Shark attack victim joked about risks

Paul Wilcox.

The man killed by a shark at Byron Bay in New South Wales joked with his parents during their last conversation about the risk sharks posed.

Paul Wilcox, 50, bled to death after a large shark, possibly a great white, took off part of his right leg as he swam off Clarkes Beach on Tuesday.

His grieving parents, Bryan and Marie Wilcox, who live in Wales, have revealed they spoke to their son about sharks soon before he set off on the final swim of his life.

"This subject came up in a joke when we last spoke to him," Mr Wilcox told the Rhyl, Prestatyn and Abergele Journal in Wales.

"But he said there had only been three shark attacks in the last 12 years. It's just extraordinary."

Mrs Wilcox said she was devastated by her son's death, but took some comfort from the fact that it would have been quick.

The information technology contractor had only just moved to Byron Bay, from Sydney. He had been living in Australia since he was 22.

Mrs Wilcox said her son was living a dream life in Byron Bay.

"He died doing what he wanted to do," she told the BBC. "It's not as though somebody attacked him in the street. It's not as though he was shot in Afghanistan, which mothers have had to go through.

"I had a happy, well-adjusted, lovely, lovely son talking to me the day before. Twenty-four hours later he's dead, and I still can't take it in."