England

13-year-old Jamie Smith was high on cider when he kicked Stephen Croft to death

Mr Croft's sister Sarah criticised Smith's parents for creating a "monster" and said no sentence was punishment enough for destroying their family.

The court heard that Smith, who despite his age already had 11 previous convictions, including robbery and assault, was on the run from a care home at the time of the murder.

He was taken into care in September after the arrest of his father. Gerald Murphy, 31, was jailed for a minimum 11 years in January after being convicted of a vicious attack on an Asian market trader which left his victim paralysed from the neck down.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Smith, from Birkenhead, had been sent to a home near Accrington but would repeatedly abscond and return home.

On the evening of November 5 care workers, alerted by Smith's family, arrived to take him back to the care home but he became aggressive, threatened to set off a firework in a carer's car and ran off.

He attended a community bonfire, in Quarry Bank, Birkenhead, where he met Mr Croft, a former builder who had developed a drink problem following an industrial accident.

By 1am Mr Croft was the equivalent of five times the drink drive limit and in a "vulnerable" state, said David Turner, QC, prosecuting.

Stephen Croft was battered to death and his body was thrown into a bonfire.

Following the murder, Smith went to the local YMCA and told staff that there was "someone stuck in the fire" and that he had tried to rescue him.

In fact, the court heard, the opposite was true.

Police were called and Smith was arrested. He gave officers a false name and denied any part in the attack.

But officers discovered Mr Croft's blood on his clothing and, in February this year, he pleaded guilty to murder. A charge of robbery was ordered to lie on file.

A policeman who shot his mother-in-law while on bail for his wife's murder was planning an even bigger killing spree, an inquest heard yesterday.

Garry Weddell intended to shoot down his brothers-in-law and their wives.

He also wanted to kill the married man with whom his wife Sandra had been having an affair, police believe.

But, shortly after he killed his mother-in- law, a police helicopter circled.

He thought her body had been discovered, and panicked.

To avoid justice, the 47- year-old inspector drove to a gun club and shot himself in the head.

Weddell had been freed on bail after a defence psychiatrist said he had no concerns about the Metropolitan Police officer's mental state.

A ten-year-old girl found both her parents dead after her father apparently murdered his wife - and then killed himself.

The child made the horrific discovery after coming down for breakfast on Saturday morning.

After finding her father, 28, named locally as Getu Asefaw, hanging in the hallway of the house in Leeds, she is said to have rushed upstairs to tell her mother, only to find she, too, was dead.

The girl is being cared for by social services.

A father was stabbed to death by a neighbour after trying to calm a dispute over a bonfire.

Jim Cushing, 37, was using a watering can to extinguish embers near a wooden fence when David Stubbs, 53, ran out of his house and stabbed him twice in the back.

Mr Cushing, who was married with a two-year-old son, died within minutes, despite paramedics' efforts to save him.

Stubbs, who was described by his own defence team as a "pig-headed, bloody-minded, obstinate man", often lit fires to antagonise others near his home in Norwich.

The unemployed father of three denied murder, claiming he acted in self-defence after being bullied by neighbours.

But he was jailed for life after a jury took just four hours to convict him.

Norwich Crown Court heard how Stubbs had been the subject of numerous complaints in the eight years he had lived on the street. Police had been called to his home many times.

The murder took place on June 13 last year when he was rude to a neighbour, Julie Burgess, after she complained about a fire he had lit.

Her husband, Ian Burgess, went to remonstrate with him and was hit with a metal pole after losing his temper-and kicking over the incinerator.

Mr Cushing, a 6ft delivery driver regarded as a "gentle giant" by his friends, was asked to calm the situation.

He was putting out embers near the incinerator when Stubbs, armed with a knife, rushed out of his house in a rage.

The first stab wound punctured Mr Cushing's lung and proved fatal.

Speaking after the case, Mr Cushing's widow Kim, who has been left to bring up their son Kyle alone, said: "Jim was not involved in any argument. He had never spoken to the man who killed him.

"He didn't see the man approaching and had no chance to defend himself.

"I have lost the husband I loved and Kyle has lost the best daddy he could have ever had."

A man who shot dead a pregnant woman in a "ruthless execution" after a long-running dispute between neighbours has been jailed for life.

Thomas Hughes, 40, of Stonells Road in Battersea, south-west London, shot Krystal Hart, 22, twice in the head at her flat in Belleville Road, Battersea.

Hughes was said to have killed Miss Hart last April in revenge for the row.

