Overview
- Newcastle Crown Court set a 20-year minimum before parole eligibility following an October 7 guilty verdict after a three-week trial.
- Evidence showed Michael Craig suffered 91 injuries, including blunt and sharp force wounds and multiple skull fractures that caused fatal blood loss and cardiac arrest.
- Judge Edward Bindloss said the attack used a hoover pipe, two knives, a mug, a clock and a fork during a sustained assault.
- The court heard Howse had taken spice, crack and alcohol that day, and the judge said the pipe was inserted to retrieve a Kinder Egg containing drugs rather than for sadism.
- Michael Craig’s sister detailed the family’s “immeasurable” loss in a victim impact statement, and Northumbria Police welcomed the sentence for a violent and dangerous offender.