Five people have been jailed for a total of 92 years after an unarmed Manchester dad was killed in the street.
Mark Gibson, 52, was hunted down and by the mob in retaliation for an earlier incident. During a trial, Preston Crown Court heard that in the early hours of July 11 2022, Mr Gibson had been involved in an altercation on the doorstep of a house in Boothroyden, Blackpool, where two of the killers - Tina Walton and Sean Neil - lived.
The jury was told that Mr Gibson had shouted: "You're a f***ing grass. You're not going to get away with this. I'm from Manchester. Youse two are grassbags."
During the row, Mr Gibson hit Walton with his walking stick, LancsLive reports. Stephen Pugh, another one of Mr Gibson's killers, was also struck to the head but was not injured. As Neil tried to call the police, he told the others to lock the door and stay inside, but Walton picked up a spade and followed Mr Gibson out onto the street.
As he walked away she called him back and they met up on the corner of Boothroyden and Carshalton Road. Mr Gibson attacked Walton for a second time. But she was followed by Pugh, who had picked up a knife from the kitchen.
Mr Gibson managed to break free and ran to a house in Carshalton Road. He was unarmed and outnumbered, the court heard. All five defendants followed him into the garden and surrounded him in front of a bay window. Neil struck out at him with a wrench and Pugh plunged the knife into his shoulder, with such force it severed major arteries and penetrated his heart.
Aaron Chadwick punched Mr Gibson twice to the jaw as Walton and Stephanie Steel jeered on. As the gang left Mr Gibson seriously wounded, Chadwick told him: "You've been chibbed, you should lie down", and tried to stop the others attacking him further.
Mr Gibson's daughter, Charley Wilkinson, said: "The morning I found out my dad had been murdered I felt like a part of me died too. I don't know if she will ever come back. Losing a parent is one of the hardest things but to find out he has been murdered is the most awful thing I will ever have to go through."
Pugh, 49, Neil, 42, Steel, 38, and Walton, 43, were all found guilty of murder. Chadwick, 33, was convicted of manslaughter, after the jury found he joined in the attack, but did not intend serious harm to come to Mr Gibson.
Pugh, of Chapel Street, Blackpool, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years; Neil, of Boothroyden, Blackpool, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years; Steel, of Gorton Road, Blackpool, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 19 years, and Walton, of Boothroyden, Blackpool, was jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years. Chadwick, of Warley Road, Blackpool, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Linden said: "This was a group attack on a person who was outnumbered and posed no threat at the time of the attack. By the time of the attack all defendants were aware Pugh and Neil were armed. It was an act of retaliation - the defendants hunted Mr Gibson down rather than allowing him to flee.
"Mr Gibson, 52, was killed by a stab wound by Mr Pugh. He had done nothing to deserve it. His daughter encapsulated what you had done when she said you haven't just taken a life, you took a father, grandfather and friend, and part of her too.
"Mr Gibson walked calmly away before turning and going back. I'm sure he intended to leave the incident behind but turned back because of things shouted by Walton.
"(After the attack) they all walked back and other than Chadwick, not one was concerned for his welfare. They were laughing and joking and one was heard to say 'f*** him, let him bleed out'. Not one lifted a finger to help or call emergency services."
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