Teenagers sentenced for murder after ‘violent’ skate park attack

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Two teenagers have been sentenced over the murder of a 24-year-old whose skull was shattered after a brick was thrown at his head in a violent group attack.

Jack Edwards suffered “catastrophic brain damage” when he was attacked at Sussex Street skate park in Nottingham on December 5 last year by Kai Howitt, 19, and a 13-year-old boy who cannot be named due to legal reasons.

Judge Mr Justice Turner sentenced the pair at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, jailing Howitt for a minimum term of 14 years and detaining the 13-year-old for at least four years and six months in a young offender institution.

In the attack, Howitt, of Trent Boulevard, West Bridgford, Nottingham, threw a brick at Mr Edwards which damaged his skull and caused a fatal injury to his brain. His life support was withdrawn two days later at Queen’s Medical Centre.

The court heard Mr Edwards had taken a mixture of alcohol and drugs, having been released from prison on the day of the attack, and was acting “erratic” and “confrontational” and made “rude and sexual remarks” to two 14-year-old girls, which prompted the incident.

Prosecuting barrister Gordon Aspden KC read an impact statement from the parents of Mr Edwards to the court, in which they described the “senseless, abhorrent, violent actions” that led to their son’s death.

Zoe Edwards, Mr Edwards’ mother, wrote: “This is the most harrowing time in my life. The grief is never-ending.

“I will never be able to see him again or give him a big mum hug again. This is now our painful reality”.

A psychological report showed that Howitt suffered from autism and ADHD and the youth defendant also suffered from mild learning difficulties.

Judge Mr Justice Turner said that the mental disabilities suffered by the teenagers “would not have a very significant impact on culpability” and that the killing was “not a consequence of impulse”.

He addressed the teenage defendants: “You acted together and with other youths over a period of several minutes. You decided that the two of you acting together would throw the bricks at Edwards to cause serious harm.

“Edwards posed no direct physical threat to any of you. His actions amounted to goading and posturing, but no more than that.

“You were motivated throughout by a desire to teach him a violent lesson.”

The defendants were found guilty of murder by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court on June 27.

Detective Inspector Clare Gibson, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “Throughout each stage of this investigation and the murder trial that followed, Jack’s killers never owned up to their crime.

“By launching pieces of masonry at Jack from point blank range, they must have realised the harm this could potentially cause, but both chose to throw them at him anyway.

“While no punishment handed out will ever make up for the ordeal they’ve suffered, I hope the sentence passed today will provide Jack’s loved ones with some small degree of comfort.”