A widower whose wife was murdered has condemned a compensation authority after their children were denied a pay out following her death.

Forrest Alexander is calling on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to overturn its decision after his wife Holly was stabbed to death.

They did not receive a pay out as they did not live together at the time of her death and their children didn't rely on her financially.

Mr Alexander told how his family had relocated to his home city of Dundee from the US with their three children in 2013, hoping to open their own pizzeria.

Soon after, Ms Alexander was put on a prescription for trigeminal neuralgia which gave her facial pains.

From there, she began abusing drugs and Mr Alexander said he was powerless to help her.

"I tried to get her help," he said.

Mr Alexander claimed that unless his wife threatened to hurt herself or asked for help, no-one would officially step in and support her.

He added that legislation in the US would have meant he could have had Mrs Alexander sent to hospital to recover, and in hindsight wishes he had sent her home to receive help for her addiction.

Yet the mother-of-three walked out on her family and began living with Ronald Kidd.

In December 2016, the couple were found murdered in the flat they shared in the city.

Polish national Krzysztof Gadecki was charged with their murders and ordered to serve at least 26 years in prison for the crime.

He had stabbed Mr Kidd 24 times and Ms Alexander nine times.

At the time of the fatal stabbings, he had a deportation notice from the Home Office for rape and robbery convictions in Poland.

One year after the conviction of Gadecki, Mr Alexander is calling on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to overturn its decision to deny his children compensation.

Applying for victim compensation, Mr Alexander was told he was not eligible as he and his wife were estranged.

He then sought compensation for their three children, but Mr Alexander was also told that as their mother was out of their lives for a period of time, they would be entitled to nothing.

"They're pretty much getting told that their mother wasn't worth a penny, they pretty much said she was worthless," an emotional Mr Alexander said.

"Not that the monetary value means anything, it was just the final smack in the face.

"I argued back and forth with them for months.

"She was a fantastic mother about two months before she left and the only reason she wasn't in their lives was for their own safety."

Mr Alexander had gone to a lawyer to protect his children from their mother's drug abuse, but it has meant they have been denied in their claim for compensation as they did not live together at the time of her death and their children didn't rely on her financially.

He wanted to keep the money, which would have amounted to tens of thousands of pounds, for each of his children in a savings account for them to access when they were adults.

Mr Alexander, who emigrated to the US as a baby says their ordeal has made him hate his home country.

"My whole family is from Dundee, it sucks to come home and it really made me hate my country," he says.

"I'm stuck here because I gave up my green card and its made me hate my country."

A Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority spokesperson said: "No amount of money can compensate for the death of a loved one, but close relatives can apply for bereavement payments and additional payments can be given to compensate for the loss of financial support from the victim."

Looking to the future, Mr Alexander feels despondent about what lies in store for his family.

"I always had a plan, but I've just sat in limbo for the last year and a half," he says.

"As far as the future goes, I don't know. I lost my business.

"Five years time I should have been slinging slices in the pizzeria but it didn't work out that way."