Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Teesside Crown Court Jails Three for Life for Killing of Innocent Stanley Grandfather

The killing grew from a botched revenge trip after threats to the gunman earlier that day.

Overview

  • Sean Reay, 30, was sentenced to life with a 32-year minimum term for firing the fatal shot through Barry Dawson’s living-room window.
  • Kelvin Lawson, 38, received a 28-year minimum term for smashing the window to enable the shot, and Thomas Sterling, 22, received a 26-year minimum for assisting in the planned attack.
  • Prosecutors and police said Dawson, 60, was not the intended target and was killed after coming downstairs as the group tried to draw out another man.
  • Operation Hamnett assembled a case from more than 800 hours of CCTV, mobile-phone data, and DNA on a spent casing, though the handgun was never found.
  • Kevin Dorward and Keith Dorward were jailed for 20 and 16 months, and Michaela Hetherington for 15 months, for perverting the course of justice over the getaway car and a false theft report, as Reay fled before being detained on return to Northern Ireland.