NEWS that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday evening has brought back painful memories for people who knew one of the victims of his most devastating terrorist attack.

Julia Wells, of Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, whose 22-year-old son Vincent was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11 2001, said she was “delighted” that Bin Laden had been found, but did not feel any sense of closure when she heard the news.

“He’s had 10 years longer than my son to live his life,” she added. “I would rather they’d done what they did - kill him - than put him in prison, because that would have made the ordeal longer than it has been.

“I’m pleased the Americans found him and there’s some justice at last for us, but obviously, it doesn’t make it easier.

“There’s never any closure when you lose someone you love and it’s been such a public death.”

She said that while Bin Laden had been buried at sea as soon as possible after his death, she had to wait for more than a year for her son to be identified among the wreckage of the Twin Towers and flown home for a funeral.

Despite speculation that people in Pakistan must have known where Bin Laden was hiding, Mrs Wells said she did not blame anyone for the delay in tracking down the head of al-Qaeda.

“I don’t live in Pakistan and I don’t know the situation there, so I can’t really make a judgement,” she added.

Paul Doherty, headmaster at Trinity Catholic High School in Woodford Green, which Mr Wells attended from 1990 to 1997, said the news had brought back fresh memories of his death.

“All the death of Bin Laden brought to mind was the terrible tragedy of 9/11 and the fact that we lost Vincent in that tragedy,” he said. “It can’t bring him back. That’s the tragedy. It brings it home.”

The school holds a memorial service to Mr Wells every year and his family has just donated a bench in his memory, which will be placed next to an area used for contemplation and prayer in the school grounds.