Overview
- Teesside Crown Court jailed Sean Reay for life with a 32‑year minimum term, Kelvin Lawson for 28 years, and Thomas Sterling for 26 years.
- Reay fired a single shot through a smashed living‑room window after Lawson broke the glass, killing 60‑year‑old Barry Dawson with a wound to the chest.
- Prosecutors said Dawson was an innocent third party as the group sought retribution over threats made near Reay’s home earlier that day.
- Detectives examined more than 800 hours of CCTV and mobile data, secured DNA from a bullet casing linking Lawson, and used doorbell footage; the firearm was not recovered.
- The group fled in a Seat Arona later found partly burned; Kevin and Keith Dorward and Michaela Hetherington were jailed for perverting the course of justice, with sentences of 20, 16 and 15 months respectively.