A murderer has been jailed for life after battering a man to death.
Kevin Spaine was yesterday convicted of murdering Learoy Venner at a flat on Belmont Drive in Anfield in summer last year. The 53-year-old victim suffered injuries likened to those seen in car crash victims after being brutally and repeatedly punched and kicked.
The unanimous verdict was delivered on Tuesday afternoon after two hours and 39 minutes of deliberations by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court. Spaine returned to the court this morning, Wednesday, where he was handed a life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.
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The killer sat with his head bowed in the dock as the sentence was passed, but showed little other reaction. Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: "Only you will know the detail of what happened in the flat at that time.
"You have shown yourself to be a shocking liar. I am sure there was no element of self-defence in anything you did to Leroy Venner.
"What possible threat could he have presented to you? I am sure you struck him multiple heavy punches to the face and then finished your attack by kicking him, probably more than once and with force.
"What precisely caused you to want to do all of this will never be known to anyone other than yourself. You were very insistent of wanting to get into the flat.
"I am sure your interest in gaining entry to the flat was because you hoped to get either drugs or money. Probably, you were disappointed in that hope.
"I do not find this was a murder for gain. However I am sure when you gained access to the flat, having been kept hanging around, those things led you to launch a ferocious attack upon him.
"He had no chance of escaping you or fighting you off. You attacked and killed a man whom you knew to be weak and in poor health.
"I accept that the eruption of violence occurred spontaneously, albeit you were in an agitated state having regard to the fact you’d been kept waiting outside. You left him unconscious on his back and breathing in his own blood for something like half an hour before he actually died."
John Harrison KC, defending, earlier told the court: "This defendant’s life has been ruined and dominated by the abuse of illegal drugs. He has a very long history of criminal offending, we know the lifestyle he told us all about.
"We know he’s been in this situation for 20 years or more, but he wasn’t always like that. Mr Spaine was a very promising young footballer.
"At an age of 10 or 12, or however old he was, he had a promising future. Shortly afterwards, he sinks into a life of criminality and 20 years later he is convicted of murder.
"It’s not an unfamiliar spiral to the court, but it is a tragic one. Of course, he respects the jury’s verdict."
A trial previously heard that Mr Venner had been living at the address temporarily at the time of the incident on July 27 2022, sleeping on a camp bed in the lounge. Alan Kent KC, prosecuting, described how the apartment was "being used as a drug den", with Spaine among its frequent visitors.
But the 43-year-old was refused entry by the victim shortly after midday on the day in question. He was eventually let in by returning tenant Mark Kelly, who then left again in order to top up the electricity meter.
It was at this point that Mr Venner was fatally assaulted, with Spaine leaving him lying unconscious and going to his mum's house to change his clothes afterwards. He was arrested on suspicion of murder on Edge Lane that evening, at which point he responded: "That's a big charge, what do you mean murder?"
Under interview with detectives, Spaine later stated that Mr Venner - from Toxteth - had "taken two swings at him" and he had returned four or five blows "in self-defence". A post-mortem investigation revealed that he had suffered "multiple forceful blows", causing a brain injury - "the sort of trauma usually associated with a car crash or a fall from height".
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