Ordering Hughes to serve at least 30 years, Old Bailey judge Anthony Morris said it was "a truly evil act".

Aftab Jafferjee, prosecuting, said: "The killing took place against a background of a long-running and ugly neighbour dispute that had been festering for some months.

"It can only be described as an execution."

Miss Hart, who was two months pregnant when killed, had lived in her housing association flat for about a year but soon after moving in she fell out with her downstairs "neighbour from hell", Angie Brewer, 53, the court heard.

After the row, Brewer called the police to complain and then telephoned Hughes, who later returned with a gun.

The court heard that he was looking for Mr Siveter and when told he was not home banged at the door and demanded Miss Hart open it, calling out: "Come out bitch."

Miss Brewer, who could be heard pleading "No" on CCTV footage, became hysterical as shots were fired, the court was told.

Miss Hart, died instantly when she was shot through the head. A second bullet was fired into her temple after she collapsed into her doorway.

Three binge-drinking youths who battered a builder to death when he caught them burgling his home were found guilty of murder yesterday.

Their frenzied attack as they kicked and stamped on 47-year-old Mark Witherall was captured on a CCTV soundtrack.

At one stage they could be heard "egging each other on" and laughing and sniggering as Mr Witherall was left dying in a pool of blood on the pavement outside his home.

His attackers, Curtis Delima, 19, Mark Elliott, 21, both unemployed, and a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, then went back into the house to continue ransacking it.

Mr Witherall died in hospital from head injuries on March 7 last year after more than five weeks on a life-support machine.

Yesterday Mr Witherall's family cheered as the verdicts were returned.

Delima, Elliott and the 16-year-old, who often laughed and joked in the dock during the trial, showed no emotion as they were led away. They will be sentenced on April 18.

A convicted mugger ripped off his electronic security tag before he and a schoolboy murdered an innocent student in a savage attack.

Joseph Booth, 18, who was being monitored after being convicted of a string of violent incidents, managed to get the tag off his ankle.

Minutes later, fuelled by alcohol and cannabis, Booth and the 15-year-old beat, kicked and stamped on the victim, who was left so badly disfigured his family could not recognise him.

The 15-year-old also rifled through Seffar Khan's pockets, taking a cigarette and a lighter, before they left him to die.

Booth and the schoolboy were later arrested after making a series of admissions to family and friends about their roles in the attack in Bobby Heywood Park, Bolton, last November.

Inquiries revealed the pair regularly trawled the park looking for victims. Both had been convicted previously for attacks in the area.

Booth, of Tildsley Street, Bolton, had previous convictions for threatening behaviour, assault, battery and robbery when victims were punched or threatened with a knife in the park.

The schoolboy had also been convicted of offences involving robbery in and around the park.

Now they are starting life sentences after admitting murdering the 19-year old student.

Mr Justice Christopher Clarke said Booth, who had been drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis, had knocked Mr Khan to the ground before the 15-year-old repeatedly stamped on his head.

Booth was ordered to serve at least 12 years, 60 days before he can be considered for parole.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was told he must serve at least nine years and 240 days.

A father-of-two who stabbed his estranged wife outside the gates of a primary school as she dropped their daughter off has been jailed for at least four years.

Horrified parents and teachers looked on as Haydar Guvec repeatedly plunged the blade into her and screamed: "I'm going to kill you."

Dilek Guvec was rushing to get the nine-year-old girl to school when her husband came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder.

She was stabbed in the side, chest, above the eye and in the top of the head, the Old Bailey heard.

The attack only ended when the blade broke off the knife and he ran off, said Francis Sheridan, prosecuting.

A teenage girl told a court on Tuesday how her father apologised to her before stabbing her 13 times and killing her younger brother in a frenzied attack.

Donna Hawkins, 14, managed to escape the alleged attack but was unable to save four-year-old Ryan.

The jury heard that Christopher Hawkins's jealousy over his estranged wife's affair with a colleague led him to attack their children.

Donna said her 47-year-old father became "nasty" when she arrived at his house last September to collect Ryan and take him back to their mother.

"He turned around and said 'I'm sorry' and he just looked proper weird, angry," she said. "I saw the knife and then he just went for me. I was telling him to stop and he just did it again and again."

Donna said her father attacked her for about "20 to 30 seconds" and stopped when she told him: "I don't hate you."

"I was spitting blood out of my mouth," she said. "I came off the phone and my dad said: 'I am going to kill Ryan now.'

"I said 'No, I can't watch this, I can't watch this,' and turned away."

