separate ways.
Jordan and his friends left the pub and headed toward Retford’s Market Place, apparently believing the confrontation was over.
It wasn’t.
Denovan and Matthews followed.
When the groups encountered each other again, another confrontation developed. Denovan punched Jordan once more before Matthews became involved and punched Jordan several times.
Jordan was knocked to the ground.
He suffered a fractured skull and severe brain injuries and was taken to hospital.
He died later that day, surrounded by his family.
A FOOTBALLER WITH HIS FUTURE AHEAD OF HIM
Jordan had been playing for Matlock Town and had built a career that had taken him through clubs including Huddersfield Town, Altrincham, Bury, FC Halifax Town and Chesterfield.
Only days before his death, he had scored his first senior hat-trick for Matlock Town.
It should have been a moment to celebrate.
Instead, his teammates and loved ones were soon mourning a young man whose life had been cut short.
Jordan was also engaged to Kelly Bossons.
They were planning their future together.
But there was something neither of them knew.
Jordan was already going to become a father.
HE NEVER KNEW HIS DAUGHTER WAS ON THE WAY
After Jordan’s funeral, Kelly discovered that she was 12 weeks pregnant.
She had no chance to tell Jordan.
In a victim impact statement read during the sentencing hearing, Kelly described the devastating realization that their unborn child would never meet her father.
She said having a child was something they had both wanted more than anything.
Their daughter, Maisie, was born later that year.
Jordan never got to hold her.
He never heard her first laugh.
He never watched her take her first steps.
And he never got the chance to become the father he had unknowingly been preparing to be.
THE COURT CASE THAT FOLLOWED
The legal case eventually established the roles of the three men involved.
Cameron Matthews pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting that he was the person who administered the fatal punch.
Kai Denovan denied manslaughter but was unanimously found guilty by a jury of manslaughter, common assault and affray.
Sean Nicholson pleaded guilty to affray.
On July 31, 2020, Denovan was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Matthews was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter, while Nicholson received 14 months for affray.
For Jordan’s family, however, no sentence could restore what had been taken from them.
His mother, Mel Tait, described him as a beautiful person who always put others first.
She spoke of the loss not only of a son, brother and fiancé, but of the father her unborn grandchild would never get to know.
A LIFE REMEMBERED
Jordan’s story is remembered not only because of the violence that ended his life, but because of everything that was still ahead of him.
He was a young footballer who had just celebrated a career milestone.
He was a fiancé preparing for marriage.
And without knowing it, he was about to become a father.
His life was filled with plans that would never happen.
His daughter would grow up knowing her father through the stories, photographs and memories left behind by the people who loved him.
For those closest to Jordan, the tragedy is not simply that a 25-year-old footballer died.
It is that a young man who had so much life ahead of him never got the chance to live it.
