Murder of Garry Newlove

Victim

Garry Newlove was born in Salford, Lancashire, on 5 November 1959, the youngest of three children born to Thomas Edward Newlove (1913–1979) and his wife Ellen (1919–2002). He was married to Helen Marston from 1986 until his death, and had three teenage daughters. By 2007, he was working as a sales manager for a plastics company.

Incident and arrests

Newlove was attacked outside his house in Station Road North in the Padgate district of Warrington, Cheshire, on the evening of 10 August 2007, having gone outside to confront a gang of youths he suspected of vandalising his wife's car. He died in hospital two days later.

The murder was the culmination of numerous incidents of anti-social behaviour by youth gangs in and around the Padgate area, which had lasted for several years.

Three teenagers were quickly arrested and charged with his murder on 14 August 2007 and remanded in custody. Four other suspects were also arrested and later released without charge. A fourth teenager was charged and remanded the next day and the fifth and final suspect was charged and remanded on 13 September.

Adam Swellings, 19 and from Crewe, went on trial at Chester Crown Court charged with the murder on 14 November 2007, along with two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old who could not be named for legal reasons.

Verdicts and aftermath

On 16 January 2008, Adam Swellings was convicted of Mr Newlove's murder, along with 17-year-old Stephen Sorton and 16-year-old Jordan Cunliffe. The two other teenagers were cleared of any involvement in the killing and walked free from court. The three convicted murderers were remanded in custody until being sentenced to life imprisonment on 11 February 2008. The trial judge recommended that Swellings, Sorton and Cunliffe should serve minimum terms of 17, 15 and 12 years respectively - sentences which were widely described as lenient by the victim's family and friends, as well as the tabloid media - as these sentences meant that the youngest of the three killers could be out of prison by the age of 28, and the oldest was likely to be paroled in his mid thirties.

Garry Newlove's murder was one of a number of high profile, widely reported murders during the late 2000s which highlighted the rise of crime involving youth gangs. Other comparable murders around the same time which attracted national attention were the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool by a 17-year-old gang member, and the fatal stabbing of teenager Ben Kinsella in North London (for which three teenagers were convicted of murder).

Since the trial, Garry Newlove's widow Helen Newlove has actively campaigned through the media for more support for victims of crime, and for more severe sentences for criminals, as well as working with communities and working to prevent crime in Britain's communities.

Appeals

Swellings and Sorton appealed against their convictions and sentences. Their case was heard at the Court of Appeal on 13 November 2008. Swellings lost the appeal against his conviction and sentence, although Sorton won a two-year reduction on his minimum sentence.

Newlove's widow, Helen Newlove, joined forces with the local and national media, in particular The Sun newspaper, to campaign for a clampdown on gangs like the one who claimed her husband's life, with heavier prison sentences and a return of the death penalty for murder. She also campaigns for better control on binge drinking. In recognition of her campaigning, Helen Newlove was ennobled as Baroness Newlove in 2010.

Cunliffe later appealed against his murder conviction on the grounds that he had not taken part in the attack on Mr Newlove, although he had been present when it happened. On 26 July 2010, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. He is now reported to be challenging his murder conviction (obtained on the grounds of joint enterprise as he reportedly did not take part in the attack despite being present when the others took part) on the grounds that he could barely see the attack taking place due to a degenerative eye condition, which he and his supporters (including his mother Janet) claim would make him not guilty of murder. The campaign also calls for an end to the ability of the legal system to secure a murder conviction against someone on the grounds of joint enterprise if they were present but did not actually commit the killing. In December 2014, it was reported that Cunliffe's murder conviction would be reviewed at a later date in a re-examination of the joint enterprise law regarding murder.

Popular culture

The screenwriter Jimmy McGovern later used the case of Jordan Cunliffe as a basis for a new television drama. Common was shown on BBC One on 6 July 2014.