The terrified girl managed to stumble across the road before collapsing outside the house in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield.

Ryan, who died days after his fourth birthday, was stabbed nine times. Two of the blows pierced his heart.

A chef accused of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman saidy he had sex with her corpse while high on drink and drugs but did not murder her.

Mark Dixie, 37, said he stumbled across the teenager's body lying between a van and a skip in the street after he went out to buy cocaine in the early hours.

Giving evidence at his Old Bailey trial, Dixie said he felt "worse for wear" after a drug and alcohol binge and did not immediately realise she was dead.

"I took full advantage of someone and I shouldn't have," he told the jury. "I thought she had passed out through drink or fallen over."

He told defence barrister Anthony Glass that he had not noticed the pool of blood around the 18-year-old's body.

Dixie said he had just been on a four-day drugs and alcohol binge during which he took cocaine and cannabis and drank wine, beer and whisky.

After realising that Bowman was dead, Dixie said he panicked and ran to his flat. He smoked cannabis to try to calm down, slept for a few hours and went out drinking.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Brian Altman said Dixie murdered her for his own sexual gratification and then concocted a "ludicrous" defence "borne out of desperation".

Dixie denies murder. The trial continues.

David Martin, 40, was attacked with weapons believed to include a golf club and hatchet after trying to retrieve his 10-year-old son Jamie's football from a neighbour's garden.

The father-of-three lay dying in front of Jamie, his wife Angela, and their 12-year-old daughter Samantha, in Rutter Gardens, Mitcham.

In 1986, Mr Martin's father Raymond, 49, was murdered trying to save David.

He was beaten to death outside a pub near the family home in Mitcham by a gang of youths. One neighbour said: “A gang of boys were after David and his dad saw them having a go at him. He intervened but they all turned on him, killing him.

“David saw his dad die in front of him and now his son has seen David die in front of him. I can't believe this tragedy has happened twice.”

Today Mrs Martin, 39, spoke of her grief for the first time. She had tried to save her husband and was treated in hospital for shock and minor injuries after the attack at about 7pm on Sunday.

Speaking from the family home, she said: “I'm grieving for my husband. I just want him back but that's not going to happen, is it.”

Officers called to the cul-de-sac of semi-detached houses found his body in a front garden.

A neighbour who wished to remain anonymous, said he had been told the incident had all been over a ball kicked into a garden.

He said: “Two young boys around here were picking on Mr Martin's son and they nicked the ball off him. He came round to have a word with the father of one of them and another neighbour got involved.”

Today Kay Scrivener, 41, of Rutter Gardens was remanded in custody at Wimbledon magistrates' court charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A girl of 14 and two women aged 69 and 41 who were arrested in connection with the attack have been released on bail.

A man in his 30s remains in custody at a south London police station.

All are believed to be related.

A teenage rape victim remains under heavy sedation after being doused in acid by her attackers.

The 16-year-old schoolgirl suffered horrific burns at an empty house in Tottenham, north London.

Detectives believe the acid — possibly drain cleaner — was used to try and destroy DNA evidence.

They think the victim may have been kidnapped by a gang of youths who then took her to the house before attacking her.

A 17-year-old boy from Tottenham has been charged with rape and grievous bodily harm over the incident.

Police arriving at the home of a retired British school teacher to tell her that her husband was critically injured in a car crash instead stumbled on a gruesome find — the woman's battered corpse stuffed among the presents under the couple's Christmas tree.

Police in West Sussex, England, say Roger Goswell, 66, rammed his car into a tree just two miles from their home, after bludgeoning his wife, Susan, 61, and crudely trying to hide her body beneath the tree, the Daily Mail newspaper reported. Roger Goswell later died at the hospital.

A heavily pregnant teenager who kidnapped a love rival and persuaded four men to gang rape her in a horrific revenge attack has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Destiny Ekanga, 19, plotted the assault after discovering the victim had slept with the father of her unborn baby.

She had gone to her rival's house on July 20 last year and then, with the help of her friend Halima Ahmed, 21, taken the woman, 23, to Valentines Park in Ilford, east London.

The sobbing victim was subjected to a prolonged ordeal, during which she was raped by four strangers, while Ekanga captured their actions on a mobile phone.

The woman, who cannot be identified, was then taken to the home of Ekanga - who even pretended to comfort her when a police car went past.

En route the pregnant teenager offered her victim to another group of men, claiming she was prepared to perform sex acts "for free."

The men declined - but the woman was raped again, this time by Somalian Mahad Hussein, 24, before she was allowed to go free.