A son who killed his parents by stabbing them hundreds of times in a frenzied knife attack before mutilating his father’s corpse has been jailed for 27 years.
Lee Tipping, 36, murdered Anthony Tipping, 60, and Patricia Livesey, 57, at their home in Lancashire just hours after he broke down a bedroom door, sparking a row.
The vicious attack saw Mr Tipping stabbed more than 130 times, including at least 65 times in the chest and 15 times in the abdomen, in November last year.
A jury at Preston Crown Court also heard Mr Tipping suffered a number of “very unusual” injuries to his genital area, believed to have been inflicted after his death.
Tipping claimed these wounds were caused by him “chucking” a knife at his father, but pathologist Dr Alison Armor said this did not line up with the evidence.
She told the court: “There are five stab wounds. Two of these stab wounds needed force to inflict.
“The other wounds are caused by a slashing motion which is inconsistent with a single ‘chuck’.”
The court heard Ms Livesey had been stabbed 153 times, including 67 times in the chest, 39 in the abdomen, 10 in the neck and three times around the eyes.
Both parents had also been beaten before they died, with Ms Livesey suffering a black eye and a shoulder injury consistent with being hit with a blunt weapon.
The court heard Ms Livesey, of Higher Walton, Lancashire, texted her sister “please God, I hope someone will help us” on the night of the attack.
On 19 November last year, the couple went to a pub with Ms Livesey’s sister Catherine Riding and her husband Martin.
The court heard Mr Tipping then received a phone call from his son, who told him he had “kicked the bedroom door down”.
Mr Tipping is said to have responded: “You’d better f****** not have.”
Mr Riding said Ms Livesey seemed “anxious” about the situation, while Ms Riding told the court her sister seemed “scared to go home”.
Ms Riding told the court: “She said ‘this could be my last gin’.
“She didn’t want to go home. She’d never really said that before. I said ‘why?’ and she said she just didn’t want to go home. So I knew there was something.”
Shortly after arriving home, at about 11.30pm, Ms Livesey texted Ms Riding: “OK, I’ll probably not sleep, he’s being a f****** s***.”
Ten minutes later, she texted: “Please God, I hope someone will help us.”
The following day, when Ms Livesey failed to arrive at her mother’s house for dinner, Ms Riding and her other sister, Pauline Haworth, visited the house to check on her.
They called 999 at 1.43pm on 20 November and the couple’s bodies were found upstairs in the house after police broke down a side door.
After killing his parents, Tipping booked a flight to Rome and drove to Manchester Airport, where he checked into a nearby hotel under a fake name, the court heard.
When he was arrested at around 7.30pm on 21 November, he claimed he had acted in self-defence.
He told police his father had been “bullying him all his life” and was “a monster” who would “fight to the death”.
Tipping admitted killing his parents but denied murder, claiming self-defence and a loss of control.
A jury rejected those claims and found him guilty of two counts of murder last month following a four-week trial at Preston Crown Court.
He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 27 years at the same court on Thursday.
Detective Chief Inspector Jill Johnston, of Lancashire Constabulary’s force major investigation team, said after the sentencing: “I welcome the life sentence handed down to Lee Tipping by the courts, which reflects the seriousness of his offending and was aggravated by his lack of remorse.
“Although no sentence can and will never make up for the horrific, sustained and violent attack Lee subjected his parents to, I hope that Tricia and Anthony’s families and friends get some sense of closure knowing that this case has now come to a conclusion.
“They have remained incredibly dignified throughout this investigation and my thoughts remain with them at this very difficult time.”
Additional reporting by SWNS
